Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel (2025)

1. I was off work.

2. It was probably ten o'clock, eleven o'clock at night.

3. And my phone rang, and it was my boss, the head of the whole company.

4. And I answered the phone,

5. and he didn't say anything other than just, "I hate you."

6. He just said it. He was just like, "I hate you! I fucking hate you!"

7. And then he just hung up.

8. And that was it.

9. Just, like, the middle of the night, he just called me to tell me he hated me.

10. I mean, that was, like, a regular day at American Apparel.

11. New brand of clothing has been appearing around America.

12. American Apparel.

13. - American Apparel. - American Apparel.

14. It's one of the fastest growing and hippest clothing makers

15. in the country.

16. It just felt cool 'cause it was so different, and I liked the different.

17. American Apparel stores have opened in 11 countries

18. with sales of $300 million.

19. Wow. I wanna be a part of this.

20. It was a fashion cult.

21. What's up?

22. And Dov was the leader.

23. I hated it!

24. There was just this energy around him.

25. It's T-shirts that feel good, look good,

26. that are made in a non-exploitative setting.

27. Roll 'em down. Super cute.

28. The advertisements were basically soft-core porn.

29. There's a sexual element of fashion that's inescapable.

30. American Apparel became my life.

31. I had an assistant, the CEO calling and texting me.

32. I felt like I was king of industry.

33. I loved every second of it,

34. until I didn't.

35. Dov was unpredictable.

36. You fucking idiot!

37. He would push people as far as they could go.

38. You're not good enough! You're not strong enough!

39. Then the recession hit.

40. Here's a company that's not done so well. We're talking about American Apparel.

41. Here, a fucking disaster. Figure it out.

42. Things progressively got crazier and crazier.

43. There has been video

44. where he was literally running around naked,

45. while two female employees were in the room with him.

46. Are you fucking kidding me?

47. It was absolutely earth-shatteringly dehumanizing

48. to be employed at this company.

49. This is fucked up.

50. Come on, everybody, stop working.

51. American Apparel became this iconic fireball.

52. Somebody has driven this company absolutely into the ground.

53. I'll probably be in therapy until the day that I die.

54. I need to get the hell outta here. This is crazy.

55. Ugh, you're having me walk in,

56. and I didn't even have enough time to get on Ozempic.

57. It was the mid-2000s.

58. UGG boots were everywhere,

59. Facebook was the hot new thing,

60. and people were outraged by Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction.

61. One day, I was taking the public transit home,

62. and I got a City Weekly paper.

63. On the back, there was a clothing store ad.

64. And it said, "Now open," with the girl with her legs spread open.

65. And I said, "Oh my God, that is fashion."

66. The company was called American Apparel.

67. And it said that they had an open call for people to work there, and so I went.

68. I always loved fashion.

69. It just came natural.

70. But, growing up, I had learning disabilities.

71. And I kept applying to these fashion jobs, and I would never get them.

72. So I did phone sex for money.

73. Hi, gorgeous, it's me...

74. Tilly McEloise. How are you?

75. When I got to the open call,

76. I was like, "I'm not gonna get it again."

77. "I'm destined to be a phone sex operator till the end."

78. And so I went in,

79. and there was a girl sitting in the dressing room.

80. And I gave her my résumé,

81. which was basically a blank piece of paper.

82. And she kind of just, like, tossed it to the side,

83. looked me up and down,

84. and she was like, "So what do you wanna do here?"

85. And I was like, "Mm, I guess fashion merchandising."

86. She was like, "Great. You could be the district merchandising manager."

87. "Can you start right now?"

88. And I was like, "Oh, cool."

89. "Let's do this."

90. Control yourself

91. Take only what you need from it...

92. The new brand of clothing called American Apparel

93. is appearing in cities around America.

94. There are suddenly lots of these stores.

95. An American Apparel store had opened up in the neighborhood.

96. And I did an interview, and I gave a résumé in,

97. but I think it was really more of, like, a vibe check.

98. I guess I passed. I think it was my physique.

99. I'm really tall and skinny,

100. and that was kind of what was already in the advertisements.

101. You were a child Crawlin' on your knees toward it...

102. I had nose piercings and, like, a pixie cut and really loud glasses.

103. What I was going for was, honestly, hipster bike messenger.

104. She's like, "That's the look we want," not, "You know, you've got experience."

105. It was like, "You've got the look."

106. They definitely were hiring freaks and geeks, you know?

107. I mean, it felt like the weirdo club.

108. And actually one of the slogans was,

109. "If you see someone shoplifting, let 'em know we're hiring."

110. I definitely couldn't afford the clothes at American Apparel.

111. So my friend and I would go there and shoplift.

112. I probably wore that one American Apparel shirt

113. that I shoplifted to the interview.

114. The manager just came out,

115. and kinda looked at my outfit, took a photo of me,

116. and was like, "You can start Monday if you want."

117. I kinda felt chosen.

118. Like, "I must be cool."

119. "Like, I must be an American Apparel person."

120. The reason why American Apparel is such a hot thing right now

121. is because they're offering you a new, clean look.

