Best known for their provocative and risque advertising campaigns – and their high-rise and high shine disco pants – American Apparel was the ‘it’ brand of the 2000s indie sleaze era. But behind its ultra-cool facade, was a whole lot of chaos, which the latest episode of Netflix’s documentary series Trainwreck sets to explore.
The Cult of American Apparel traces the stratospheric rise of the edgy and alt-cool clothing stores that sprung up seemingly overnight in the noughties, along with the brand’s flamboyant CEO, Dov Charney, who the media dubbed ‘King of Sleaze’. Seen to be the driving force behind the brand’s success, Charney (initially anyway) appeared impervious to scandal, even after a shocking 2004 interview with Jane magazine was published during which he reportedly started masturbating in front of a journalist.
The scandals linked to Charney didn’t stop there either. He was also accused of sexual harassment, discrimination and assault (all of which he has firmly denied), which saw him later lose his role at American Apparel in 2014 – something he described as a “coup”.
Allegations of misconduct aside, Charney continues to work in the fashion industry.
Here’s what the former American Apparel owner is doing now and what happened to Dov Charney after his ‘King of Sleaze’ reign came to an end…
What happened to Dov Charney?
Following his termination in 2014 from American Apparel following a string of allegations of wrongdoing, Charney told Bloomsberg in 2014 that he was down to his final $100,000 (around £72,800) and was forced to sleep on a friend’s sofa in Manhattan.
In May 2015 Charney filed a defamation lawsuit against Standard General, American Apparel’s parent company, followed by a second complaint of fraud of conspiracy a month later, which saw him seek $100 million (around £72.8 million) in damages.
In response, American Apparel released court documents which showed the alleged extent of Charney’s accused misconduct – and they did not make for pleasant reading.
As reported in the Los Angeles Times, Charney was alleged to have told accounting employees that they were “Filipino pigs… with your faces in the trough”, as well as miming holding a shotgun to an employee’s forehead. Other accusations include stored footage on company equipment of himself having sex with models and employees, as well as sending sexually graphic texts to people he worked with. Lawyers on behalf of Charney denied all allegations, and pointed towards harassment lawsuits that had previously been filed by five former employers in 2011 all being being dismissed or going into arbitration.
Charney’s own lawsuits proved unsuccessful. His attempt to buy back American Apparel was rejected by a judge in 2016, and Charney’s defamation lawsuit was thrown out the following year.
What is Dov Charney doing now?
Despite his legal losses and having to leave American Apparel, Charney did not exit the fashion industry altogether. Having described his practices at American Apparel as ‘revolutionary’ (all the clothing was made by American workers in a large factory in Downtown Los Angeles, where the senior team were also based), in 2016 he launched Los Angeles Apparel. The ethos is similar to American Apparel – supplying wholesale clothing to companies with all garments made in the US.
In an interview in The Guardian about his new venture, Charney said that Los Angeles Apparel was his former company’s natural successor: “The people aren’t different, the materials aren’t different, the environment isn’t different.” A cursory look at the Los Angeles Apparel Instagram page seems to agree, with the clothing, style and even advertising similar to Charney’s previous venture.
In another interview with Vice, Charney added that he wanted his new brand to have “the same impact on the culture of young adults” as American Apparel did in its heyday.
In 2017, just a year after Los Angeles Apparel started, Charney claimed in an interview with Bloomberg that he had expanded his operations to now have 350 employees (he also told the publication he ‘lived and slept’ at his new factory in South Central Los Angeles).
However, 2020 had a severe impact on the business: the outbreak of coronavirus meant that Charney moved away from manufacturing wholesale basics and started making masks and medical gowns (something Charney said lost him money).
While the factory was initially closed down on 27 June 2020, Charney maintained it was an essential business and reopened, according to CBS News. However, after an outbreak of Covid-19 in the factory saw 300 workers infected with the virus and four dying, Los Angeles Apparel was forced to cease operations for a month.
In 2022, Charney filed for bankruptcy, with Bloomberg reporting substantial debts as much as $50 million (£36.4 million).
But things are no longer so bleak for Charney. His Los Angeles Apparel business is still growing; on Instagram, Charney announced that Los Angeles Apparel is opening a new store in New York City later this year.
Charney has also worked with Ye, formerly known as rapper Kanye West, in more recent years. In 2023, Rolling Stone reported Charney printed West’s controversial ‘White Lives Matter’ shirts and had been involved in many talks, including some financial, with the Yeezy brand. Charney is thought to have now distanced himself from West after West’s numerous antisemitic comments.
Kimberley Bond is a Multiplatform Writer for Harper’s Bazaar, focusing on the arts, culture, careers and lifestyle. She previously worked as a Features Writer for Cosmopolitan UK, and has bylines at The Telegraph, The Independent and British Vogue among countless others.
