dov-charney

American Apparel Successfully Swallows Its Ad Spoofer

Hamilton Nolan · 12/04/08 02:14PM

All subversive things in our culture must eventually be co-opted by the very things that they subvert. It's the American way. The American Apparel ad spoofer—who had a months-long run of fame for creating super-porny ripoffs of AA ad posters (which eventually turned out to be Photoshop fakes by the people at Stereohell)—has now become the subject of an actual American Apparel ad. In Vice magazine, naturally! Click through for photos of Dov Charney's victory over artistic mockery:

Dov Charney Will Not Pay You Off Just Because You Got Him A Hot Massage Girl

Hamilton Nolan · 12/02/08 12:25PM

Another lawsuit has been filed against pervy American Apparel CEO Dov Charney, alleging he sexually harasses women and inflates his company's profits, as usual. But! AA has now filed its own suit saying that Nikky Yang (the ex-employee who's filed this new suit) is disgruntled and stole money while she was at AA and was always hitting Dov Charney up for money even after she left. (Yang is represented by Keith Fink, the attorney already in an ongoing feud with AA). And AA's suit includes many amusing emails from Yang to Dov, including this one from 2004 promising him a nice hot massage girl!:

American Apparel Out To Prove Rival Lawyer Is The Real Scumbag

Hamilton Nolan · 12/01/08 09:47AM

Can hipster clothing conglomerate American Apparel and its balls-out CEO Dov Charney never have a normal, peaceful, lawsuit, which is settled quietly and forgotten about? Most recently, the company was fighting back against a lawsuit by ex-employee Roberto Hernandez by trotting out his ex-lovers and leaking documents showing that Hernandez himself recently defended Charney from the very charges he's now being sued for. And now AA is playing more legal hardball! The company is trying to prove to the world that Keith Fink, the lawyer for another ex-employee suing Dov for sexual harassment, is in fact an extortionate scumbag himself. Leaked internal emails below:

Employee Suing American Apparel Once Defended Them

Hamilton Nolan · 11/12/08 04:20PM

Earlier today we told you how oft-sued American Apparel chief Dov Charney is being sued again—this time by Roberto Hernandez, an ex-AA employee who says he was fired from his IT job in 2006 after he refused Dov Charney's request to cook the books to make the company look more financially attractive. His complaint also includes descriptions of AA as a pervy workplace where Charney held staff meetings in the nude. But there's a new development: a source at AA has just sent us a statement that they say Hernandez himself wrote in August, 2006 defending Dov Charney from an earlier lawsuit, contradicting some of same allegations that Hernandez himself is now making: According to our source, Hernandez wrote this statement in 2006—just three months before he was fired—to counter the allegations of Mary Nelson, who sued Dov claiming sexual harassment. Hernandez defends the work environment at AA:

Dov Charney's Legal Defense: Ex-Lovers

Hamilton Nolan · 11/12/08 10:49AM

Oh Dov Charney, when will you stop being sued for various sexual and financial shenanigans? The pervy, pacing American Apparel boss has been sued yet again. Just last month he was dealing with a sexual harassment case from an old employee; now, another former employee says that Dov tried to get him to inflate the company's books in order to draw in outside investors. Just your average financial fraud allegation, until Dov trotted out his accuser's old "lover":

Portfolio Shoots, Misses

cityfile · 10/16/08 01:45PM

This whole Wall Street thing is pretty big news, right? So how did Condé Nast's struggling business mag respond to the biggest economic story of a generation? They put Dov Charney, the founder of American Apparel, on the cover of the November issue. [Gawker, previously]

Kyle Buchanan · 08/28/08 05:35PM

Miracles do happen! While driving on Sunset last night, we just so happened to glance up at the "lost dog" billboard erected by American Apparel founder Dov Charney, and we were pleased to see a huge "FOUND" sticker hastily slapped on, finally bringing to a close the missing pet drama that had rocked Echo Park. Did little HedKayce really make the incredible journey back home to Charney's East LA warehouse, or was it all a publicity stunt meant to promote American Apparel's new line of brand-free clothing for slutty, hipster dogs? We'd like to think it was the former, even if we shudder to think of the Charney scent that could have lured the pup back home. [Previously: 'American Apparel' Owner Wants You to Find His Dog, Maybe Buy its Clothes]