122. Walking into American Apparel felt different from any other retailer.

123. It wasn't like walking into The Gap or J. Crew.

124. It was sexy and very cool.

125. We're a basic store.

126. People are using our stuff to turn it into their own style.

127. One of the big appeals of American Apparel was its antithesis to other brands.

128. It was right at that time

129. of famous people's offspring becoming famous.

130. Simple Life was a thing.

131. And it was just trashy logos everywhere.

132. American Apparel was so simple.

133. Just solid basics. No logo. Every color you can imagine.

134. It was almost like whenever the bug is, like, drawn to a light,

135. it just, like, pulls you in.

136. Right now, we just remodeled my store.

137. We made it really big.

138. At first, when I started working,

139. I was just kind of there dressing the mannequins,

140. organizing the store.

141. Look at all these gorgeous, gorgeous colors.

142. And I would hear these, like, whispers in the back like,

143. "Oh my God, that's fab."

144. "I'm gonna send a picture of that to Dov."

145. And I was like, "Who's Dov?"

146. - You ready to go? - Yeah.

147. I think we never arrive.

148. As human beings, we're kind of trained to try and do better the next time, right?

149. Things evolve, things change.

150. And the apparel industry has to be reinvented.

151. I run American Apparel in an instinctive manner,

152. an impulsive manner.

153. I try to break down all kinds of barriers.

154. What's up?

155. Enter Dov Charney,

156. a flamboyant, Canadian-born, LA clothing entrepreneur.

157. Charney says he's on a crusade to smash the garment industry's culture

158. of worker exploitation from within.

159. This is basically the pitch.

160. It's— It's T-shirts that look good, T-shirts that feel good,

161. and T-shirts that are made in a non-exploitative setting.

162. He was selling this Made in America, sweatshop-free thing,

163. and I thought it was great.

164. Like, there was more to it than just being cool.

165. It was also, like, meaningful.

166. - You're tight. Relax. - Oh.

167. Relax, it's California.

168. Dov Charney is the biggest manufacturer

169. still making T-shirts in America.

170. He pays his workers well over minimum wage.

171. We've undervalued this job in— in the last 30 years.

172. This is a hard damn job.

173. At American Apparel, everything was made in America.

174. Nobody else was doing that.

175. And you'd hear critics talking about, "You'll never be successful doing this."

176. "It's not a sustainable model, it costs too much."

177. And he was just, like, diehard about it.

178. We try to do things ourselves.

179. I, today, have to compete with China, and I say, "Let's play hockey, I'm ready."

180. That's what I do.

181. Dov was really passionate about immigration

182. and was kind of like, "Why do we even have borders?"

183. I believe in an open immigration policy.

184. I think people should be able to go live where they wanna live in the world.

185. And that ethos was a big thing for me.

186. I was like, "There's so much good about this company."

187. What's the key to success?

188. Passion.

189. - That's it? - That's it.

190. Oh my God, the first time Dov came into the store, I was so excited.

191. Someone was like, "Dov is coming, everyone get ready."

192. And there was this frenzy.

193. You could hear him before you saw him and sense his presence before you saw him.

194. I don't wanna freak it out that bad, but we could.

195. I think Monday nights are more important 'cause lots of shipments are coming in.

196. You wanna capture things like the denim jacket.

197. Push them into the floor.

198. When he walked in, I just thought he was so sexy.

199. - What's your name? - Kayla.

200. Kayla, okay. Hi.

201. He, like, had this whole pep talk with us, like,

202. "We're gonna rule the world." Like, "Are you with me, or are you not?"

203. Like it was a show, and I love a show.

204. Anybody ever call you hyper?

205. Yeah, people call me hyper every day.

206. I think I was born overcharged.

207. Dov, he lived, breathed, ate American Apparel all the time.

208. He almost never slept.

209. He wouldn't even take breaks to eat food.

210. He would send out his number, just be like, "Call me whenever."

211. "Like, call me day, night."

212. And he expected the same of his employees.

213. You know why he doesn't answer?

214. - It's four o'clock in the morning. - That's not the reason.

215. He doesn't answer when it's 1:00 in the afternoon.

216. I started to stay way late, you know, not take time off.

217. If there was a 40-hour week, it was because you were sick,

218. and so you weren't working a few days.

219. Like, no one was working that little.

220. On one two-week period, on top of the 80 hours that I worked,

221. it was like 120-something hours of overtime that I clocked.

222. I did a 36-hour shift.

223. That... Payroll didn't believe me.

224. They had to check the cameras to see that I was there.

225. So you're around these people all day,

226. and I think, through that,

227. it allowed people to bond at a deeper level.

228. And I started to realize it's not just me in therapy.

229. We all have vulnerability,

230. like moms that are similar to my mom, who had... mental illness,

231. and I'm like, "That's so wild."

232. Before I worked at American Apparel,

233. I was a huge drug addict,

234. and working there, like, kinda gave me meaning...

235. like something to be a part of, you know?

236. Where I'm from is very Mormon, and I grew up very Mormon.

237. That's very much my background.

238. But as I grew up, I really started questioning the church,

239. and a lot of the people in that neighborhood

240. didn't really like it.

