When I was in University I did a ton of research on American Apparel for a paper I was writing for for a Language, Communication and Culture course. All of the ads are super sexualized and a lot of the models fall into the “barely legal” category we are so familiar with in the porn biz. I discovered that Dov Charney, the CEO of American Apparel (who is actually a fellow Canadian, born in Montreal) is a total douche in interviews and has numerous sexual harassment cases filed against him from former employees.
Despite being opposed to American Apparel after writing my paper, I did end up working their while I was a student. But I got fired, for being “not enthusiastic enough,” they told my friend but told me “there isn’t enough money on payroll”… Yet hired someone else two days later.
I just came across an article about a contest
American Apparel was running a contest
in
search of the next top plus size model. A lady named Nancy Upton, who is a size 12, entered the contest by submitting “fat girl” pics of herself bathing in ranch dressing, squirting chocolate syrup down the gullet, and posed with an apple in her mouth like a pig on a spit. She was making a mockery of the company and their attempt to introduce a plus size component to their stores after an employee told April Flores, while she was shopping for pieces in the AA showroom, that they didn’t carry plus sizes because “that’s not our demographic”.
Well, Nancy Upton won the contest, based on obtaining the most votes, but refused to take part in any of their campaigns.
American Apparel was not pleased and their Creative Director, Iris Alonzo, sent out an email to Nancy saying that they have decided to choose another winner.
April Flores had responded to an email she received from American Apparel, which came a year and four months after her visit to their LA headquarters:
“I am surprised that they were even aware of my situation, because I was never responded to or contacted by anyone from American Apparel last year. I also highly doubt that they “don’t recall the name of the confused employee credited with saying that” because I was at their Downtown LA headquarters meeting with their showroom rep specifically to work on my plus sized clothing line. This woman (whose name I DO remember – Maggie P.) was well aware that I was meeting with her to find pieces for my plus sized clothing line. Her disinterested attitude during the entire meeting makes it hard to believe that she “was sadly uninformed.” And during our meeting, the only piece of clothing I was shown that went up to a size 3XL was a Men’s t-shirt. That was an article of clothing that was hardly inspiring or appropriate for the sexy, flattering clothing I to hope to create for plus sized women” (quoted in Jezebel).
