Says Elsa of the greener side, one of my fave green blogs in NoCal: “Overall, though, if you’re trying to be a green consumer, you’d be dull to boycott AA [American Apparel] just because its ads don’t fit your stiff ideal of gender equality.”
I actually don’t care much about the American Apparel ads — I’ve seen too many pictures of naked / half-naked women in porn-shot type ads since I was a lil gal in ribbons.
At this point, the only shock value for me there is that some of American Apparel’s models aren’t anorexic looking. 
To the right, the Sustainable Edition baby rib thong, for $9, ass not included.
My problem: The alleged “sexually free” work culture at American Apparel. Free for whom? Details on that in my previous post.
To be fair, Elsa still seems to have qualms about shopping at American Apparel herself — It’s just that her penchant for eco-friendly, US-made clothing outweighs those qualms. True, Elsa? Says she: “AA’s the easiest and best-fitting option.”
Perhaps, perhaps. But what’s the fun of doing it the easy way? ;) I take this as a challenge of sorts. For the next couple months, I’ll be shopping for socio-eco friendly clothes in LA, and blogging about it.
Cuz apparently, I could use some new, “nice” clothes. Mothers can be so cruel –
Update, 1/23/06: First stop: Buffalo Exchange.
Dov is definitely sketchy. It’s impossible to have ethical sex with someone who works for you, because you can’t know how much your unequal balance of power is influencing things. But now I’m concerned — how can we know that other socio-eco friendly clothing stores won’t have hidden atrocities occurring behind the scenes as well? (And I don’t use the word atrocity lightly, having seen Dov’s mustache.) I think I’ll take up sewing….
Comment by Organelle — January 23, 2006 @ 3:07 pm
I agree with Siel’s problems with the so-called “sexually free” workplace at AA and applaud the efforts to find “socio-eco-friendly clothes.” Still, I think that if you’re choosing between, say, a department store non-fair-trade t-shirt and an American Apparel one, it would be silly not buy the AA t-shirt just because of Dov. As Organelle says, there are probably plenty of hidden evils behind the scenes at other clothing makers’ shops. For example, what about the sexual abuse of workers in sweatshops, especially in places where women’s rights aren’t a concern?
Comment by elsamary — January 23, 2006 @ 5:32 pm
elsamary — I’m not endorsing sweatshops. My point is that it’s not AA vs. sweatshops, nor AA vs. nudity. There are options beyond American Apparel.
Back to socio-eco friendly clothing stores — I’d like to think it takes some effort to reach Dov’s level of notoriety. I’m with Pandagon: “In many workplaces that you don’t see the sexual harassment and abuse going on, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s happening behind closed doors–yes, in many cases it’s just that it’s not happening at all.”
Of course, that’s not true in all cases. But I don’t get the “other companies MIGHT be sexually harrasing employees so we may as well shop at AA” argument…
Comment by Siel — January 23, 2006 @ 5:53 pm
one of my fave eco friendly clothing options: crossroads trading co., thrift store on 4th near promenade. they take clothes for trade or cash (they are way picky, but makes for good threads) and the 1/2 off racks are great deal…..
if really going green, always helps to avoid buying new “stuff”.
Comment by Anna — January 23, 2006 @ 9:23 pm
Agreed, the greenest way to go is to buy second-hand.
However, if you’re buying new things, I can’t recommend the world’s first and only worker-owned free-trade zone highly enough. Their products are marketed by Maggie’s Clean Clothes in Ypsilanti, MI. I’ve been to the co-op a dozen times (I used to live near it) and Maggie’s twice. I did an interview with the gringos involved in the co-op, which you can read here, and one with the owner of Maggie’s here.
Comment by esteban — January 23, 2006 @ 10:44 pm
Hi Siel–I’m not saying that people shouldn’t seek out non-AA clothing if they can. But the vast majority of people in mall-ified America are lucky if they even get AA as a shopping option. If it’s a toss-up between buying AA or clothes from a mainstream company that uses sweatshops and non-organic ingredients, then I say buy AA, because your dollars are at least supporting some good practices and showing the marketplace that there’s demand for that. There are skeletons in every company’s closet, so if you don’t want to support AA’s particular skeletons (some of which are out in the open), then I encourage anyone to hunt for other eco-friendly clothing options–which you’re doing, great! Ideally, we should all only support companies whose practices match our conscience. The reality is that these options remain hard to find and expensive for *most* people, maybe with the exception of resale. That’s changing as more people buy eco-friendly, workplace-friendly clothes…including those from AA. Though that doesn’t mean I’m running out to buy anything from them…in fact, I want to hunt for and support non-AA clothes too! Guess I left that part out.
Comment by elsamary — January 24, 2006 @ 10:41 am
Too true about the difficulty of finding non sweatshop clothing — Even for us, girls living in urban areas of Cali!
That said, we’re lucky to have it easier than most, yes? Wanna go shopping when I’m up in NoCal later this month? I’m esp. curious about the Global Exchange stores –
Comment by Siel — January 24, 2006 @ 11:51 am
all i know is that Dov is my fucking hero.
he should really run for public office.
you people need to find something better to do.
or you could keep promoting his tees :)
Comment by eddy — April 24, 2006 @ 7:56 pm
Does AA have any major competitors?
Comment by Anonymous — July 17, 2006 @ 11:53 pm
here’s a list of places you can buy non-sexualized, non-creepy anti-union-busting sweat-free clothing:
http://www.newdream.org/consumer/clothing.php
http://www.justgarments.net/
dov charney really, really creeps me the f*ck out. he has been sued for sexual harassment three times.
and even though i consider myself a sweatshop activist you won’t catch me dead in an AA store. save your pedophilic photos and masturbation-employee fantasies for the FBI, thank you very much.
Comment by natalia — August 29, 2006 @ 9:37 am
Hey natalia — Thanks for the great links :) They’ll be useful to many of us :)
Comment by Siel — August 31, 2006 @ 5:58 pm