Scanned from L magazine in honor of Copyranter’s retirement
{ Copyranter }
american apparel category
I know man its getting thick real quick. We need some way out through some kind of exit strategy.
The chief executive of American Apparel Inc. has long been known as something of an exhibitionist. Dov Charney is beyond frank when discussing his sex life and sometimes wanders around his factory in his underpants.
But the business operations of Mr. Charney’s rapidly expanding clothing empire have not been nearly so transparent. Even as American Apparel rose to prominence over the past decade with basic T-shirts, clingy dresses and sexualized marketing campaigns, its status as a private company has shielded from view its chronic financial problems.
Now, American Apparel is opening the kimono — and it’s not necessarily a pretty sight. (…)
Mr. Charney wasn’t as focused on the company’s finances. In early 2005, chief financial officer Mark Schlein died unexpectedly of heart failure, and Mr. Charney and others say a replacement wasn’t found for a year. An interim CFO was later hired, though Mr. Charney only remembers that “he had gray hair and quit after a week.” Mr. Charney delegated bookkeeping to a few younger staff members and continued to open stores. Problems developed.
{ Wall Street Journal | Continue reading }
A story in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal offers something of a preamble to the final chapter of the American Apparel narrative. There are companies that are more interesting and innovative than American Apparel, but none that captures the entire story of the American Economy, What The Fuck Happened Dept. so quickly and efficiently and dystopianly, like a hypersexed science fiction sex. Plus the CEO likes to curse, masturbate in front of reporters, and hire underaged cokeheads from whom I will no doubt be sent some more highly thought-provoking text messages of dissent.
photo { American Apparel billboard on Houston and Allen St., NYC }
Le carré blanc
The “carré blanc” (”white square” in French) was a little white rectangle that used to appear at the lower right corner of the TV screen to tag adult rated programs in France (from 1961 until the late 1980s). It usually announced explicit sex scenes rather than violence. Its original shape was a square, and later became a rectangle. It disappeared and was replaced by another rating system (similar to the MPAA one) with the arrival of cable television.
{ Read more, in French | Wikipedia }
{ AA ad, Vice magazine | via copyranter }
‘Advertising is 85% confusion and 15% commission.’ — Fred Allen
Faced with a $10 million lawsuit over a short-lived advertising campaign last year, American Apparel defended its use of iconic actor Woody Allen’s image on two billboards in New York and Los Angeles, claiming the stunt “was meant strictly as a social parody.”
In a statement to DNR, American Apparel company representatives said although it normally uses the two billboards for commercial purposes, “we also use them as a vehicle for non-commercial, social and political commentary. (…) We had no intention of selling garments through the use of Mr. Allen’s image … We will make every effort to resolve this with Mr. Allen in an amicable way,” company representatives said. (…)
Yiddish text reading “the Holy Rebbe” accompanied the ad, as did American Apparel’s company name. (…)
In 1987, Allen sued Men’s Wear Outlet, which had featured a Woody Allen look-alike model in an ad promoting the apparel store. Two years earlier, Allen had obtained a $425,000 settlement from a national video retailer that had also used an Allen impersonator for a magazine ad.
Clearly, movie director Allen does not want to be associated with chronic inappropriate masturbator and accused sex harasser (and fellow Jew) Charney. Because then, you know, people might think Allen had weird sexual issues.
We see images every day of airbrushed, photoshopped models placed in the most sexual of positions—remember Dolce & Gabbana’s “gang rape” ad? And thanks to technology, models are nothing more than objects to be shaped and molded by marketers, fashion editors and photographers. Moles and acne are erased, eyes enlarged, ears trimmed, hairlines filled, teeth straightened and necks and waists lengthened and stretched. “We’re always stretching the models’ legs and slimming their thighs,” a Manhattan photo retoucher recently told Newsweek. And in some cases hands, feet and even legs are replaced when a subject’s parts don’t add up to a perfect whole.
So why then am I so offended when I see real-looking women who choose to display themselves for American Apparel—the rare company that doesn’t airbrush, manipulate or otherwise alter the photos in their ads? Shouldn’t I view them as brave, sexual, confident? Refreshing, even? (…)
Former porn star turned Ph.D. sexologist Annie Sprinkle says American Apparel’s promotions tap into American culture’s contradictory views about sex. “They can be fun, sexy and positive,” Sprinkle says, or they can be a turnoff—depicted as dirty and ugly. “But that’s why it’s a great ad campaign,” she says. “As a feminist, I like the ads and I like the graffiti [the New York billboard was defaced with]. It makes us think about how we view sexuality.”
related { Landing strip on Lafayette and Great Jones }
My picture’s painted through words that make a blind man see
Woody Allen asked a federal court on Monday to strip a clothing company known for its racy ads featuring scantily clad models of at least $10 million for using his image on billboards and on the Internet.
In a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the actor and director said he does not endorse commercial products or services in the United States, which makes the May 2007 American Apparel billboards in Hollywood and New York [Allen street] and Web site displays “especially egregious and damaging.”
The lawsuit said Allen was not contacted by the company and did not consent to the use of his image, which was taken from one of his movies.
American Apparel Inc., which is based in Los Angeles and operates worldwide, did not immediately reply to a telephone message seeking comment Monday.
The lawsuit complained of a billboard featuring a frame from “Annie Hall,” a film that won Allen a best director Oscar. The billboard falsely implied that Allen sponsored, endorsed or was associated with American Apparel, said the lawsuit, which seeks at least $10 million in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages.
photo { AA billboard featuring Woody Allen on Allen Street, NYC | bonus: AA billboard featuring Woody Allen on Sunset Boulevard, LA }
You should acquire a taste for boobies, as one does for poetry and olives
{ We sell space in our paper to advertisers so we can cover the cost of printing, distributing, and putting the whole damn thing together. | Austin Chronicles | AA blog }
And her knees up on the glove compartment took out her barrettes and her hair spilled out like rootbeer, and she popped her gum and arched her back
{ Jeff Koons, Woman in a tub, 1988 | porcelain, edition of 3 }
{ “Woman in a tub was based on a postcard. I wanted the piece to be cropped like a photograph. It isn’t a violent cropping.” — Jeff Koons | Taschen }
{ American Apparel ad | retail locations Miami & Key West }
Fliss and koss
{ fake American Apparel ad on Wooster and Grand street, NYC | stereohell }
Christmas message from the Ukrainian people to American Apparel
related { American Apparel verso ad }
More Boobs
{ American Apparel ad with french actress Lea Seydoux | Previously: one boob | Lea Seydoux is also featured in this commercial for Levi’s }
