My American Apparel Stories
[Update April 21, 2017: After a Vox.com editor found this story, I was asked to write a short personal essay in light of Bill O’Reilly’s firing from Fox News after news of multiple sexual harassment settlements came out, with a focus on what it was like to work under a serial sexual harasser like Dov Charney. You can read that piece here. In many ways that essay is a companion to the more lighthearted stories here, and also a clear statement about what I now think about Dov Charney, despite ambivalance during my time working at American Apparel.]
Originally written on January 14, 2017:
I worked at American Apparel at two seperate points in my life. After college, I spent a summer at Best Buy and then a temp agency in Boston. Adrift in a nondescript health insurance claims adjuster job that I was sadly on track to be full time hired for, I was looking for an out.
In the fall of 2008, a friend I knew from my time studying in Japan had recently been promoted personally by Dov Charney, the founder and then CEO, and was the regional manager of the DC area stores. She also helped out with HR in the mid-Atlantic and Boston stores since the NYC team, which often acted as the East Coat central command, was constantly overworked. The NYC team was also busy overseeing what was soon to be understood as a company ruining new store building boom. So with no real retail experience (I was a security guard at Best Buy) but a college degree and about 2 years on most of the other staff, I was put in as the assistant backstock manager of a soon to open new location on Newbury Street. Someone else with actual experience was hired to be my boss and she and I were the only workers for the first month or so.
I had already scheduled a trip home for Christmas after I was hired and missed most of the building of the backstock for the store and apparently, most of the training. The strain of the store and the unrealistic expectations of a at the time rapidly expanding brand was too much for my boss and she was fired and I was left to pick up the pieces. I worked at that store to best of my ability and was seemingly well liked enough that when I asked to be transfered to the NYC, where I was following my roommates also getting jobs in the city. I was moved to managing the backstock at the Upper West Side store, but quickly was promoted to a more regional level and oversaw any store from Maine to DC that needed training or restructuring.
I was overworked constantly. At the Boston store, I often worked 80–90 hour weeks to compensate for my and my staff’s lack of proper training, understaffing, and no real oversight for anyone at any level above us. So after a year, in December 2009, I quit amicably. After about six months, I found myself bored and aimless without a full time job and asked if I could come back on, with the idea that I would stay at one store, not travel, and never work more than 32 hours a week. They agreed, but cut my pay slightly. I left at $13.50/hour and returned at $11.50/hour. But the same issues kept up and I quit about six months later, in the fall of 2011, without much notice and with no acknowledgement from my boss.But during those 18 months, I racked up an number of let’s say… interesting experiences. I’ve recounted them online over the years, and with the news of American Apparel being sold and all stores being shuttered, I’ve collected all of them to mark the occasion. I’ve done some light editting, but these were mostly written on a message boards, so pardon any errors. I also acknowledge that some facts and names and details might be absolutely wrong. These were just my understandings at the time of writing, most around mid-to-late 2010. Some are from the time inbetween working there, some after.
Here we go.
Marsha and Hiring
No one can get a raise, a bonus, be hired, change title, or change position without sending a full body picture and head shot to an email that is being read by two people (Dov and Marsha Brady, “head of Creative Direction” or something). They must approve them and have been getting stricter and stricter. Case in point: no one has been hired in NYC since the new year. Normally, the stores would be hiring around 15 people a week. the monthly picture line ups someone mentioned? They work into this because they’ve been the reason for a ton of layoffs. Amanager was told to fire two girls because Dov didn’t like their eyebrows (too plucked) and if she didn’t, she would be fired.
Marsha and managers
In response to: Is her name really Marsha Brady?
Yes. I want to say someone was fired at some point for making fun of her name. She was Dov’s right hand woman for a few years and she did not take anyone’s shit. She was the latest in line of strong women who could refuse Dov’s charms but still looked up to him and revered him and were given high ranking positions in the company. They were the ones who Dov liked but didn’t live in the mansion with him, basically.