241. And so when I was around 17, I ran away from home,

242. just looking for, like, something that was different.

243. And American Apparel became that different thing I was looking for.

244. The American Apparel advertisements just broke every rule

245. that, as a culture, we had back then.

246. Clothing company American Apparel has been widely condemned

247. for its latest campaign.

248. This, by the way, is not American Apparel's

249. first controversial ad.

250. The advertisements were basically soft-core porn.

251. There's a sexual element to fashion that— that's inescapable.

252. So, like, to then start saying, "Ah! Let's get scared about sex,"

253. it just doesn't add up.

254. Dov seemed to find models from just finding them in the store.

255. Girls that he was like, "You're attractive," or, "You're fun,"

256. and he would go shoot with them.

257. Charney's always on the lookout for people like Natasha.

258. He says he saw her walking down a street

259. and jumped out of his limo to offer her a job.

260. - Is this true? - It's definitely true.

261. Did you think, "What— Who is this creep?"

262. Yeah, I was in shock. I was like, "Who's this? Where's he coming from?"

263. She was suspicious, but she did the photo shoot,

264. and now she works for American Apparel.

265. The women in the ads, they weren't wearing makeup,

266. they weren't posing in a, you know, practiced way.

267. We just go down to here. It's nice with a little stretch mark.

268. You know what I'm saying?

269. You felt, "This person isn't conventionally beautiful,

270. they're not as thin, they don't have hair extensions,

271. they don't have makeup on."

272. "Um, that could be me."

273. I just love also that it put a name to the person.

274. Like, it gives a bio of the person.

275. Yes, some of it was very suggestive, but it was a brilliant idea.

276. - This model works here? - Yeah, she works downstairs.

277. What was interesting about Dov Charney and American Apparel

278. is that it had a transgressive side and an idealistic side,

279. and the sex without the idealism would just be sleazy,

280. but the idealistic part without the sex would be boring.

281. Dov embodied both of those, um, beliefs and acted on them,

282. and the company was expanding very quickly.

283. You don't need to be at lunch with anybody right now.

284. You'll be earlier in and later out.

285. You can't play around.

286. It absolutely felt competitive.

287. It felt like you had to differentiate yourself from other people,

288. so that you wouldn't feel like Dov could ask someone else to do your job.

289. I've asked a million times. I think it's coming in.

290. Dov's very vocal. Just like, whatever you're thinking, you say it.

291. Like, "This is wrong."

292. You're wrong. There's nothing. If there's— There's nothing.

293. And that was appealing to me

294. because it's so opposite of where I came from.

295. Get the shit out of the store.

296. So I really bought into it.

297. I was like, "Okay, this is how you'll be a successful adult,

298. is you have to, like, get in people's faces."

299. I went from lowest position

300. to manager of the store in, like, six months,

301. and it was— it was a big store too.

302. But it still felt like I needed to prove myself.

303. Like, there must be more to this company that I could be a part of.

304. Fundamental to the American Apparel brand

305. is our revolutionary concept of sweatshop-free vertical integration.

306. All our products are manufactured and marketed

307. at our 800,000-square-foot downtown Los Angeles facility,

308. the largest single-garment factory in the United States.

309. Everything happened there.

310. So, like, the marketing, the design, all the clothes was made there.

311. After graduating college, I thought,

312. "If the point of grad school is to just get a better job..."

313. "... what if I bypass grad school and I just apply to the factory?"

314. So I sent a letter of interest to HR,

315. and I got it.

316. Getting a job at the factory, for me, was a really big deal.

317. It was, like, close to the action, and that was really exciting.

318. Like, "Pfft, yeah, right, this is, like— This is who I am now."

319. There, look, here's a whole bunch of people

320. working really hard at sewing things.

321. Hola!

322. Once you got to the factory,

323. the initiation was where you knew you were definitely in Dov's inner circle,

324. you would get a starter kit.

325. So the starter kit was a Leica camera, a new BlackBerry phone,

326. a copy of The 48 Laws of Power, a book of strategies for success,

327. and a Hitachi Magic Wand vibrator.

328. So I kept the BlackBerry, I kept the camera,

329. of course I kept the vibrator,

330. and I threw away The 48 Laws of Power.

331. I just cared about sex, drugs, and T-shirts.

332. In the stores, in the factory,

333. across the board, you know, sex was everywhere.

334. Everyone was sleeping together,

335. and you would see, like, some of the employees,

336. like, hooking up in the stairwells.

337. We were young and horny.

338. And it definitely felt like there was a free-sex vibe.

339. I mean, it was all part of the revolution.

340. Despite a drop in retail-industry profits,

341. sales at American Apparel are up.

