Slate has a long and windy article about American Apparel today, exploring their global expansion and wondering if it’s the millennial version of Gap.
We don’t love American Apparel’s sexist, greasy founder, but we remember last year in Mexico City, when we went to AA with the Heatherette crew and saw hordes of Mexican kids styling their own block colored t-shirts and leggings, as if they were in Williamsburg.
We also noticed that AA is taking away the Gap’s old shopper – hip people too busy living their lives to obsess about clothes, and everyone else who wants to look like them.
We think this is why they’re getting those shoppers…
1. American Apparel ads are anti-star. Pete Wentz will never do their campaign. AA photos feature real kids doing real things (though some of those things aren’t safe for work). AA understands a world where everyone can be sort-of famous (thank you, MySpace), and that’s interesting.
2. American Apparel has no logos – unless the logo has a Double C and costs over $500, it’s easy to understand why kids don’t want to wear one.
3. American Apparel is finally listening to shoppers. Check out their new range of ads, with scruffy cute kids wearing tons of clothes and posing in Rated G positions! Amazing.
Now all AA needs to do is prove their factories and stores are worker-friendly – something hotly debated in the fashion industry – and they might be ready for a denim triumph…

(PS – extra credit if you can name more than two models in this vintage Gap ad from the ’90s…)