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Alex Kuczynski has a problem with American Apparel. It's not the casual cotton clothes that bother the Times writer; rather, she has a problem with the company's soft-core pornographic marketing style:

And this is what is deeply wrong about the American Apparel message. On the one hand, you have its high-minded mission: Protect the workers. Preserve the environment. Don't exploit cheap labor. On the other, you have the constant issue of sexual exploitation.

This, according to Kuczynski, gives her a "creepy feeling."

I can relate. Admittedly, American Apparel items might occupy a disproportionate amount of space in my closet. (Not an advertorial; the store's just cheap, no fuss, and located down the street. So sue me.) Every time I spend my money there, however, I feel equally creeped out — but not because of the mixed messages coming from the company's founder, Dov Charney. No, my unease has more to do with the knowledge that I'm consciously putting money in the pockets of a man who masturbates in front of reporters.

If only those drape skirts weren't so damn perfect.

Part Cotton, Part Virtue, Part Come-On
Dov Charney, Jane, and Google [Jewlicious]