Is American Apparel effay ?
>>11112562
BASICS
A
S
I
C
S
>>11112565
Basics are effay senpai
>>11112562
literally more effay than supreme
AA is the most fashionable thing to come from your shit continent.
So yes, be thankful for it
>>11112669
>aa
>coming from north america
sure buddy :^)
Basics are alright
Jeans are very good
Beware of grossly overpriced items
Their t shirts are absolute dogshit quality.
>>11112565
But best basics are Uniqlo senpai.
>>11112562
If you're a skinny femboi
girls line >>>>> mens line
but yes it's very /fa/ senpai
>>11112914
are you retarded?
it's american designed, made, and founded
>>11112937
really? i have several T's and they're still great even after multiple washes.
>>11112975
They are comfy fabric wise but otherwise they just aren't great. Had some lose threads on some and very irregular sewing on basicly every t-shirt of them I own.
it's always diamonds in the rough. Their t-shirts are sized very oddly (I'm 6'2" yet even their small felt too long for me) but my favorite jacket is from them. Buyer beware.
>>11112562
Some of their basics are surprisingly solid, but I loathe it when they try to go too fashionable. I can't get the weird image of a greasy Dov Charney out of my head every time I see one of their sheer tops or whatever.
Weren't AA stores supposed to start closing down? Is there any brand that sells clothing like them at that price point? Besides maybe COS
Would it be a viable idea to try and take over the basics of American apparel? Take out what they don't do well (couture/perverted stuff) and make it into a smaller brand of mainly cores and classics? And then expand on that to follow trendier clothing?
>>11113214
American Giant does the former with cotton basics.
>>11113214
>Weren't AA stores supposed to start closing down?
Nope. They went bankrupt but that doesn't necessarily mean shutdowns. I explained this a long time ago so I don't remember everything I discovered based on research, but the basic idea is that Charney et al. drove it into the ground and the creditors are likely to use the bankruptcy in order to cut unnecessary bullshit and make it profitable again. Many /fa/ posters are concerned that AA will lose its edge in the process, which is probably true.
>Would it be a viable idea to try and take over the basics of American apparel? Take out what they don't do well (couture/perverted stuff) and make it into a smaller brand of mainly cores and classics? And then expand on that to follow trendier clothing?
This is exactly what creditors are likely to do. Charney drove the company into the fucking ground with his idiosyncratic weirdness, but the core business is probably mega-profitable, especially given the prices. Creditors will likely come in, fire all the idiots with greasy mustaches, and basically turn the company into a really nice basics brand.
>>11112937
I think there are good. My organic cotton shirt does not look as good as other AA T's I've had. Another American made T that feels nice and looks good is AG.
>>11112930
THIS.
don't ever pay over $70 for their button downs and sweater because they will be on sale for $5.39 one day. happens all the fucking time.
>>11113262
not surprised by response from this trip fag. . .
first of all
>Charney et al. drove it into the ground
how? can you explain or elaborate further or are you just repeating stupid shit you've read on buzzworded articles? I'll respond if you can actually explain what happened in terms of what exactly Charney did wrong to lead to AA's fall. . . aside from his own personal antics which honestly led to several different lawsuits, and personal gripes, but not enough to turn an entire company into ruins.
> Many /fa/ posters are concerned that AA will lose its edge in the process, which is probably true.
edge? are you talking about the edge that Charney gave the brand? The new CEO has already pushed advertisements and store layouts to make AA into another millennial ethic clothing almost carbon copy of uniqlo, everlane, h&m. Dude the "edge" was already gone, and no one gives a shit about that in terms of AA.
>Charney drove the company into the fucking ground with his idiosyncratic weirdness,
again what the fuck are you talking about?
>the core business is probably mega-profitable, especially given the prices.
did you read any of their businesses post-charney getting ousted? Their numbers haven't gotten any better and you could've googled that prior to writing this brainless response. Yes, there has been a slump across the board between a lot of big named retailers & companies (gap, jcrew, macy, etc.), but just looking at numbers alone can tell you between the competition that AA needs more to compete with other basic retailers [uniqlo, everlane, bonobos, cos, h&m, zara] especially since obvious fast-fashion brands are the only ones being profitable last quarter [inditex & I think h&m were the few companies that made great margins compared to others across the board]
Yes, I'm mad at the fact that there is another trip fag spouting out brain dead shit on /fa/. This forum is already dead from intelligence. . . but this shit is like the icing on the cake.
>>11112975
>founded
American made and designed buy a Canadian jew founded the company.
