Intentional Design in Front of Your Windshield

                                                                                (google images)

     

     American Apparel might be the hot fashion craze on the market, but their excessive spending on advertising and marketing have cost them their preservation of success in the near future. When you’re driving down the highway and passing all those obnoxious billboards, all of a sudden you see the erotic female figure of an American Apparel Ad; How unforgettable! While American Apparel openly exploits sexuality, it is constantly challenging the boundaries of the fashion industry with their controversial tactics for advertising and marketing their brand. However, while American Apparel is a fashion craze among many, with them being over $91 million in debt, they were facing the very real possibility that its 280 stores would be shuttered within the next few months. Now, however, British firm Lion Capital has changed the terms of its lending policy so that American Apparel can stay in the game. According to the terms of the new agreement, American Apparel must make a pre-tax profit of $20 million over the 12 months ending Jan. 31, and must earn $80 million by September 2013. This does not sound like an easy task.

 "Retail is hard right now," American Apparel's controversial CEO Dov Charney says, "I'm not alone in this. You have to work for every dollar, you have to work on the merchandise, make sure the product mix is perfect and the allocation is right. It's a tough market right now."

     On the positive, I hope they can rekindle their flame because their products can easily be articulated and allow much subjectivity for its consumers, in the creative aspect of style and everyday fashion. While they sell basic underwear and basic commodities, their sexualized marketing strategies make American Apparel a walking contradiction. Yet, it is this provocative imagery and racy advertisements that are intentionally designed, which make consumers remember their name. With their wide range of colors and cuts, their promotion of domestically produced and sweatshop free image, American Apparel aims to cater to numerous types of consumers, aiming to create unity within the brand.

      The company symbolizes sexuality as a form of agency for consumers to articulate the simple but sexy American Apparel style. They also designed sustainable shirts for the ethical consumers. The company may price its products fairly high, but compared to similar brands, competitors don’t have the standards and the morals behind their clothes that American Apparel does. While their clothing is basic and simple, but with a hint of suggestiveness, their ads are provocative, controversial and erotic. It is in the racy ads that the line between selling clothes and sex begins to blur, which is very appealing to the youthful generation. I admire how the company’s open embrace of sex is an integral part of its brand image, and it so clearly shows through the numerous ads.  “Yes there’s shock value to these ads-that’s what our advertising strategy is about” (Dov Charney). The attention the ads create is exactly what the company wants. American Apparel has worked hard at creating an image for itself that is “soaked in youth and sex” (Dov Charney). Although media would argue against their conflicting ideas, I think that these contradictions are what make American Apparel so ingenious and unpredictable. 

    

     It is now up to American Apparel to get their act together, focus less on their sexual aspects that have caused such controversy and start to focus on preserving their stores from being demolished off the face of the fashion world.