American Apparel has teamed up with Electric Youth Magateen, which celebrates "the magnificent vitality, energy and power of young male adulthood." The product of their collaboration: a t-shirt that reads "Teenagers Do It Better," which comes with this souvenir JPEG of a scantily clad teen in undies and a cut-off version of the conversation tee. (Just in time for mandatory sex ed classes in NYC!) HuffPo calls this Dov Charney's "first foray into sartorial pedophilia, creating a shirt that glorifies teens engaging in sex." more ›

Between the "sex slave" lawsuits and the declarations of the death of hipsterdom, Dov Charney and American Apparel have been generating their fair share of controversies lately. But it seems that some other clothing companies have attention-envy—Abercrombie and Fitch are swilling the cup of controversy with their latest product aimed at pre-teens: sexy padded bras and bikinis. more ›

American Apparel founder Dov Charney is continuing to fight back against the sexual harassment accusations from former employees. Citing sexually explicit emails and photographs allegedly sent by the accusers, Charney's lawyer Stuart Slotnick says, "This is an orchestrated shakedown by a group of former employees that are friends and roommates, and who, not incidentally, happen to have the same lawyer." more ›

Is The Dov starting to fight back? American Apparel CEO Dov Charney claims, via his lawyers, that 20-year-old Irene Morales was sending him naughty emails long before she filed a lawsuit against him for $260 million. According to the NY Post, Morales—who claims she was held as his sex slave—"appears more like a money-hungry vixen than a helpless victim" in the emails. more ›

Earlier this month a former employee of American Apparel, Irene Morales, filed a lawsuit in Manhattan against the company's CEO, Dov Charney. The suit claimed that Charney essentially treated Morales like his own personal sex slave for a period of time, threatening her job all the while. However, as all employees are made to do upon accepting a position there, Morales had signed a confidentiality agreement, and currently a judge is deciding if the suit can go any further. While that gets sorted, The Dov has been dealt another harassment charge! more ›

American Apparel employees be warned: if you want to go in front of a judge and bring up that an X-rated visit you paid The Dov, don't sign that legal thingamajig the company hands you upon your departure. Former AA employee Irene Morales filed a $260 million lawsuit against Dov Charney this week, claiming he held her captive in his Manhattan apartment once she turned 18, and forced her to perform sexual acts, and then subjected her to eight more "anguished months of forced sex." Even if this is true, however, Morales signed an agreement when she left the company stating she would not sue, and gave "a full release of claims and an agreement to submit any future claims to confidential binding arbitration." more ›

Yesterday it was reported that Dov Charney was being sued for $260 million by a former employee of his company, American Apparel. Irene Morales claims that Charney held her captive in his Manhattan apartment, threatened her job if she didn't perform sexual acts on him once turning 18, and a whole mess of other nasty allegations. We have now received this statement issued by American Apparel in response to the lawsuit, from the company's lawyer Peter Schey. more ›

American Apparel is on the other side of the lawsuit for once, claiming that a Long Island nail polish maker needs to pony up $5 million! (That's one way to get out of debt.) According to the NY Post, the Forsythe Cosmetic Group "ruined the launch of its nail polish line by using defective bottles that began 'exploding' almost immediately after going on sale." Sound fun! Except no one saw the potential in polish-splattered deep v-necks, and there may actually be hazardous materials in the polish. Now the cosmetic group is being sued for fraud, product liability, and breach of contract. Forsyth says this is all "a suspense-novel-worthy chain of melodramatic alleged events." more ›

Remember when the benches outside of American Apparel on Houston and Orchard streets were the place to be? It was a very "this too shall pass" moment, and it did. The benches, however, remained... until now. According to Bowery Boogie, 5 of the 9 benches on Orchard Street have been removed by American Apparel; an employee at the store said it was a “whole ordeal,” but essentially the company “didn’t want people living outside the store anymore.” Because Dov Charney though they clashed with his new preppy image? more ›

Dov Charney, founder of American Apparel and a walking caricature of Hipster, declared in a recent Business Week interview that, "Hipster is over." So over. Maybe he blames the group for his failing business, which could soon become delisted on the NYSE; either way, the determined little clothing cockroach refuses to die along with them! more ›

American Apparel head honcho, Dov Charney, came out from behind his spandex curtain and granted a little one-on-one time with Runnin' Scared after they defended him against Big Bad Gawker. In it, he tells them that any sexual harassment accusations made against him are absolutely not true, and goes on to say: "You're a fool to think that. It's cheap journalism. It wouldn't be as exciting if this was a story about Zales." He then goes on to explain that this would have never happened to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—saying, "[he] was having affairs, but his work was too important so the media didn't bring it up." more ›