>>11113427
Not that anon but Charney did fuck up. Most of the failure, the bankrupcy and so on can be put down to the fact that AA did not even have an organisational chart, or a viable internal structure, which means most of the company worked in a chaotic environment. His leadership approach failed too since he was more into the ''wellbeing'' of his workers (let's remember the scandal back in 2009 with the immigrants. Even if they reported it didn't affect the production, according to their (first) financial report following that summer, the figures showed a decrease in the figures)
Apart from the care free leadership, the 'absent' internal structure policies, the company might have been driven in this bankrupcy due to the overall culture too. There was a clear discrepancy between the espoused values and the enacted values, which Schneider seems to correct now (the sexual scandals, the hiring policies etc)
But anyway, as you said, there is also another issue that AA should take into account now, leaving aside Charney's practices, and that is their need to rewind their entire line if they want to survive the fast-fashion scene.
>>11113427
gonna have to disagree with some of your points. business wise dov was a moron for the most part, idk why he has so many "fans" here. i've said this story here before but when dov visited stores he would regularly go to the store's safe and walk out with bags full of CASH. i witnessed this. the entire structure of the company was fucked up, only within the past year have they been desperately trying to make it function better. the only people that miss him are the mexicans working in the factory and to be fair he was really good to them.
the advertisement thing is completely false. under her command we had the "ask me to take it all off" black friday campaign last year, and we were forced to not use it due to a media shitstorm accusing it of being sexist, promoting sexual harassment blah blah blah. AA was one of the first retailers to fully embrace the ethnics thing, hello "SWEATSHOP FREE" is the entire platform AA is based on.........
AA might not be a fast fashion retailer like uniqlo, h&m etc and I wouldn't be against them taking some cue's from those retailers but I don't want them to fully turn into one of those. Within the past year we only started doing signage for sales, something so SIMPLE and EFFECTIVE AA never did, why...??? because signs aren't cool? who knows what the fuck they were thinking. We still don't get signage for every promo, like 3-5 months ago we had a weekend deal where every single mens item was 20% and no one knew about it. The last 2-3 promos we had small in-store signs so yeah it's a start at least.
Anyone got AA inspo?
>>11113494
Canada is basically American buddy :-)
>>11113521
found the AA employee
what's your favorite AA item?
I just stick to the fine jersey T's and the occasional accessory thingie. Bought a hammer hoodie and wasn't too impressed. I know AA does certain things very well but a lot of their line is overpriced mediocre stuff.
>>11112969
agree with the girls being better, but considering that most off-the-rack female fashion is overly-flamboyant "contemporary" shit, it's easy for a good basics shop to shine through with its line. Not that it's a bad thing, it's a good market to be in.
How are the jeans, though? I like the stonewash ones in season atm but I feel like €90 is a bit much considering the previous track record of AA items (their shorts and vests gave up on me pretty quick)?
>>11113671
I'm a guy senpai
i just think the girl's line is cute, like if I had a gf i'd be okay if she shopped at AA
>>11113683
ya i buy my gf shit from AA. The one-pieces and tops are excellent
>>11113427
There is no need to get this angry over the Internet... but let me elaborate my position.
The other anons have answered the business thing a lot better than I have, and in any event my post clearly stated that I'd looked it up before but don't remember a lot nowadays. It doesn't take two seconds to find examples of Charney doing dumb shit no good CEO would do, including but not limited to:
- The model scandals (yes, these have business impact, you can't hand-waive them)
- Gay porn in their stores
- The creepy photo shoots (he had extensive involvement in them, and they were off-putting to a lot of people I know)
- The whole bags-of-cash thing
- The lack of a goddamn org chart
- The insistence on controlling what some employees leaking to Gawker et al.
etc. etc. Charney's personal antics were becoming company antics, which is part of the problem: you can't draw a bright line between some of them when his name became so associated with the company. What matters, in many cases, is public perception, and it's not hard to find normal people who find AA creepy given the ad campaigns and handful of exposes on Charney.
In other words: Charney ran AA like a narcissistic millennial fuckwit who had no business acumen, which is exactly what he is.
Your financial analysis is flawed. Yes, AA's numbers are not getting better, but that does not mean that the recovery is failing. If their profitability was a dive-bombing airplane, the fact that their creditors have swooped in and maintained status quo in any sense of the word is honestly impressive. If you'd been on bankruptcy matters, you'd know that there's a sort of triage at play with companies like this. It's going to take a LONG time for AA to get unwound from the mess that Charney spun it into, not just a goddamn quarter or two. You make decent points with where they should be headed, but that doesn't mean you're still not being a bit silly and angry over posts on a Mongolian whistling board.
