Background and career
Dov Charney (born January 31, 1969) is a Canadian entrepreneur and clothing manufacturer. He is the founder of American Apparel, which was one of the largest garment manufacturers in the United States until its bankruptcy in 2015. Charney was fired from American Apparel in 2014 due to allegations of sexual harassment and assault. He subsequently founded Los Angeles Apparel which produces Kanye West's line Yeezy. Charney is a nephew of architect Moshe Safdie and a cousin once removed from the Safdie brothers.
Charney was born to a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, on January 31, 1969. His father, Morris, an architect, and his mother, Sylvia, an artist of Syrian-Jewish descent, divorced when he was young. Charney is a nephew of architect Moshe Safdie. Charney is dyslexic and was diagnosed with ADD in kindergarten. He attended Choate Rosemary Hall, a private boarding school in Connecticut and St. George's School of Montreal. According to Charney, he was heavily influenced by both Montreal culture and his own Jewish heritage. While attending high school in the United States, Charney began importing Hanes and Fruit of the Loom t-shirts from the U.S. to his friends in Canada. In an interview with Vice, he described smuggling the shirts on Amtrak trains from New York to Montreal.
Charney began selling t-shirts under the American Apparel name in 1989. In 1990, he dropped out of Tufts University, borrowed $10,000 from his parents and established American Apparel in South Carolina. Over the next several years, he spent time learning about manufacturing and wholesale before moving to Los Angeles in the mid-'90s. By 1997, Charney had moved all manufacturing into a factory located in downtown Los Angeles. American Apparel products were marketed towards "young metropolitan adults." The company had about $12 million in sales by 2001. In 2003, Charney opened the first store in L.A.'s Echo Park neighborhood, followed by one each in New York and Montreal. Within two years, the company had expanded to Europe and opened 65 new stores. By 2006, there were 140 total stores. In 2009, it expanded to 281 total retail locations, making it "the fastest retail roll-out in American history." In 2014, the company reported record sales of $634 million.
American Apparel under Charney's leadership was known for its simple and provocative ads, which rarely used professional models and whom were often chosen personally by Charney from local hangouts and stores. He shot many of the advertisements himself and was criticized for featuring models in sexually provocative poses. The campaigns were also lauded for honesty and lack of airbrushing. In 2012, the company made headlines with an ad campaign featuring 62-year-old model Jacky O'Shaughnessy. American Apparel again stirred controversy in 2014 when their Lower East Side store displayed mannequins with pubic hair in the window. The company told Elle Magazine:
American Apparel is a company that celebrates natural beauty, and the Lower East Side Valentine's Day window continues that celebration. We created it to invite passerbys to explore the idea of what is 'sexy' and consider their comfort with the natural female form. This is the same idea behind our advertisements, which avoid many of the photoshopped and airbrushed standards of the fashion industry. So far we have received positive feedback from those that have commented, and we're looking forward to hearing more points of view.
Legalize LA was an immigration reform campaign conceived by Charney and promoted by American Apparel beginning in 2004. The campaign featured billboards and full-page ads, as well as t-shirts with the words "Legalize LA." Proceeds from the sale of the shirts were donated to immigration reform advocacy groups. The campaign called for the overhaul of immigration laws so as to create a legal path for undocumented workers to gain citizenship in the United States.