It is hardly surprising that American Apparel bases new hires on physical appearance, so today's Gawker exposé will probably get a smaller gasp than one's first glance at the company's Nylon Spandex Stretch Floral Lace Unitard would (seriously that thing will never cease to amaze us). more ›

Are American Apparel's models "real people"? According to Jezebel, the company has long stated the scantily clad bodies you see in their ads are employees, friends of Dov Charney, and never ever professional models. The site points to a 2006 Financial Times article where the company said they "work exclusively with non-professional models"—something Jezebel is now calling out as a lie that the company perpetrated even in 2008, saying, "Unlike almost everyone in the fashion industry, American Apparel doesn't use professional models and agencies." And just last month the company told Fox that their "ads are evocative because they feature real people instead of professional models." more ›

Late last night an American Apparel rep informed us that a group of teenage protesters smashed windows at their flagship store on Broadway this past Saturday. After the group took out two windows there, they moved along and ended up smashing windows at several other stores, including a nearby GNC. more ›

What would you do for a $1.50 deep v-neck? Would you riot? Because that is how they roll in London. According to Blog-Royale, Dov Charney has some sort of touring rummage sale in which the company sets up temporary outlet stores with items costing practically nothing. When it arrived at Brick Lane recently, it showed us just what happens when The Man gets in the way of a "tight ass hipster twat bag" and his next hoodie purchase: more ›

Remember last week when a menacing group dropped some Project Mayhem action on the Williamsburg American Apparel? Or... so it was rumored. The company has now given us a little update, saying: more ›

First the communists protested American Apparel in Manhattan, and now someone has gone and thrown rocks through the windows of the company's store on North 6th in Brooklyn. FreeWilliamsburg reports that flaming trash was also involved in last night's retail retaliation, and the attackers may currently be armed with blogs (according to employees at the store). A witness told them, "There were about 50 guys dressed all in black, wearing masks, and causing total mayhem all along North 6th St, dumping out trash dumpsters and setting everything on fire in the streets, and then smashing all the windows of the American Apparel." more ›

Last Saturday a group of feminist protesters stood strong outside of an American Apparel store in NoHo, chanting things like, “Women’s bodies are a battleground,” “Women as sex toys—no more!” and “We need total revolution!” The rally was part of “From the Burkha to the Thong: Everything Must, and Can Change—We Need Total Revolution,” Sunsara Taylor's speaking tour, which was just at NYU. more ›

Last week an anonymous employee of the American Apparel empire spoke out against Dov Charney's lookist views, saying that recently the CEO was demanding staff photos from each branch and firing the uglies. As the anonymous employee told it, he thought it was hurting his bottom line. Meanwhile, another employee agreed with this statement in our comments, saying that the incident didn't even "grasp the magnitude of the company's dehumanizing policies." Soon after, an HR flack seemed to have searched his last name in the company database, replying to his comment with a first name he never revealed, and seemingly scaremongering him into saying that maybe this wasn't true after all. What a deep-v meshed web of confusion that's being weaved in the sweatshop-free company! But now Charney speaks out himself, saying, "At American Apparel, we strive to hire salespeople who have an enthusiasm for fashion and retail and who themselves have good fashion sense. But this does not necessarily mean they have to be physically attractive." Well, he did use Woody Allen on a billboard. [via Gawker] more ›

While it's probably not too unbelievable that American Apparel has a certain aesthetic they like to portray to their legions of customers donning mesh v-necks, it may be more surprising to hear that... actually this isn't that surprising either. According to a Gawker tipster, Dov Charney "is demanding the firing of employees he deems unattractive and thus detrimental" to said aesthetic. more ›

Okay, so this isn't the real Dov Charney, but we're going to assume it's pretty close. The parody was written and directed by UCB's Todd Bieber—be sure to watch the whole video for whispered lexical gems like, "I want you to know that you can trust me, okay?" more ›

Following yesterday's announcement that American Apparel settled the lawsuit Woody Allen filed against them for $5 million, the director now speaks out about Dov Charney & Co. Upon leaving the courthouse yesterday he said, "It's, of course, possible by going through the trial a jury might have awarded me more money, but this is not how I make my living" (the NY Post points out it is, however, more money than Vicky Cristina Barcelona made during it's opening weekend, by about $1.5 million more). He's hoping the big payout will discourage other companies from illegally using his image, even though Charney has insisted he wasn't using him to sell product. While American Apparel's head honcho would like to meet the director on friendlier terms, it's unlikely Allen would ever allow it. He told the press yesterday, "Threats and press leaks by American Apparel designed to smear me did not work, and a scheme to call a long list of witnesses who had absolutely nothing to do with the case was also disallowed by the court. I suspect this dose of legal reality led to their 11th-hour settlement." Aaaaand scene. more ›

