Currently a regular feature on the internet are reports of the mounting problems facing American Apparel. But as the company head further towards the point of no return, does anyone really care any more?
For several months now we've been hearing of huge debts - $120 million to be precise - declining sales and allegations of sleaze involving the company's founder Dov Charney. In recent weeks, however, the news stories have multiplied and seems like a number of newspapers and websites are gleefully chronicling the downfall of a brand which was not so long ago the go-to for young hipsters.
I'm sure most of us can remember a time when AA was one of the only brands worth wearing if you wanted to make an impression on certain online fashion communities. Those heady days when people still went gaga for pictures of Cory Kennedy and co looking elegantly wasted on The Cobrasnake or Last Night's Party and the Misshapes were still running their weekly knees-up in New York City (don't worry, if you were, ahem, unlucky enough to miss out on all this you can purchase the Misshapes coffee table book).
And for a while, this state of affairs continued. From 2003 onwards, AA opened up shop after shop (there are now 279 stores). Its profile was increased by its 'subversive' advertising, unusually ethical business model and simple designs. The brand was hailed as one of the major success stories of the Noughties, despite controversies over its overtly-sexual ads and sexual harrassment lawsuits filed against Dov Charney.
Unfortunately for AA, it was no more immune to the recession than any other and sales have declined. But that's not all. We've had the exposés of its labour practices. Its ads making a move from quirky and inclusive to objectifying and unpleasant. The accusations that the company was firing employees deemed to be 'too ugly', not helped by the leaked information which indicated prospective employees were having to provide managers with full-length body shots. Oh - and who can forget the fact that 1,500 of its employees were found to be working illegally?
This summer alone we've seen the news that share prices have tumbled and auditors have resigned. The word 'bankruptcy' keeps being thrown around. Oh American Apparel, how the mighty have fallen.
You may not have guessed from the tone this article has taken so far, but I've never been the biggest fan of the company or its products for a variety of reasons. I live in the sticks and only set foot in an AA store for the first time last year, only to leave completely bemused by it all and wondering what the appeal was. I'm sure plenty of you feel differently but I'm sorry, I just don't get it.
One point I see being repeatedly brought up as a major factor in AA's growing unpopularity is that its core customer - the young urban trendsetter - simply got bored and moved on. Fashion fads come and go, yet the company's products haven't really changed in several years.
Yes, we've heard about the much-heralded move from 'hipster' to 'preppy' influences, supposedly taking AA in a more sophisticated direction.
But let's be honest, this all came a bit late. Waiting until 2010 to start producing blazers, chinos and button-down shirts when other retailers have been churning them out as staples for several seasons? It's a prime case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted and is hardly going to win back customers unless they're customers who will do anything for the AA name.
Unfortunately I can't see this being the case. A comment piece in The Guardian recently described AA's target demographic as:
"...an impatient, forgetful mob taught to discard their products as quickly as they adopt them. They are not a cultural movement, but a generation of pure consumers."
We all know that hipster-baiting articles are so very 2008, but I fear that's spot on. Either way, if AA hits the skids I can't say I'll be devastated.
Image via aikijuanma's Flickr.