342. I quickly moved up in positions and got all these responsibilities.

343. Hello?

344. At 25, I had two cell phones,

345. I had the CEO calling and texting me.

346. You know, I'm like, "Oh my God, I'm really doing this adult thing."

347. Okay, here's our PR office.

348. I worked my way up to be in charge of fashion media and product placement.

349. The joys of being America's fastest-growing retailer.

350. I was away from home, doing something and getting promoted.

351. So it was like, "Look at me now, Dad. I don't need you guys."

352. I'm 21 years old.

353. Like, I'm a manager of all these stores. All these employees answer to me.

354. I have all this, like, power.

355. What did that feel like?

356. I felt like I was, like, king of industry.

357. Whether you worked at the factory or in the stores,

358. every time we got a bonus or a promotion, or any time our salaries changed at all,

359. they would have us sign a mediation agreement that said,

360. "Hey," like, "I've recently been offered more money,

361. and that means I can't sue Dov,

362. I can't talk about, uh, anything negative about the company."

363. Maybe I was naive,

364. but, "I'm sure it'll be fine, I'll just sign."

365. As an entire company, we had weekly conference calls.

366. All the stores were expected to call in,

367. regardless of where they were across the world.

368. Sometimes, you'd dial in the line,

369. and it'd say there were too many participants.

370. It was like, "How is that possible?"

371. But it was just hundreds and hundreds of people.

372. Right now, we're mopping up a lot of crap here.

373. You need to get these stores solved, okay?

374. If your store was not performing well,

375. the conference call was potentially a very scary time for you

376. because you would be at threat of being called out by Dov.

377. Welcome to fucking the real world!

378. I, both, looked forward to it and dreaded it.

379. That's right, you are a schmuck. Did you hear...

380. It was equally as entertaining as it was scary.

381. There was these different things, like Fool of the Week.

382. There was always someone that he'd call, "Fool of the Week."

383. You know, "Michelle, you're the fool of the week!"

384. "Fool of the week, you're fucking me!"

385. Like, oh my God.

386. I mean, it was so mortifying that hundreds and hundreds of people heard

387. that you personally are the Fool of the Week

388. for a multi-million-dollar company.

389. It did feel uncomfortable, like, "Fuck, I know I'm not supposed to laugh

390. 'cause he's also yelling at this person I respect and like."

391. And then he's also saying something incredibly funny in the next thought,

392. and it is so weird and challenging and confusing

393. 'cause you're like, "Do I hate him, or do I think he's hilarious?"

394. At that point in time,

395. even though I was still working at the stores,

396. making, like, $9 minimum wage,

397. I really got a sense that, like, if you had an idea,

398. anything was possible with American Apparel.

399. So I pitched this marketing idea, and, suddenly, I was on a flight to LA.

400. I'd been traveling all day,

401. I got to the factory, it's like 11:00 p.m.,

402. and I can just hear Dov rambling, like, talking business.

403. And I'm like, "How is this guy still at the factory?"

404. And I'm like, "Please, I've been traveling all day."

405. "Where do I stay?"

406. He kind of looked at me and was like, "Why don't you stay at my house?"

407. Look at this huge home in Silver Lake.

408. This is the Garbutt House, perched above the Silver Lake Reservoir,

409. an historic home owned by Dov Charney.

410. It's at the top of this little gated community.

411. You go in, and the whole house is this creamy marble stone.

412. It's absolutely gorgeous.

413. Jonny Makeup was living there as well.

414. My friends were like, "Why're you living with your boss?"

415. And I was like, "Why wouldn't I live with my boss?"

416. "Why wouldn't you live with your boss

417. if you had the opportunity to live in a big, gorgeous house?"

418. The door is always unlocked, always open, and there are just girls everywhere.

419. You know, making breakfast and, like, walking his dog.

420. And, I don't know, like a little, I don't want to say, "Playboy Mansion."

421. I guess it was like the Playboy Mansion, but for hipsters.

422. It was unclear, like, what sort of relationship

423. some of the girls had with Dov

424. 'cause if his door was closed, I wasn't supposed to go in.

425. It was definitely an open secret that Dov was sleeping with the employees.

426. Look, I'm a single, young guy.

427. You fall in love with someone, you know, "It's great to meet you."

428. "You're the woman of my life."

429. "I think you're, like, an ace in the hole,

430. but, sorry, you know, we can't."

431. "'cause you work for me or him or her, it'd be inappropriate."

432. "It'd be this, it'd be that."

433. You know, the heart wants what the heart wants.

434. I left Dov's house after my manager at the factory warned me,

435. "Look, if you stay at his place any longer,

436. you're going to become a 'Dov girl.'"

437. The Dov girl.

438. That was somebody who...

439. They don't really have a— a job title.

440. Maybe they're Dov's girlfriend.

441. Maybe they just travel with him, but they do the things that he wants.

442. And they have that responsibility because of the way they look.

443. You were kind of afraid of the Dov girls if they were around.

444. They're this kind of, like, hit squad.

445. You know, at my desk, there'd be some girl that would show up,

446. with a micro-mesh shirt and nothing underneath,

447. and tell me something that I needed to do.

448. And it would sort of be like, "Excuse me, who are you?"

449. It's like, "Dov says you have to do this."

450. Women are important to have around, and they're easy to fall in love with.

451. So what are you gonna do? You know what I mean?

452. - Right, Carla? - Yes.

453. - All right. - That's the way you work.

