Sowing Mistrust
American Apparel has long been praised for its commitment to stitching social responsibility to its clothing operations. America’s largest garment manufacturing company (at least among those that do the cutting and sewing here in the US) attributes its success to not only being “sweatshop-free,” paying workers well, and providing good benefits, but also to distributing high quality clothes. From a marketing standpoint, they’ve brilliantly positioned their anti-establishment image at a receptive audience: hipsters and a youth culture looking for a few less logos on their clothing.
But a new picture is emerging of outspoken founder, and “Jewish Hustler” Dov Charney. Multiple allegations of sexual harrasment from employees have tarnished his stellar reputation and now the core mission of his company, “social capitalism”, is under attack:
“He claims to pay higher wages, a living wage, but there?s no independent evidence of it. He made insurance available to his employees, but they had to pay for it. It?s like saying something is kosher, without having a rabbi look at it,” claims Richard Applebaum, author of Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry.
July 29th, 2005
