Netflix’s Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel details the rise and fall of the once super-trendy label after charismatic CEO Dov Charney’s ouster amid sexual misconduct allegations.
If at one point it felt as if there was an American Apparel store on every corner, that was certainly the idea.
The brand, founded in 1989 by Dov Charney, exploded in popularity in the mid-’00s. Shoppers couldn’t get enough of the basics-in-every-color aesthetic, the clothes styled to an attainably chic tee in provocative advertising campaigns.
“It was a fashion cult,” former district merchandising manager Jonny said in Netflix‘s Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel, “and Dov was the leader.”
The documentary dives into the meteoric rise of the Los Angeles brand, followed by the business’ eventual implosion following Dov’s 2014 ouster from the company amid a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations.
E! News reached out to Charney about the misconduct allegations detailed in the doc but has not yet heard back. He repeatedly denied wrongdoing and, as the production noted, lawsuits filed against him by former employees were sent to confidential arbitration.
Former employees described working for Charney as an intense experience, a roller coaster of heady highs and increasingly disturbing lows.
“I loved every second of it,” Jonny said, “until I didn’t.” Added Carson, a former store manager, “Things progressively got crazier and crazier.”
“I think I was born a hustler,” he told the New York Times in 2004. “I like selling a product that people love. It’s nice when a girl tries on a bra or a tie-dye T-shirt, and it’s, ‘Ooh, I love it.’”
Here are the biggest bombshells detailed in Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel:
How American Apparel Attracted Employees
Former store manager Carson said in Netflix’s Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel that his initial hiring was “more of like a vibe check,” because he was tall and skinny like the models in the company’s ads.
“They definitely were hiring freaks and geeks, you know. It felt like the weirdo club,” former district merchandising director Jonny said in the documentary. One of the slogans in the stores, according to the Pennsylvania native, was “if you see someone shoplifting let ‘em know we’re hiring.”
Michelle, a former sales associate, said in the doc that she probably wore a shirt that she shoplifted from American Apparel to her interview—and was told she could start the following Monday.
“I felt chosen,” she admitted, “like, I must be cool.”
Who Is Dov Charney, American Apparel founder?
Dov Charney founded American Apparel in 1989. Billed as a purveyor of sweatshop-free clothes, the company’s 800,000-square-foot headquarters in downtown Los Angeles was once the largest clothing factory in the country, per California Apparel News, employing roughly 4,500 garment workers being paid above minimum wage.
“I run American Apparel in an instinctive manner, an impulsive manner,” the Montreal native said in archival footage. “I try to break down all kinds of barriers.”
Dov Charney Created an Intensely Competitive Environment at American Apparel, According to Staff
Influenced by Dov’s round-the-clock mentality, “I started to stay way late,” former employee E.J. said in The Cult of American Apparel, “not take time off. If there was a 40-hour week it was because you were sick…No one was working that little.”
Michelle added, “It absolutely felt competitive. It felt like you had to differentiate yourself from other people so that you wouldn’t feel like Dov could ask someone else to do your job.”
Carson recalled in the series working so much in one two-week span that payroll checked the security cameras to confirm he put in that much overtime.
He was promoted to store manager after six months of working there, Carson said, but “it still felt like I needed to prove myself.”
American Apparel’s Dov Charney Openly Discussed Having Sex with Employees
Jonny said in the Netflix series that “initiation” at the Los Angeles factory included a “starter kit” containing a Blackberry phone, a Leica camera, a Hitachi Magic Wand vibrator and a copy of Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power—which, according to multiple employees, Dov quoted regularly.
Carson said in the doc it was “definitely an open secret that Dov was sleeping with the employees.”
Dov readily admitted to having relationships with people who worked for him. “I’m not saying I want to screw all the girls at work,” he told Jane magazine in the mid’00s, per NBC News. “But if I fall in love at work it’s going to be beautiful and sexual.”
Dov Charney Would Name a “Fool of the Week” at American Apparel, Staffers Said
On weekly conference calls with employees from around the world, Carson said in the doc, “you would be at threat of being called out by Dov.”
Michelle said, “There was always someone that he would call the ‘fool of the week.’…Oh my god, it was so mortifying that hundreds and hundreds of people heard that you, personally, are the ‘fool of the week’ for a multimillion-dollar company.”
The bit was as “entertaining as it was scary,” Carson said. Noted former employee E.J., “I know I’m not supposed to laugh, ‘cause he’s also yelling at this person I respect and like. And then he’s also saying something incredibly funny in the next thought. It is so weird and challenging, and confusing. Do I hate him or do I think he’s hilarious?”
Dov’s management style, Carson said, “was basically to push people as far as they could go and to pit people against each other.”
Employees Agreed to Secrecy and Arbitration at American Apparel
Wherever you worked within the company, Michelle said, “Every time we got a bonus or a promotion, or any time our salaries changed at all, they would have us sign a mediation agreement that said, ‘Hey, like, I’ve recently been offered more money, and that means I can’t sue Dov, I can’t talk about anything negative about the company.’ Maybe I was naïve but [she recalled thinking at the time] I’m sure it’ll be fine, I’ll just sign.”
The company told the New York Times in 2011 that American Apparel employees were required to sign confidentiality and arbitration agreements.
As American Apparel Struggled, Dov Charney Plowed Forward
American Apparel was bought by Endeavor Acquisitions for $382.5 million in 2006 and went public on the New York Stock Exchange.
And Dov continued to open stores around the globe despite the looming financial crisis.
