This morning, Kriston penned an excellent post on American Apparel, the country's foremost conundrum for clothes-wearing liberals. For those unaware, AA is a peculiarly problematic clothing company based out of LA. Their labor standards are enough to bring tears to the eye: an average wage of $13, health care, subsidized English lessons for immigrant employees (on company time!), year-round employment (a rarity in the garment industry), etc, etc. It's the stuff liberals dream about.
The anti-sweatshop hook, however, didn't do enough to promote the company, so its mustachioed, quasi-messianic founder, Dov Charney, turned to sex. He uses company employees, natural girls all, and photographs them using a lo-fi, basement porn aesthetic that leaves even the homeliest subject pulsing with sexuality and appeal. The effect -- trust me on this -- is very disconcerting. Some of the pictures, in ways I can't quite pin down, also have an aura of violence, fear, or even rape to them. Red-rimmed eyes, shitty furniture, dark colors and puffy faces make some shots look like opening scenes in a rape fantasy. These photos, both the bright, natural ones and their gloomy, disturbing cousins, populate the stores, blown up to full portrait size and coexisting with covers from 70's porn magazines.
