It’s really sad watching American Apparel wind down, but honestly this is at least five years overdue. The company has been running on fumes for years, and there’s probably no way to disband the cult of personality around the sleazebag founder that led to this failure.
Fun fact: I worked for them for a while and the contract had a section in it explicitly saying that if you found out the CEO was up to some bad news, you had to keep it to yourself. Which means he’s always into some bad news, or else that section wouldn’t be there. He’s a millionaire, but it was always my prediction that he’d end up penniless or in severe debt. My track record with predictions is generally bad, but this one seems to be holding up.
I definitely have a love-hate relationship with the company, because I still love the products, but they absolutely deserved to die. At least we still have Penguin Original for outstanding colorful clothing, and Lululemon for revolting corporate behavior.