American Apparel Spoofer Porn-sassinates Obama

Hamilton Nolan · 08/27/08 12:26PM

We have to say this for the porntastic anonymous American Apparel ad spoofer: he or she is just so god damn aware of the vagaries of pseudoculture that it is impossible not to admire his or her attention-getting sensibility. Unless, of course, this all turns out to be paid for by Dov Charney, in which case you can expect a very sternly worded rebuke from us. So watch out. Today, the personal (wear) becomes political; it's The Assassination of Barack Obama as imagined not by a publicity-seeking artist Yazmany Arboleda, but by publicity-seeking artist "anonymous spoofer." And of course a big dick is involved, for reasons we can't quite understand:

Dov Charney Enraged By Video Of Kid-Hustler Self

Ryan Tate · 08/27/08 03:42AM

American Apparel CEO Dov Charney acted out as a young man before he became a defiant adult fashion maven. Everyone knows this. So why is he "super pissed off and embarrassed" and "ranting and raving," according to an associate, about a scene from an absurdist documentary that reveals him as a crafty, charismatic little capitalist? In 20th Century Chocolate Cake, a young Charney talks about how he hides money from the redistributionist staff at his "communist" summer camp and about how all the food in his care package was given away to ungrateful poors. Maybe Charney's worried his childhood ramblings will tarnish the labor-friendly American Apparel brand. He should just be grateful he didn't talk about anything else he may have done at summer camp. UPDATE: The credits in the video above misspell the name of the filmmaker. It is Lois Siegel. [Anittah Patrick]

American Apparel Ad Spoofer Strikes The Heart Of The Beast

Hamilton Nolan · 08/22/08 03:24PM

The anonymous, sex-positive American Apparel ad spoofer's latest conquest: the windows and front door of an upcoming Soho American Apparel store. Verily, our wayward artist has decided to strike Dov Charney right where he lives. Is this further evidence that the spoofer might be in cahoots with the company-the manifestation of the CEO's inner desire for ads unfettered by his dreary clothing? It's time to reveal yourself, poster-person. Click through to see the, um, seductive (?) re-imagining of the store's entrance:

American Apparel For Afrikans

Hamilton Nolan · 08/19/08 03:58PM

You thought that all American Apparel clothing was inspired by Dov Charney's endless parade of sexual fantasies? Not true. Some of it is inspired by Africa! Or as Bambaataa and fey hipsters spell it, Afrika. Is it bad that the company doesn't use any black models for these products? It might be worse if they did use black models, actually. Check out more of this season's most authentic adornments for those in the struggle, after the jump. Real hipsters still have their Cross Colours from '92:

Racist Hipsters Schooled By Ex-American Apparel Employee

Moe · 08/14/08 06:35PM

Meet Chris Renfro. Last month, in a case that went wholly unnoticed in the company's unending news flow of highly credible sexual harassment accusations and that lost chihuahua story, he sued American Apparel for race discrimination. (I know, like you put it past them.) We just took a look at his complaint and wondered if it might hold some deeper meaning for hipsterkind. Renfro contends that, while working on the "industrial design and construction" of an American Apparel store (context: said job pays $11.25 an hour) he was called the N-word incessantly by a co-worker named Sean Alonzo who allegedly said they "could use more" N-words at American Apparel (ha ha ha ha) and then proceeded to neg him by bringing a friend he described as "really racist," — along with said friend's vicious dog! — to a store they were opening. Reading the complaint, I remembered how there once was a time when this Vice magazine hipster racism thing used to shock me. Now it just seems sad! And it looks like Renfro agrees, judging from a Malthusian MySpace post he wrote the day before the suit was filed maintaining his hipster tormenters need to develop actual skills. After all, "what is graphic design going to do for you when you're starving?"

American Apparel Ad Spoofer Becomes An Art Critic

Hamilton Nolan · 08/13/08 11:22AM

The anonymous American Apparel ad remixer has consistently shown-along with a love for pornography and a belief in the dildo-ness of AA boss Dov Charney-a marked devotion to actual "art." We're not dealing with just another vandal here; we're dealing with a vandal who may have gone to art school at some point. This valuable education enables not only the clean, porny line drawings on the ads, but now, a new frontier: a reference to pop artist Jeff Koons. And a nude woman! I don't think it's exaggerating the case to call this fake postermaker an educator. The seminal work: Jeff Koons' "Equilibrium":

Was Dov Charney's Dog Devoured By A Coyote?