454. From Los Angeles to Tokyo,

455. in just three years,

456. American Apparel stores have opened in 11 countries around the world

457. with sales of some $300 million last year.

458. There were billboards everywhere.

459. They were on the back of buses.

460. They were on, like, benches. And you couldn't escape it.

461. Kendra, honey!

462. And there was the whole celebrity thing.

463. Um, this is head-to-toe American Apparel.

464. Where we would make custom clothes for pop stars going on tour,

465. like Rihanna, Britney Spears.

466. And, oh my God, Beyoncé used to come late at night.

467. We would close the store down for her.

468. It was amazing.

469. Your company is very successful. Do you wanna take it public?

470. If we go public, it will be on the right conditions.

471. I wanna do it on my own terms.

472. I also don't wanna be told what to do, or how we— how our ad campaign should be

473. or what our political positioning should be.

474. But if we do go public, I assure you it'll be a hot stock.

475. American Apparel is going public.

476. With an infusion of millions of dollars from a big investment company,

477. Charney plans to keep expanding.

478. When American Apparel became a public company,

479. Dov created a pretty cozy board of directors.

480. He was on it. There were four others.

481. Two of them were, uh, personal friends of his.

482. One was Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power.

483. Dov was the chief executive officer and president.

484. There was no chief operating officer.

485. There was no chief technology officer.

486. I always get charged up when I walk through the factory.

487. In fact, the first CFO that he hired,

488. he called a loser in The Wall Street Journal...

489. and then apologized.

490. The CFO left.

491. Dov's management style was basically

492. to push people as far as they could go and to pit people against each other.

493. Dov would call you on the phone and kinda trick you into saying something

494. about someone that was listening.

495. You know, someone would be like,

496. "Oh, Michelle's not really doing a good job."

497. Like, "She kinda messed this thing up."

498. And Dov would be like, "Well, Michelle's on the line with you now."

499. "Michelle, you're an idiot!"

500. You fucking idiot!

501. It's like a heavy narc culture.

502. You— You benefited by tattle-telling on other people.

503. I told her to send me the fucking photos. I reminded her, like, three times.

504. Like, it's...

505. It did seem like there were people vying for his attention

506. and, you know, wanting to be the favorite and stuff.

507. And, ultimately, like, that caused a lot of, like, chaos

508. with people not getting along.

509. Is your internet working now?

510. One time, I really confronted a manager

511. that she was doing such a bad job about something.

512. That— It, like, brought her to tears.

513. And I remember walking away from that just feeling like I wanted to throw up.

514. But, you know, I had my eye on the prize,

515. and I felt like Dov was the type of successful

516. that I thought I wanted to be,

517. and I was trying to emulate the way that he operated.

518. Okay, what else?

519. Dov would look for the one thing that you're doing to fuck him,

520. and he impulsively fired people because of that.

521. We're gonna definitely focus on making sure we haven't—

522. Who do we fire, Kirk?

523. - What? - Who do we fire?

524. But he always defended it as, like, a critical key to success.

525. When American Apparel went public,

526. Dov Charney used all the company's money to open a lot more stores.

527. Halifax. Toronto.

528. London. New York. Woodbury.

529. Savannah. Miami.

530. Beijing.

531. But then the recession hit.

532. Good evening, everyone.

533. The signs were everywhere, but now it's official.

534. We are in a recession.

535. A lot of really well-known retailers were doing badly,

536. but American Apparel continued to expand.

537. In 2008, I remember people talking about the recession,

538. and me being like, "There was a recession in 2008?"

539. Like, 2008, American Apparel was opening five stores in a city

540. and, like, going into a new country.

541. Recession didn't exist.

542. I need you to hire more merchandisers.

543. If your payroll gets heavy, I'll travel with them.

544. That man, like... lit money on fire.

545. How many guys you know in previous recessions

546. that were struggling, but kept it going and then they really bump up?

547. Inside the company,

548. there was no one telling Dov things that he didn't wanna hear.

549. Get over here!

550. And that's because, you know, there were a lot of young people

551. who had the look that he liked, but didn't have a lot of experience.

552. It was, like, the most unnatural, scary thing

553. to try to tell Dov, "No."

554. Like, somebody like Dov doesn't understand the word "no."

555. Wouldn't it be cheaper for you to outsource?

556. Direct labor...

557. Just look at the immigration-reform thing

558. where Dov basically went to war with the US government.

559. We are cracking down on employers who are,

560. uh, using illegal workers.

561. In 2009, Immigration and Customs Enforcement,

562. known as ICE, conducted an audit of American Apparel,

563. and they found that about 1,500 workers were there with false or fake documents.

564. And American Apparel had to let them all go.

565. The ICE raid was a huge financial burden

566. because, in a period of big growth for the company...

567. Come on, everybody, stop working.

568. he was forced to let those people go...

569. Everybody, stop working.

570. and then rebuild a workforce.

571. We need to bring in more workers...

572. Okay? To take on the demand.

573. Dov was reeling from it for a very long time.

574. And to maintain the security of the company.

575. He felt like it was a deliberate attempt to get at his company.

576. I mean, there was just so much financial strain at that time,

577. so many bad decisions being made.