In her case, it was “creative director” or some nonsense title that concerned how employees looked, but these women were usually were given some high ranking “management” position that included “oversight” of an entire swath of the country’s stores. One woman, who actually gave Dov a blowjob when he picked her up in a limo for HER birthday was 20 when she was given the position to oversee every store on the east coast. That’s from Miami to Maine. Maybe 60–70 stores at the time? But anyway, because they were in their early 20s had no actual managerial training and often little retail experience, people could pick up on their ineffectiveness and they in turn could sense people viewing them as unworthy of the job. As such, they responded to everything harshly and with little compassion. But since there were very few employee guidelines or quotas or incentives to do good (or bad) outside of a rarely used company intranet that include blog posts with rough and suddenly changing styles about how to dress (Dov wrote most of these, with pictures of current employees with short captions like “Do NOT show up like this”), how to decorate the store, how to fold shirts, etc, they usually just had to periodically wade into a mess in a store and fire enough people so things seemed normal for awhile. When things were good or someone needed help or training, they did nothing, especially on the sales side.
Tucks
Dov has a mansion in the Hollywood Hills. Women who work at the company live there with him. Johnny Makeup also lives there. In EVERY room (bedroom, bathroom, living room, rumpus room) Charney has placed a box of Tucks, just in case things get sexy. Never heard of Tucks? Why, they’re only medicated, antibacterial wipes made for your butt and anus!
Marcus Dancing
http://www.americanapparel.net/gallery/photocollections/models/Marcus/001/
[Ed: This seems to be down. Before Dov was fired, the company use to have collections of pictures on their site. A lot of them were women in cities with stores. Some were at the store. Dov took most of them himself. As per the company’s brand, a lot were erotically charged but some were just goofy fun.]
Marcus is seen here dancing around. The website says he is “getting down during his break.” Actual story: This is the inventory room of the lower broadway store, where Marcus worked until this photoshoot. Dov comes in one day, out of nowhere with two girls in tow (they were “checking out the stores” when in fact all they did was put their ipods on and sat at the computer). He goes around, taking photos of anything he can find wrong with the backstock. he’s about to leave when he stops taking pictures, looks at Marcus and goes “Oooh, who is this?” He then puts his iPod on and starts playing some shitty dance electro stuff. Dov starts bopping around a little bit and turns to Marcus (who is eating a sandwhich on his break), “You like this music? Doesn’t it make you want to dance?” He then pulls Marcus up and makes he start dancing with him. Dov then starts taking pictures while yelling at him to get more into it. “Hey, uh, why don’t you get on the table?” This is the table where clothes from boxes are received and is currently being used. Marcus kind of stops and says he can’t do it, saying they’re working and asks the inventory manager, a mousey, nerdy, agendered little girl who has named herself math+ [ed: That’s how she styled it. It was pronounced without the plus sign], if he should. She, being a good employee, says nothing and turns back to the clothes she’s folding. Dov turns the music up and tells him it’s ok to dance on the table, so Marcus then kind of shuffles around and spins around the pole because Dov is yelling at him to do so. The entire time, he is apologizing to math+, who has now moved into the back of the room because she can’t stop laughing at the scene. The pictures in this set happened across all of 30–40 seconds because Marcus was getting really nervous and stepped down, said he had to work and clocked back in (this was about 20 minutes into his hour break). Dov shrugs, takes his ipod and girls and leaves.
A few weeks later, Marcus was made the inventory manager of the Harlem store.
wont read
Dov went on a conference call one day, saying he desperately needed people to go to Japan who either spoke the language or knew how to get around easily. I later found out (and I think this is still the case) this was because the Japanese staff was on strike because they were finding out about the employment practices I’m talking about. anyway, I shoot off a quick email saying I’m conversant, have people I can stay with and I know the job and do it well. I’m one of the top 3 inventory managers on the east coast and he’s asked about my work at this point from a few high ups. It’s a three, four sentence email to Dov.
I get an email back five minutes “wont read w/o pictures. sorry.” I put in my two weeks about four days later
Dov’s mom
Here’s a story about his mom.
