Dov Charney Is The Founder Of American Apparel

Dov Charney is a 40 year-old Canadian, and is the founder and CEO of American Apparel (AA), a clothing manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer. Charney is known for his success as an entrepreneur, and passion for simple clothing. His "contrarian" leadership style; which he feels promotes creativity, has drawn extensive praise and criticism. 

Charney has earned recognition in the media for management decisions to pay a fair wage and refusing to outsource manufacturing, while still running a profitable business. The Los Angeles Times named him as one of the Top 100 powerful people in Southern California and in 2009, he was nominated as a Time 100 finalist by Time Magazine. 7

 Early Life

Charney's father, Morris Charney, is an architect, and his mother, Sylvia Safdie, an artist.  Both of his parents are of Jewish descent.  He is the nephew of noted architect Moshe Safdie. 

 

Charney Went To The Best Schools On Scholarships

Charney attended Choate Rosemary Hall, a private boarding school in Connecticut and St. George's School of Montreal.  Charney grew up with, and was influenced heavily by, the culture of Jewish Montreal.

Dov Charney Starts The American Apparel Company

He is a self-confessed, unrepentant sex addict.  He often conducts business meetings in his underwear.  He's short, hairy and absolutely unapologetic about loving sex - any time, anywhere, with anybody he comes across, up to and including his own company employees.

American Apparel is both manufacturer and retailer, churning out its line of t-shirts, sweat shirts, underwear, swimwear, jackets, dresses, baby clothes and dog clothes at a bracingly unorthodox factory on the edge of Los Angeles' garment district, then selling them through a chain of 143 retail outlets that have spread, in very short order, to 11 countries.

This week, Charney cut a deal with a venture capital company called Endeavor Acquisition Corporation, essentially agreeing to be bought out in exchange for $244m (£123m) in fresh capital.
 

A Jewish Cultural Icon?

At the age of 37, Charney has been named one of the 100 most powerful people in Los Angeles. He's been profiled in Time and The New Yorker. Nobody, though, could accuse him of being anything less than a highly complicated guy. Does ethical treatment of his employees extend to asking his assistants to pleasure him sexually, as he has happily acknowledged doing?

 Does it extend to picking young women off the street and inviting them to participate in a wet t-shirt competition in a company apartment?
 

A Reporter Gets The Shock Of Her Life

During one of their interviews, Charney wiggled around his chair, pointed to his crotch, loosened his Pierre Cardin belt and asked: "Can I?" He then proceeded to masturbate in front of her, all the while carrying on a conversation about business models, hiring practices and the stupidity of focus groups.

"Masturbation in front of women is underrated," he told Ko. "It's much easier on the woman. She gets to watch, it's a sensual experience that doesn't involve a man violating a woman, yet once the man has his release, it's over and you can talk to the guy."5

Izzie Had Sex With Employees In Front Of The Female Reporter

In her article, Ko said she witnessed Charney masturbating at least eight times in the course of her research. She also saw him ask an assistant to perform oral sex on him. The assistant obliged, and Charney explained: "I'm not saying I want to screw all the girls at work ... but if I fall in love at work it's going to be beautiful and sexual."

Ko didn't object to the peep show she was treated to - she kept thinking what great material it was for her article - and even professed afterwards to thinking fondly of Charney. "Dov Charney is a mad man and I like that," she said. 5

 

There Has Been A Few lawsuits

Three former female employees have sued him for sexual harassment, two of whom settled for an undisclosed figure. The third, Mary Nelson, alleges she once attended a meeting in which Charney wore nothing but a sock over his penis.

Her lawyer, Keith Fink, said of American Apparel: "The work environment there makes Animal House look like choir practice." 5

Dov Appears In Gay Magazines

One of his publicity stunts was to offer himself in full-frontal nudity to the readers of Butt magazine, which caters to a counter-cultural gay crowd. In Vice magazine, he appeared with exposed buttocks and a t-shirt reading "Legalize LA".
 

The Yiddish Wunderkind Takes A Fall

It turns out that half his Los Angeles' work force are illegal aliens.  ICE said 1,600 employees appear not to be authorized to work in the U.S.

Dov Charney, like most Zionists, is an advocate for unbridled immigration. It is the company's hope -- and my personal hope as a Jewish immigrant myself -- that these employees are able to confirm their work authorization so that they may continue to work at American Apparel," Mr. Charney said. 7