Ryan Tate · 08/11/08 10:25PM

Dov Charney, the self-stimulating CEO of American Apparel, is wondering if you've seen his dog HedKayce. The little guy went missing in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles for at least the second time since April, when he was feared eaten by the local coyotes. Oy maybe Charney has been looking for the same dog for more than three months. In any case, the creepy clothier presumably holds out hope the dog has not become canid food, because he has "slammed" the surrounding area with "Lost Dog" flyers, LAist reports. Charney even switched some of his billboard advertising from scantily-clad young women to the plea for help seen at left. Awww, sweet and sad all at once. But how did a neurotic obsessive like Charney misplace his dog in the first place? Maybe he was somehow distracted?? [LAist]

'American Apparel' Owner Wants You to Find His Dog, Maybe Buy its Clothes

STV · 08/11/08 07:35PM

In the worst news to befall a local chihuahua since Disney cut loose with its trailers for the Beverly Hills breed, we hear today that American Apparel kingpin Dov Charney has lost his dog. Again. Or perhaps the pooch is still missing from that troubling time in April. In any case, Charney appears to finally be getting serious about finding and keeping poor little HedKayce close by — or at least about selling dog shirts. After the jump, find the enlarged billboard photo and a memo scattered far and wide by the inspired guerrilla marketers search party:

American Apparel buys half a billion online ads a month

Jackson West · 08/04/08 03:00PM

Skanky-chic clothing retailer American Apparel reached nearly 48.9 million unique Web surfers with 489 million display ad vews in the month of April according to ComScore, with 24 percent of those impressions being garnered on MySpace, 19 percent on Facebook, and another 12 percent on AOL's banner-laden AIM software client. The ads have stirred controversy for the prurient use of Helvetica. How's it affecting the bottom line?The company raked in $111 million last quarter, a 50 percent increase year over year — though the company's bookkeeping is notoriously unreliable, the share price is down to an all-time low, and a fifth sexual harassment suit is still pending against visionary pervert Dov Charney, founder and CEO. That explains why American Apparel is so happy to advertise on the social networks that frighten more staid brands: The rates are cheap, and the company doesn't have to worry about tarnishing its reputation.

Paradigm Shifts As American Apparel Spoofer Attacks Brooklyn

Hamilton Nolan · 08/01/08 12:37PM

Everything is different now: for the first time in recorded history, the mysterious and porny American Apparel ad spoofer has struck in Brooklyn. Manhattan is so over! Is this a good thing or a bad thing to Brooklyn gentrification opponents, philosophically speaking? The new piece is also directly next to an AA store, perhaps marking an escalation in the conflict between spoof in commerce. Or a confluence? So many questions. One thing we are sure of: this spoofer fears neither male nor female private parts, at least in line drawing form. We feel the time has come for Dov Charney to speak out directly on his, uh, admirer. Click through for a larger pic of the latest, uh, artwork:

American Apparel Spoofer Embraces Equality In Genitalia

Hamilton Nolan · 07/21/08 11:02AM

The notorious, mysterious, and sexy American Apparel ad spoofer raises so many philosophical questions: What is art? What is advertising? What is porn? And does showing blowjobs count as "sexual equality?" The spoofer has a long history of drawing female genitalia (and dildos). But now he or she has made the leap to showing penises for the cause-something Dov Charney can only dream of. Click through for the most overt (possibly NSFW, although it's just a drawing) example:

From The Cocksuckers At American Apparel

Hamilton Nolan · 07/16/08 03:19PM

It must really kill Dov Charney not to be able to advertise his hipster robot clothes via hardcore porn movies starring himself and a bevy of 18-year-old Eastern European beauties recently unloaded from a shipping crate in the dead of night. So the pervy American Apparel CEO and hero to the downtrodden keeps edging as close to that vision as possible. His latest effort: a foreign ad featuring a model licking some dude's boxer shorts-and some believe the dude in them is Dov himself, based solely on the hairy legs. Full ad that will haunt you, below: