Founded by Canadian businessman Dov Charney in spring 1989, it was a vertically integrated company that ranked as one of the largest apparel manufacturers and marketers in North America.

[5] In 2000, American Apparel moved to a factory in downtown Los Angeles where it continued to grow primarily as a wholesale business, selling blank T-shirts to screenprinters, uniform companies and fashion brands.

[17] In June 2014, the company's board of directors ousted American Apparel founder, chairman and CEO, Dov Charney, after allegations of misconduct and inappropriate behaviour towards employees.

[24] The clothes retailer warned investors in August 2015 that it would not have enough cash to "sustain operations for the next twelve months" which raised "substantial doubt that we may be able to continue as a going concern".

[39] The company has also used pornographic actors and glamour models in some of its ads including Lauren Phoenix, Charlotte Stokely, Sasha Grey, Euguenia Diyordiychuk and Faye Reagan.

In January 2008, the Intelligence Group, a trend and market research firm, listed American Apparel as their number two Top Trendsetting Brand, behind only Nike.

[55] From 2009 until 2014, photographers such as Henrik Purienne and David Shama worked on a number of ad campaigns for American Apparel that defined the identity of the brand.

[60] 20 of American Apparel's styles were offered initially,[61] Customers could also purchase real clothing from the company website via the virtual store.

Second Life Liberation Army) held a protest opposing the company's real world use of sexually suggestive imagery in advertising campaigns.

[63] In 2007, American Apparel put up two billboards, one in New York and one in Los Angeles, featuring an image of Woody Allen's character dressed as a Rabbi from the movie Annie Hall and Yiddish text, for a period of one week.

[66] Although the company said as early as May 2008 that the billboards were meant "strictly as social parody",[65] there was much debate over whether American Apparel's lawyers would use Allen's personal life, namely his affair with Soon-Yi Previn as their defense at the trial.

[51] The company also maintains a Legalize LA portion of their website that features news articles relating to immigration reform, the brand and information on the history of the issue.

[71] After the passing of Prop 8 (which defines marriage in the state as one man and one woman) in California in November 2008, American Apparel launched the Legalize Gay campaign.

[73] In June 2012 American Apparel partnered with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in releasing a new line of T-shirts to celebrate LGBT Pride Month.

On this album, the song "Gorgeous" (featuring Kid Cudi and Raekwon) contained the following lyrics: "I need more drinks and less lights, and that American Apparel girl in just tights."

The 2013 Capital Cities song "Farrah Fawcett Hair", features a verse in which André 3000 lists a number of things he appreciates, ending with "getting tucked in every night for a month by the American Apparel ad girls".

This song became the source for a parody by Willam Belli, Courtney Act, and Alaska Thunderfuck 5000 titled "American Apparel Ad Girls".

"[81]: 8:13 [needs update] Charney had also previously stated that American Apparel hired its creatives by their sense of culture and fashion, not their resume.

As of 2012, American Apparel has been sued in seven public sexual harassment lawsuits; all were dismissed, "thrown out", remanded to arbitration, or in one case, settled but with "no monetary liability to the company".

[89][90][91][92][93] Many cases were remanded to arbitration because the company required employees to sign away their right to any legal claim against Charney or American Apparel.

[98][99] In another case, American Apparel was reprimanded in an opinion by the Second Appellate District for a settlement in which the plaintiff, Ms. Nelson, would agree that she had not been subjected to sexual harassment.

[115] New York Times reporter Rob Walker wrote about the controversy in his book Buying In and revealed that since the unionization drive, the company Sweat X, which was held up as the example for what American Apparel should be, had since gone out of business.

In 2009, an ICE audit of American Apparel's employment records uncovered discrepancies in the documentation of about 25% of the company's workers, implying mainly that they were undocumented immigrants.

"[126] Commenting on the loss of 1,500 workers due to concerns over illegal immigration Charney said "It broke our efficiencies and generated a situation where we were late delivering garments.

This otherwise wasted material reduces the amount of fabric the company needs to produce in addition to expanding its product line and saves approximately 30,000 pounds of cotton per week.

[130][131][132][133] American Apparel maintains a bicycle lending program for its employees[134] and according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals it is a vegan-friendly clothing company.

[132] In 2005, the company hosted a bikini car wash benefit with the American Red Cross to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

[143][144] In 2007, right before Christmas, American Apparel donated more than 300,000 articles of clothing, with the giveaway specifically targeting the homeless population of large cities.

[146] American Apparel also donated more than $400,000 worth of garments to the victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake through Fashion Delivers as well as over 5,000 pairs of socks to the shoe charity Soles4Souls.

This sparked outrage among some practitioners of these various religions, that include Haitian Vodou, Louisiana Voodoo, West African Vodun, Cuban Santería, and others.