>>11113214
AA is the Trump of clothing companies: always having financial problems but never going away.
>>11113494
Retard confirmed. The guy said "most fashionable thing to come from your shit continent." Canada and USA belong to the same continent.
And just for the hell of it:
by*
>>11114954
that's not a bad thing
>>11113740
I love their ad campaigns.
Lovely shots, much more artful than what other put out + Nice Helvetica font
>Stresses clean lines
>>11113659
Dakota dress and the fisherman sweater.
my aa hoodies and t shirts have disintegrated and fallen apart within 6 months. the quality is horrible. its made in the usa but who gives a shit? its made in the usa by illegal mexicans , using shitty quality cotton, so who cares where its made.
>>11112945
Hi, I was wondering if you know whether the pullover hoodies are TTS?
>>11117517
I have a thin summer / home hoodie which I inherited from my cousin and has been in use for probably 10 years. It is still in excellent condition.
>>11113659
i have the hammer hoodie too in washed black, and agreed it's nothing special. you can tell they kinda skimped with it price wise it's cheap for a AA sweater. love the colors tho
i'm into our jeans rn. the new "mens skinny jean" are literally the most comfortable pair of jeans i've ever owned. i sometimes forget i even have them on when i wear them it's insane. the fit is so-so, nothing special but the comfort alone is worth it. i want them in every color
i really like the "standard american jean" too
for shirts you can't really go wrong with the fine jersey T, but i personally prefer the look and feel of the "power wash tee". the "work shirt" is recommended too, very well made and sturdy. don't buy at regular price tho. wait for some kind of promo that's at least 20%.
like that other anon said the fishermen sweaters are great. i love the ombre ones i get compliments all the time (especially the white/navy blue ). "black white fleck" color is amazing too
k i'm done rambling
I like their models
I'm not a fan but I still buy basically everything in my size every sale even if it's in a retarded color or something I wouldn't ordinarily wear
It's just fun to get an entire wardrobe of nonsense for like a hundred dollars
>>11118615
fitpic of skinny jeans?
>>11118633
me too
>>11113078
Yes and no... They have a few fashion-forward stuffs that aren't mesh bodysuits or whatever. But The mesh bodysuits, I have your problem and I also just don't 'get' them.
>>11119255
I just realised I didn't give any examples but like... I remember a clear backpack about a year ago, and they are selling some brightly colored PVC backpacks that I am thinking about buying. I also have my eyes on their fanny packs. But also the gold metallic leggings that were huge back in the day, they still have those. Probably other stuff.
I have noticed some stuff constructed cheaply recently (like the tennis skirt this year; 100% polyester crap) which I think will be a trend we'll keep seeing from them given bankruptcy. But I haven't been following them as a brand for too long; for all I know they always had this problem.
>>11119286
Also their fanny packs are cute though. Yeah, sue me
>>11113503
>>11113521
>>11113740
Was op and good points. I've read articles on both sides, so I just assumed a lot of articles on Charney were over exaggerated, but I've heard just like once from a old co-worker that used to work at AA similar story about the money thing, but I thought it was just over-exaggerated rumor shit.
Numbers are not indicative of much in a fashion economy like we have now, and I'll admit I did just jump to a huge conclusion in my last statement.
However, I don't think AA is at all [quote] mega profitable [/quote] nor do I think they will last in the future. Their prices nor their ethos is not anything that makes them stand out anymore in a modern sea of fast-fashion especially when almost every company is biting off the whole anti-sweatshop, pro-environment trend along with the "bypass the middleman". More brands are pushing even more of their own millenial, ethic marketing crap with so many buzzwords that just popup on the side of adworks, facebook, BoF, GQ. We are living in a new consumer world, circling around cheap ass basics which can be gotten from 8+ stores. I don't know how a store that's whole-ish is selling basics can profit unless they are a huge mega conglomerate like GAP or uniqlo or are using overseas factories.
If AA makes it through I'd be happy because it would mean that there is hope for the entire economy to turn around even outside of fashion. It would mean that brand-loyalty still exists in today's capitalistic world. It would mean that ideas that made AA such as using American labor and working with local manufacturers actually mean something. I'm not optimistic on the future though, but oh well
It's only effay if you support rape.
>>11119407
They fired Dov Charney two years ago due in part to this.