578. But rather than accepting responsibility,

579. he was starting to blame people or look for things to blame.

580. Edmonton, a fucking disaster. Here, a fucking disaster, okay?

581. Climb out and figure it out.

582. So if you were in front of him at the wrong time or in the wrong mood,

583. you would be the target.

584. I really, at this time, felt like I was personally responsible

585. for part of the reason why the company wasn't doing well.

586. And I think that that triggered that sort of predator response for him,

587. where he was like, "Oh, he doesn't know what the fuck he's doing."

588. And he came after me.

589. You're gonna say, "I am sorry, sir,

590. that my team has fucked you up the ass."

591. You owe me!

592. I'm gonna make you work the hours you did not work!

593. He'd yell, "If you can't take this, then just fucking leave right now."

594. Hopefully, by the end of the night, you'll quit or you'll fuckin' submit.

595. Okay? Quit or submit.

596. We're gonna play a game.

597. Bang! Let's go.

598. Quit or submit.

599. And then I remember this one guy just got up and left.

600. And I remember the aftermath of that.

601. Everyone's like, "Pfft, what a loser."

602. Like, "He's so weak he can't put up with this?"

603. Like, "That's so pathetic that he just quit."

604. You're not good enough, got it?

605. You're not strong enough!

606. It's hard when you love someone, but also see them being abusive to people.

607. I mean, he would go from, like, screaming, um,

608. to being like, "Oh, my God, did I scare you, baby?"

609. He would have this little— little boy voice.

610. And it was just confusing, you know, because I felt indebted to him.

611. Like, for me, he was my only ticket.

612. At this point, the company was bleeding money.

613. And so a frequent theme in the office was like,

614. "When is the ship gonna sink?"

615. "What thing is gonna do that?"

616. American Apparel had this internal whisper network.

617. The entire factory talked on AOL Messenger,

618. and we'd all go back and forth chatting.

619. And one day, I'm sitting at my computer, and someone sends me a link,

620. saying, "Have you seen this?"

621. Back now at 814 with the woman

622. who is suing the CEO of American Apparel for sexual harassment.

623. What the fuck?

624. Wait, what?

625. I don't wanna keep secret about this,

626. and especially when I know there may be others out there like me.

627. The 42-year-old Canadian entrepreneur

628. is accused of bombarding her with calls and texts

629. demanding she send him sexually explicit photographs.

630. The allegations that landed on my desk

631. made me feel absolutely enraged.

632. I have two daughters,

633. and it just made me think

634. about, like, what they could possibly experience

635. when they're in the workforce.

636. Initially, it was one woman, that led to a second.

637. But in doing our due diligence,

638. we found other women who were claiming they experienced the same thing.

639. The CEO of the popular fashion line American Apparel

640. is facing another sexual-harassment lawsuit.

641. I made it very clear for him to stop. I said, "No, please don't touch me."

642. Charney says he's simply an unorthodox executive

643. who's spoken openly about having sexual relationships

644. with some of his workers.

645. Have you ever sexually harassed an employee?

646. No.

647. One of the biggest issues in filing these lawsuits

648. was that all the women had signed these agreements.

649. They thought that this was the norm.

650. But it basically said,

651. "You will not say anything disparaging about Dov Charney or American Apparel."

652. "And if you do file anything, you have to go to arbitration."

653. "You waive your right to a jury. You cannot be in court."

654. The company is saying and Dov Charney is saying that you signed

655. a confidentiality agreement.

656. She was 17 years old when she signed that. The more important question to ask is,

657. why is the company so focused on confidentiality?

658. It made me wonder at the time.

659. Some of it, I felt like, you know,

660. hashtag, like— like,

661. like, #BelieveWomen and stuff.

662. But, also, at the same time, Dov was like a father figure to me.

663. And so I kind of fell into this like,

664. "Oh my God, are they just trying to get a quick buck out of him?"

665. Charney has never been found by any court

666. to have sexually harassed an employee.

667. And he says he's never paid any money in the cases against him.

668. There's something disingenuine about the claims.

669. Uh, first of all, they're— they're fake.

670. Second of all, these claimants are being coached.

671. Third of all, there's too much money involved

672. in terms of the amounts of money that they're claiming.

673. And I feel I'm prepared to take a polygraph.

674. I didn't personally see anything

675. that I felt like was him coercing anyone.

676. The company introduced us to a group of high-level employees,

677. all women, who say working for Dov Charney is a pleasure.

678. Dov's a really exciting person to work with.

679. I think Dov's a brilliant man.

680. He's very loyal. I enjoy working for him.

681. It was kind of like, "Oh, please," like, "Yes,

682. everyone knows there's sexuality in the workplace."

683. I think it's a money grab. That's what I think.

684. Basically, it got to the point where everyone was joking about it.

685. I'm beautiful, all right? Sex is beautiful.

686. Sluts are beautiful.

687. And if my employees don't like it, you know what? Sue me!

688. I don't remember feeling

689. embarrassed or upset.

