American Apparel has said that it may struggle to remain in business due to rising debt and falling sales. The brand, best known for its ‘edgy’ advertising created by the decidedly sketchy skills of Terry Richardson is reportedly suffering a lack of management skill with one analyst saying that founder Dov Charney’s passion for the brand might be at odds with the skills and discipline required for a retailer. In addition to their sales and debt problems, a dispute with their former accounting firm ended with the accounting firm walking out and warning that there may be problems with the company’s financial reporting – this has caused the delay of company filings which may lead to the company being delisted from the NYSE. You can see more on the story over here – OR, you can see a few of the ads that made the company famous above and some more of Richardon’s work in the NSFW video below (She’s holding a big black chicken… I like how subtle his work is).
August 18, 2010