After opening more than 80 stores in 2008, the company reported in March 2009, per the Los Angeles Business Journal, that retail sales increased 17 percent from the previous year to $24.3 million, but same-store sales in February were down 9 percent from a year ago. In addition to the 80-plus stores last year, the company opened three new stores in February.
The recession “didn’t exist” to American Apparel, Michelle said in the documentary. In archival video, Dov’s seen telling employees at the factory, “I need you to hire more merchandisers. If your payroll gets heavy, I’ll travel with it…How many guys do you know in previous recessions that were struggling but they kept it going and then they really bump up?”
Dov Charney Walked Around American Apparel Office in His Underwear
The Netflix doc showed video of Dov strutting around in briefs.
“There is no evidence to say that you can’t walk around in your underwear all day anywhere in the United States of America,” Dov said, per NBC News, in a taped deposition pertaining to a 2005 sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by a former employee.
Asked if he actually did that at the office, Dov said in the deposition, “There were months I was in my underwear all the time. It became very common…There was a time in fact we put it on the Internet that I was running around in my underwear.” (By the time of the deposition, the video was no longer on the company’s website.)
A company spokesperson told Dateline, “The truth is that American Apparel, which employs more than 4,500 people, faces a single baseless workplace lawsuit.”
Sexual Misconduct Allegations Against Dov Charney Continued to Pile Up
Women continued to come forward with sexual harassment allegations against Dov.
“Initially it was one woman,” employee and civil rights attorney Toni Jaramilla said in The Cult of American Apparel, and “that led to a second. But in doing our due diligence, we found other women who were claiming they experienced the same thing.”
However, the lawyer explained, women who used to work for American Apparel had signed agreements waiving their right to a jury trial and barring them from speaking negatively in public about Dov or the company, meaning their lawsuits ended up being sent to arbitration.
After two sexual harassment suits were filed against Dov in March 2011, his attorney Peter Schey told the New York Times, “The allegations are false. I think this is an effort to shake down American Apparel. These claims should be resolved in confidential arbitration.”
Dov had previously been sued at least four times since the mid-‘00s for creating a hostile or sexually charged working environment, according to the Times. The company told the publication the lawsuits had all been settled or dismissed.
“There’s something [disingenuous] about the claims,” Dov said in archival footage shown in the Netflix doc. “First of all, they’re fake. Second of all, these claimants are being coached.” He said he was “prepared to take a polygraph.”
When Was Dov Charney Fired From American Apparel?
Dov was suspended from American Apparel in June 2014 and officially terminated at the end of the year.
“We take no joy in this, but the Board felt it was the right thing to do,” board member Allan Mayer said in a statement at the time. “Dov Charney created American Apparel, but the Company has grown much larger than any one individual and we are confident that its greatest days are still ahead.”
Dov’s attorney Patricia L. Glaser accused American Apparel in a letter, obtained by the NY Times, that they were trying to fire her client for “activities that occurred long ago (if at all) and about which the board and the company have had knowledge for years.”
Mayer told the New York Times that June, “We were well aware when we did this that the first question most people would ask was, ‘What took you so long?’”
He continued, “We were not blind and deaf to all the allegations and the newspaper stories. But you can’t take an action this serious simply on the basis of rumors and allegations.”
What Did Dov Charney Do After He was Fired From American Apparel?
“I want everybody to know I’m not ‘the Sleaze King,’” Dov said on ABC News’ 20/20 in March 2015. “‘The Sleaze King’ is another guy.”
“I’ve never engaged in any activities that could be characterized as sexual harassment,” he reiterated in the interview. And while he admittedly slept with employees, he maintained it was all consensual.
“All those accusations against me are crap,” he added. “We’ve resolved them. None of it—none of these allegations—were ever proven.”
American Apparel detailed in a June 2015 court filing, per the Los Angeles Times, that an investigation into misconduct allegations conducted by an outside law firm found that the former chief executive had engaged in violent, derogatory and sexually inappropriate behavior with staffers.
The filing stated that videos showing Dov engaging in sex acts had been stored on a company server and alleged he had violated company policy prohibiting harassment and retaliation against former employees.
Dov’s attorney Keith Fink told CNBC that American Apparel had “engaged in an invasion of Mr. Charney’s privacy in shameful attempt to extort him and gain leverage over him.”
He also told the LA Times in a statement the the company was “desperately trying to distort public attention to the fact that Mr. Charney’s firing was illegal.”
What Happened to American Apparel?
American Apparel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2015 and, after once having more than 200 stores around the globe, the company eventually closed all of its brick-and-mortar locations.
The brand was purchased for $88 million by Canadian manufacturer Gildan Activewear and reopened as an online-only retailer in 2017.
While American Apparel merch still boasts that no sweatshop labor is involved in the manufacturing process, the clothes are now touted as “globally sourced.” According to The Guardian, Gildan’s production facilities are located primarily in Central America and the Caribbean.
Where Is Dov Charney Now?
Dov founded Los Angeles Apparel in 2016, and it remains in business.
“I am not planning to do anything differently,” he vowed in 2017 at a creative services event at L.A.’s Pacific Design Center, per California Apparel News. “I am going to do what I have always done, which is run the show off the seat of my pants I go by inspiration.”
Meanwhile, the Netflix doc released July 1 said that Dov, now 56, was working with Kanye “Ye” West’s label Yeezy. Rolling Stone reported in July 2023 after the pair were spotted shopping together in Japan that the rapper was involving Dov in financial decisions and other aspects of his business. E! News reached out to Dov for comment but has not heard back.
The 48-year-old namechecked Dov’s former company in his 2010 song “Gorgeous” from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy: “I need more drinks and less lights, and that American Apparel girl in just tights.”
Source: www.eonline.com