One of the things I genuinely liked about Dov was that has called into the two weekly conference calls (one for inventory, one for management) about 85% of the time and genuinely asked people’s opinions and listened to new product ideas. he sometimes stole these ideas. Sometimes he would give you $100 for saying we should make a short sleeve version of the chambray button up. sometimes he insulted you in Yiddish. Whatever. One time he was going off (and he went off very often) about how if you don’t get what you need from the LA factory team, you need to nag and whine and “be a squeaky wheel.” Someone asked a questions about why couldn’t the LA team just respond like a reasonable, well organized headquarters. Dov says, “Look, you don’t get it. My mom would know. Ask her! Really, anyone can call her- here’s her number” and he says it. Everyone thinks he’s joking. About five minutes later, after everyone has moved on, Dov cuts in- “Ok, Jake? You got her? Everyone, he’s my mom. Mom, tell them about how I would never shut up and whine all the time! Tell them, tell them! Tell them the time we were in the podiatrist’s office about how I was manic and you couldn’t take it anymore.” Dov’s mom sort of coughs and says, “Ok, Dov, yes. You would never shut up.” There’s a pause. “Is that it?” Dov, really excited, “Yeah, mom, thanks!” And then we moved on to the next topic and didn’t discuss whining to LA anymore.
Two words
I was taking a break from rearranging a poorly performing store’s backstock one day with a few other inventory managers and the NYC/East Coast Inventory Manager, Ed. Ed has previously walked outside because he got a call from Dov. I could see that Ed was getting really pissed and yelling. When he walked nearby, I could hear Dov yelling as well. The reason they fought is because that day was when Dov started to roll out the full body pictures for hire policy. Ed has previously been in charge of either directly approving or getting someone he trusted (such as myself) to interview and approve new inventory employees. He knew that there was a huge turnover problem in the stores and that this was going to bottleneck things dramatically (it did). Anyways, he gets off the phone and he turns to me, “Dave, let’s walk.” And we walk around Court St. in Brooklyn and he’s just letting it all out- Dov doesn’t know what he’s doing yadda yadda and just all the problems he’s been having. I ask him about the shouting and if Dov does it often. Ed says yes which I find crazy because Ed has been around since the first few retail stores opened up in NYC (so, about 5 years). Ed told me about his particular habit when he gets mad on the phone. If you really piss him off, to the point where he doesn’t want to talk anymore, he’ll yell, “I’VE GOT TWO WORDS FOR YOU: FUCK! OFF!” and hangs up. He’s done it enough with Ed that sometimes all Dov will yell is, “TWO WORDS!” and hangs up.
Then Ed’s sister walked by and we made some polite conversation before heading back to the store. This was also on my “day off.”
Opening Ceremony
In response to: “He called up and requested head shots of all the chicks working implying that they were the reason for the low amount of bills coming in. Couldn’t help but to laugh, pretty fucked up though.”
This is the core ideal that is running through the entire company right now [Ed: late 2010]. It is reason why everything is completely stagnant now. Dov was talking with a co-worker about needing to “present a more elegant face of the company.” he presented an scenario: which company has the better face and which would you prefer to go to: American Apparel or Opening Ceremony? He answers, of course Opening Ceremony because their workers are much more put together and their styles is so much better than 90% of the workers AA has. My friend responds, well, isn’t it also because they’re more exclusive and have more designer clothing? And aren’t their workers paid twice as much as ours?
Dov’s comeback was “fuck off!”
Models
Also, once the company started hemorrhaging money around September ‘09 (it does this every so often), starting pay was cut down to $8.50. This meant we were hiring mostly high school kids and people who were doing it just for part time, extra spending money. Anyone with a brain would get a normal paying retail job. Anyway- around the time I put in my two weeks notice, the store managers were told a team from Montreal was coming down to evaluate staff. Considering the whole “class pictures” and “full body portraits” and “elegance” thing was in full bloom and my store manager and I knew this meant they were coming to fire people if they weren’t good looking enough. She was pretty close with the regional sales manager for NY/the east coast and was told that the team was allowed to fire up to 80% of the staff. They started with the Flatiron store (maybe LES, I forget) and let go off two sales girl and a keyholder. The manager was obviously freaking out because this meant she was going to be working 65+ hours or so that week and no one was being hired because of the full body picture thing I mentioned earlier. We found out their solution- they were going to modeling agencies and scounting girls there. I wasn’t sure how the hell they were going to pull models to work $8.50/hr sales positions. They knew this too. Their solution: hire the models at $11/hr! And tell know no one… except for the managers who had to fill out the paper work for new hires, some of whom were now making more the now quickly promoted (without pay) managers. Brilliance!