Sadly, the world won't see Woody Allen face off with Dov Charney in a courtroom. Not today, at least. American Apparel has posted the following statement on their website: "Today the lawsuit filed against American Apparel by Woody Allen will settle whereby he will receive a $5M payment. The vast majority of this payment will be paid by our insurance carrier who is responsible for the decision to settle this case and has controlled the defense of this case since its inception. Naturally there is some relief of not having to go through a trial but I also harbor a sense of remorse and sadness for not arguing an important issue regarding the First Amendment, particularly the ability of an individual or corporation to invoke the likeness of a public figure in a satiric and social statement." more ›

In Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, The Supreme Court of the United States unanimously proclaimed: "At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern. The freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty - and thus a good unto itself - but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole. We have therefore been particularly vigilant to ensure that individual expressions of ideas remain free from governmentally imposed sanctions."Of course, using Hustler as an example when you're trying to prove you aren't a barely legal loving perv isn't exactly the way to go (nor is flooding the internet with images like the above), but we do agree with this whole First Amendment thing. However, is it really possible that Mr. Charney was using Woody Allen as a way to draw parallels to his own public image, and not to, like, sell things? It's sort of an outdated comparison, and Charney's mesh tanks aren't exactly on par with cinematic classics like Annie Hall. What do you think? more ›

Chalk one up for Woody Allen, a judge ruled that he doesn't have to justify his opinion that American Apparel ads are "sleazy," the NY Post reports. The company had wanted the director to back up his accusations by identifying specific ads he found distasteful, and as much as we'd love to picture a scenario in which Woody Allen brings in stacks of past Micro-Mesh campaigns into a courtroom, that request was ridiculous. (American Apparel, need we remind you of the 40-foot beaver shot or the giant rape ad?) As such, Manhattan federal Judge Thomas Griesa ruled that Allen has clearly shown "he would not have voluntarily agreed to endorse" the company's products. The case goes to court on May 18th, and last week we received an internal memo from an employee at American Apparel that attempted to express the company's point of view on all this. more ›

Yesterday more court papers were filed for the upcoming American Apparel/Woody Allen showdown, and the NY Post's Cindy Adams thinks it's going to get uglier than a Nylon Spandex Micro-Mesh Bodysuit. more ›

Woody Allen, Dov Charney and young women go together like legwarmers, metallic spandex tights and a deep v-neck tee, yet the battle between Woody Allen and American Apparel continues! After the company used the director's image (without permission) on one of their billboard campaigns, he filed a $10 million lawsuit saying it damaged his reputation. He called the company "sleazy" amongst other things, and the company retaliated noting that he already tarnished his image when he married his young stepdaughter, Soon-Yi Previn. WCBS now reports that "Lawyers for American Apparel have complained that Allen has refused to turn over much of the information they have demanded to prepare for trial. Among their demands were documents concerning any endorsement requests that were withdrawn after the sex scandal with Farrow and Previn became public." The request included nude photos Allen allegedly took of Soon-Yi Previn—but don't get your hopes up Charney, his lawyers say that request is not relevant to the case. more ›

Last year Woody Allen filed a $10 million suit against American Apparel after they used his image (taken from Annie Hall) on their billboards in 2007, explaining at the time that he doesn't promote products in the U.S. This has now pit creepy underage-girl-loving Dov Charney against Allen, who clearly cannot relate to anything remotely, um, unconventional. He is calling the company, amongst other things, "sleazy, adolescent, and infantile," according to the NY Post. The tabloid also reports that yesterday American Apparel verbally retaliated "by demanding records showing whether his 'highly publicized sex scandal and custody battle' involving ex-girlfriend Mia Farrow and her adopted daughter Soon-Yi—Woody's current wife—had affected his earnings." Can there even be any winners in this case? (Besides Rupert Murdoch, of course.) more ›

Two weeks ago Eater reported that 34 Avenue A, the space that held Mo Pitkin's -- which closed earlier this year, is now in contract. Since there's a transferable liquor license which goes along with the keys to the joint (described as a perfect multi-use space), it will likely become another bar/venue/club...but one prankster is suggesting otherwise. more ›