LUCIDMEDIA

AMERICAN APPAREL: Where More Backside meets Moral Backbone

Written by Alexandra West Friday, 16 April 2010 12:38

There are other places to see Sasha Grey's ass—Ass Eaters Unanimous 19 or Buttman's Stretch Class 2—that are not underwear ads for American Apparel. But she is not the only porn star to have modeled for the brand. The ploy was first trotted out with Lauren Phoenix in 2005, and again with Faye Reagan in 2008. Over the last few years, American Apparel has been on a quest to keep their name in the headlines, and in doing so, have honed a brand image that is half erotic individualism and half idealistic consumerism. After all, there is more than boudoir shock value behind their campaigns; there is also a surprising amount of moral backbone about hot-button issues like fair labour, gay rights, and immigration reform.

 For those who mock or abhor the brand, it has become a punchline. For those who love it, it has become a way of life.

The man behind this complicated aesthetic, Canadian CEO Dov Charney, has continually kept himself in the spotlight and earned his brand some politically-consciousness street cred. American Apparel’s self-referential get-under-the-covers campaign strategy has struck an ironically-detached chord with a media-savvy consumer base while remaining conveniently under-the-skin of their socially-conservative media-blaming detractors.

For American Apparel, fashion is equal parts image and lifestyle. In fact, what distinguishes their clothing from the competition is their lack of visible logos, an abundance of practical designs, and a proliferation of vaguely aspirational liberal values. In latching onto a supposedly niche market, this bad-ass liberalism has added some unexpected depth to traditionally sexualized consumerism, and can now boast a market share to rival retail giants like the Gap and Old Navy.

In the ensuing years, media watchdog agencies have consistently railed against American Apparel’s reliance on exaggerated sexuality. The prevailing criticism tends to focus on issues of dominance and submission rather than degradation and subversion. In recent generations, sexuality has become increasingly respectable aspect of life. In fact, it is widely regarded as a vital component to overall health and physical well-being. After all, coming to terms with sexuality, or at least forming opinions on it, are important part of self-discovery. But as mentioned above, the issues now are about control versus passivity, and the submissive poses now expected of American Apparel models appear to mirror the submissive roles now expected of American Apparel employees.

American Apparel was one of the few companies able to turn a profit in the middle of a recession, not to mention doing so while running advertisements for socially-divisive issues like the controversial gay marriage bill in their home state of California. Their target demographic, which had become high school and university students, who coincidentally tend to be more liberally-minded than their parents, were still able to drop their own disposable income the numerous American Apparel outlets. But with no other company specifically marketing towards socially-inclusive hipsters-in-training, where else were they to turn?

Well, apparently they keep returning to Dov Charney, a man with a now infamous reputation for flying in young models to his reclusive Los Angeles estate for personalized photo shoots. This seems to be a long way from the everything-in-the-open philosophy of years gone by. Perhaps the rock-and-roll lifestyle has left its mark on the once revolutionary idealist. But after all, he is a business man. And if the key to economic growth really is wide-spread consumerism, then perhaps excess is simply more reliable and recession-proof than rebellion.