American Apparel Uses the B-Word
Troubled clothing maker American Apparel -- its racy ads and its CEO under fire -- has announced that it may be forced to file for bankruptcy.
Troubled clothing maker American Apparel — its racy ads and its CEO under fire — has announced that it may be forced to file for bankruptcy.
Industry experts predicted the demise of American Apparel months ago, and its sales and stock price have tumbled as it struggles to stay afloat. — JCL
AS CHAOS UNFOLDS, FIND SOLID GROUND…Reuters:
Clothing chain American Apparel, known for racy advertising and its founder’s legal problems, may file for bankruptcy if it does not get enough money to keep running, and might even have to liquidate, the company said.
Shares of the company, which is looking for other sources of cash and has hired a financial adviser, fell as much as 27 percent to 70 cents on Friday.
The statement, which was filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, is the latest threat to the Los Angeles-based clothing maker’s future.
It has been beset by accusations that it used a model who looked underaged in various states of undress, and that it relies on heavily sexualized advertising to attract the hip, young adults who buy its clothes.
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Somewhere over the course of this utterly peculiar political year, there have been glimmers of a sea change in American sexual politics.
There was a time, around a decade ago, when American Apparel's brand seemed to be enhanced, at least on the business side, by the pervy sensibility of its founder and charismatic leader, Dov Charney. Those days have apparently passed.
With public figures such as actress Cameron Diaz standing up for pubic hair, and American Apparel adding tufts beneath its mannequins' underwear, scholar and Guardian writer Emer O'Toole proclaims this will be "the year of the bush."
American Apparel, the paradoxical clothing firm that weaves together good labor practices with ridiculous acts of misogyny, is hanging by the proverbial economic thread as its stock plunges to an all-time low and industry experts begin to seriously doubt the company's future.
We've always been a little skeeved out by the American Apparel phenomenon, what with the eco-conscious, "sweatshop free," hipster-friendly company's glaring omission of any sense of enlightened politics when it comes to (continued).
The immigration raids of the Bush years that have carried over into the Obama administration may be changing. The era of federal agents busting into shops and rounding up undocumented workers for deportation is being replaced by a new effort to use fines and civil sanctions, making employers responsible, rather than the workers themselves.
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