690. I felt like we all just went back to work.

691. One more shirt, one more watch, one more whatever.

692. American Apparel CEO Dov Charney is struggling to keep things afloat now,

693. losing $86 million in sales,

694. slapped with a $250-million sex-abuse lawsuit.

695. After that, it definitely started to feel different.

696. Dov was starting to get much more angry, much more paranoid

697. about, kind of, who was on board with him and who was not.

698. Okay, how many did you do in New York?

699. You should know 'em by heart. Moron!

700. I went from being golden-boy status to, like, whipping boy.

701. He was constantly berating me for something that I didn't do.

702. Chintzy dummy! Little fuck dummy!

703. We didn't see the glimmers of, like, "He's making a joke,"

704. or, "He's being charismatic" anymore.

705. You fuckers are so shitty!

706. It was exclusively yelling.

707. I'm gonna fuck you over too.

708. I'm gonna fuck you!

709. He would freak the fuck out. Like, he'd just punch holes in walls or...

710. You know, I watched him smash one of those, like, wire trash cans,

711. just, like, hitting it against the ground until it was like a smashed soda can.

712. Shame on you, little fuck!

713. And then he'd get, like, inches away from your face and just slap himself.

714. He would, like, hit himself and say,

715. "I'm hitting myself because I can't hit you."

716. Like, pretty much to the point where he's about to bleed.

717. It was just really crazy and really outlandish.

718. And he'd leave you with this sort of, like,

719. "I feel like my boss is gonna murder me or something."

720. Basically, it didn't feel safe in his house anymore,

721. and so I left.

722. At that point, everyone I knew worked for American Apparel.

723. All of my clothing was American Apparel.

724. I had a company phone. I had a company computer.

725. I was, like, so in it

726. that I couldn't even see outside of, like, anything.

727. I was, like, fully in.

728. Send him a picture of this assortment, and then I want you to critique yourself.

729. Tell me what you were missing. An admission.

730. - Okay. - Okay? His name's Carson.

731. You don't have any calculator watches, so go fuck yourself.

732. You're off, and you failed me.

733. I had been hearing Dov quote The 48 Laws of Power

734. relentlessly for years.

735. I took it home with me just to, like,

736. "All right, let's read through this thing."

737. Before I ever met Dov, I had heard that he was obsessed with this book,

738. and so it felt like, finally, I should take a look at it.

739. "Never teach them enough so that they can do without you."

740. Dov loves that one, I'm sure.

741. "Keep your words vague, but full of promise."

742. "Give your new disciples rituals to perform."

743. "Ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf."

744. "Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause."

745. "Play into people's need to believe and create a cult-like following."

746. How can I sell these? Where— How are they gonna sell?

747. They don't have the sticker.

748. The sticker's three cents.

749. "Keep others in suspended terror."

750. "Cultivate an air of unpredictability."

751. Oh, wow, it's just wild,

752. 'cause I'd describe myself as terrorized from him.

753. And he did it, he executed that perfectly.

754. It's villainous. It's such a manipulative way of thinking.

755. "Learn to keep people dependent on you."

756. Maybe I should've read this book.

757. That's like the Cult Leader 101.

758. You just keep them a little bit hungry,

759. and then you're the one

760. that's only really feeding them what they need,

761. and then you're able to control that situation.

762. Gosh, hindsight is amazing.

763. It kinda makes me want to cry now. It's scary. It's really... scary.

764. Was I so easily got by this?

765. I mean, I'm from, like, essentially another cult.

766. I got— And once it—

767. It was like I was primed as a kid, growing up like Mormon,

768. to then just swing to the other side and basically go into the same thing.

769. Once I had seen the emperor was wearing no clothes,

770. and that this was the tools that were being used to manipulate me,

771. that's when I kind of had, like, an awakening moment

772. of, "What the fuck am I doing?"

773. At this point, it was really fucked up, but still, I was petrified to quit

774. because the things he'd also say to me was,

775. "I'm gonna blacklist you,

776. so you'll never get a job in this industry, in this town."

777. "I know everybody."

778. "I'll tell everyone you're shit and suck at your job."

779. But then things started to, like, come to a head,

780. and I don't even know what provoked it.

781. He just started to send these texts about how I was fucking up the company

782. and, you know, "It's all your fault and you're meek."

783. "You don't have the passion to care, and I find it reprehensible."

784. And then he sends an e-mail to the company lawyer,

785. and then copies, you know, the retail director and me,

786. saying, like, "Effective Monday, reduce EJ's salary by 25%."

787. And that was it. The next morning, I quit.

788. I started, kind of, putting my foot down

789. about things that I felt like were unreasonable.

790. Like, I got like 25 phone calls from Dov over this weekend, telling me to come in.

791. And then I got phone calls from some of the girls and other people,

792. "Dov's trying to call you," and I was like, "I'm not answering."

793. "I'm not gonna answer until I get here on Monday."

794. So I basically got myself fired,

795. 'cause I knew that if I quit, then he didn't have to pay me anything.

796. There was a day where I had not eaten anything all day,

797. and I was like, "Dov, I," like, "I need a break."