Text message
[Ed: This was in-between the two times working there]
On a related note, I was offered an office job in LA from the third in command at the company. Things to mention: I quit. I quit 5 months ago. I haven’t spoken to this guy in months before even that. I was also offered the job via text message at 11pm. The job was Head of Loss Prevention. He did not know that I did loss prevention at Best Buy. He just remembered that I was tall.
math+ and James
In response to: where is math+ now
A year or so ago, I found self back in NY1, the main NYC store, the one near NYU on Broadway, where math+ was transferred once they started making all the stores use RFID tags for inventory around late 2010. NY1’s inventory team was formerly run by a 6'7", 150 pound man named James but we called him Johnny Bravo because he gelled his hair up in a 18" pompadour like swoop everyday. He only wore one outfit- a pink Oxford with only the bottom two buttons done, a loosed to the point of pointlessness black poplin tie, black slacks, and black leather boots with curled front tips. He also wore eyeliner.
He and math+ dated. Most of the people who worked with her had long thought she was a lesbian or at least asexual but she was not. I found out because in 2009 I ended up working on Thanksgiving from 6pm until Black Friday around 8am at the outlet store an hour outside Manhattan. James and I drove with one other NYC inventory employee and as he dozed off, James told me he and math+ first “made love” to song I was playing. It was Joy Division’s “Isolation.” We found ourselves working with a dozen or so mostly high schoolers who had never been trained but ran the store well enough. There was a line out the door when midnight hit and they let in 15 people at a time. Around 4:30am the store’s 20 year old manager thought he saw someone steal a headband and confronted them by shouting at them “I will fucking beat your ass to the ground if you don’t leave.” He then pushed the thief into a pile of lightly damaged t shirts and kicked him until he left. We left at 7am because that was when Ed, the east coast inventory manger, woke up and realized we were still at the store.
Anyway, I was at NY1 and I just went down the stairs to the backstock by saying I was with Dov and asked for math+. I was told she was fired for attempting to sneak out a $3 pair of socks without paying. I’m sure she was edged out for not being on brand (much like James was before her- his attempt to conform to changing dress codes solely was to button two more shirt buttons) because she was the most loyal employee I ever met and loved her job in a way I don’t think I’ve ever loved another person.
Orange Juice
I have some real thoughts about Dov but let me talk about the time I spent the most time directly with him, during my second tenure at AA. I worked there from December 2008 to December 2009 and then later came back in May of 2010 for about five more months. I was rehired at a lower rate somehow but I told them I was only going to work 32 hours a week and not travel outside of NYC anymore. They pretty much kept that side of the bargain. Ed liked me and I knew how to talk to bosses and do as little work as needed. They bounced me from store to store, never saying I was manager. I was told my position was “the finisher” because I finished training stores who had massive layoffs or massive amounts of quittings. When I left, the “class pictures” and employee head shots was just underway. When I came back they were in full use and fervency at which people adhered to the idea of being “on brand” was something I wasn’t use to. I also had to tuck in my shirt which was nonsense for manual labor. Ed too changed his look. I told him when he hired me back that he looked like a sad Justin Timberlake and he hugged me and said “I’m glad you’re back.” He was wearing a straw hat and threw it away
So I’m at this store on Flatbush. I was closing with a key holder. Manager was a 20 year old who spent all her time locked in her office. I heard her crying a lot. But the key holder and I are closing the store after a long night- it was around 11:30pm. I’m about to lock up when Ed calls me to say Dov is coming. Key holder and I are freaking out cause we did a shit job doing inventory checks and making sure the store was in order. Dov comes I’m with two people: Marsha Brady, the woman who looked over all the employee photos and some assistant who designed stores. They really were there to consider a redesign. But Dov walks in and stops in front of us:
“Oh boy! Look at you two! What do they put in the water here cause I want to take you two back to LA and just watch you both mow my lawn. Anyway! You two look thirsty! I’m going to go buy you both an orange juice.”
He leaves, goes to the bodega, returns with with Tropicana cartons and straws and waits for us to drink them. He doesn’t take no for an answer and watches us drink them. He then catches up to the others and finishes the store inspection.
We walk out with him to lock up. Key holder leaves (first being asked to model for the company) and as Dov is leaving he looks me up and down and says, “Hm I don’t like you belt. I’m gonna get you a new belt.” He then walks to the door and remembers it is locked and nor can I use the sales system. “Well how about you just use this?” And he slips a $20 into my shirt pocket. The three of them jump into their car and leave. He apparently didn’t come back to the NYC stores for nearly 3 months after that visit.