798. Dov said, "Get a pizza across the street. Be back in five minutes."

799. And I was like, "Dov, I need to eat a real meal with, like, vegetables."

800. Like, "I need— I need a minute."

801. And Dov just lost it on me.

802. And as he was yelling at me,

803. I just watched, like, a Dov girl, um...

804. bring him a freshly cooked steak on a plate

805. and set it in front of him.

806. And I was just like, "You've got to be kidding me."

807. And I just lost it on him.

808. And, um, the next day, his lawyer was like,

809. "I think it's better that you just end your time with the company."

810. I looked at the company.

811. It's a market cap of less than $120 million.

812. I mean, he has driven this company absolutely into the ground.

813. The fact of the matter is this board has the responsibility

814. to get to the bottom of this.

815. After I'd gotten fired by Dov,

816. I got this call from an independent auditor

817. working for the board of directors,

818. and it started to become clear that they were looking to get rid of Dov

819. and looking for information to support that decision.

820. If someone wrote a book

821. about fucking people over at all costs to get where you need to get,

822. and then you put him on the board of directors,

823. of course it's gonna come back to bite you in the ass.

824. The investigators found a server

825. that Charney had been using on company property

826. that contained e-mails, texts, graphic sexual videos,

827. a lot of information that was really damaging to him.

828. Now, these are all allegations.

829. But there has been video

830. where he was literally running around naked in some room,

831. I don't know if it was his apartment or a hotel room,

832. while two of his female employees were in the room with him.

833. I'm dancing right now.

834. He was crossing all kinds of ethical, potentially legal, lines and boundaries.

835. Now, we have some evidence indicating

836. that he had some inappropriate text exchanges

837. with his employees.

838. That is— That's way beyond acceptable.

839. So... company has to make pretty radical changes.

840. American Apparel's controversial CEO and founder is out.

841. American Apparel has terminated Dov Charney.

842. The company's board has fired him.

843. Fuck yeah, fuck him. He deserves to be fired.

844. I think he thinks, um, terminating him is bad for the company,

845. and we think terminating him was the right thing to do.

846. I even cut out the headline and the article,

847. and I taped it to my journal

848. because it was, like, such an amazing moment,

849. and I wanted to remember that.

850. When he got fired, I felt a sigh of relief.

851. But I also felt like I lost my family.

852. It was really hard to wrap my head around.

853. Yes, there was abuse. There was also fun times.

854. And that's why it's so layered.

855. I believe the ousting of Dov Charney

856. was because the board saw

857. that these claims happened over and over again

858. and, you know, they would be subjected to further liability.

859. The women who came forward were very brave in my opinion.

860. But because, unfortunately, these arbitration agreements were signed,

861. they were silenced.

862. And so we had to do something. It just could not continue.

863. My client is here to talk about her real-life experience

864. as to what happened to her.

865. So we went up to the Capitol to try to have the law changed

866. so that employers can no longer require employees

867. to sign away their legal rights.

868. My entire employment at this company was awful.

869. It was absolutely earth-shatteringly dehumanizing

870. to be employed at this company.

871. It has taken me close to eight years of unraveling

872. to undo and— and reflect

873. on all the things that this man was allowed to take from me.

874. What really pisses me off is that he took my voice.

875. I'd love to tell you my story

876. and the details of what happened to me at that company,

877. but I'm not at liberty to do so.

878. Knowing that, like, okay,

879. he was capable of, like, the— the screaming

880. and sometimes the physicality with me,

881. I started to feel like maybe he was capable

882. of the things that he was getting accused of.

883. I was 18

884. when I started working at American Apparel.

885. Dov invited me to LA for a week-long merchandising training,

886. which took place at his home.

887. He didn't allow me to go back home and grab a suitcase.

888. He made it clear that I was to stay at his house.

889. Dov invited me to his home,

890. and when I got there, he was just wearing his underwear.

891. Dov offered me to model for American Apparel.

892. When I turned up, he was wearing just a towel.

893. I found myself alone with Dov in his bedroom.

894. He asked me if I was an exhibitionist or a voyeur.

895. He dragged me inside and forced me to give him oral sex.

896. And then he demanded that I give him oral sex.

897. He tried to take photos and then instantly attacked me,

898. forcing me to perform sexual acts.

899. He demanded I show him my breasts.

900. And when I said no, he became more aggressive and violent.

901. He took me to the bedroom, got on top of me,

902. and I almost suffocated

903. from him forcing me to perform another sexual act.

904. He was old enough to be my father.

905. - He didn't let me leave. - And tried to sodomize me.

906. I was 18.

907. Dov, he's gotten away with a lot,

908. and he will probably continue to get away with a lot.

909. It's like people are different animals, and that type of person is a predator.

910. So it'd be like a shark or a rattlesnake or something,

911. and no amount of being mad at a rattlesnake or a shark

912. will ever change what they are.

913. They're always going to bite.

914. And it's incredibly frustrating

915. 'cause it's something that...

916. for whatever reason, in society,

917. we've kind of just let that type of person continue.

918. If American Apparel was successful as an extension of you,

919. what extension of you are we getting now?

920. The same one! I'm not sorry about shit.