Dov Charney
|
Charney with an employee in an American Apparel ad from 2006 |
Dov Charney is the
CEO of the garment company
American Apparel (AA), which employed about 5,000 people in 2005. AA now has over 125 retail outlets with plans of expansion.
Dov Charney was born and raised in
Montreal,
Quebec to
Jewish Canadian parents, although considers himself to be an atheist.
[Ellenson, Ruth (2005). "Unfashionable Crisis" The Jewish Journal (accessed August 8, 2006)] In addition to his business exploits, Dov Charney is also a
libertine, and active advocate of free speech and freedom of expression.
Charney is a controversial figure, having had numerous (consensual) sexual relationships with employees and having
masturbated several times in front of a reporter during the course of a two-month-long
Jane magazine interview.
[http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_26/b3939108_mz017.htm#1] He is also accused of conducting job interviews in his
underwear and giving employees
vibrators.
[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/10/fashion/sundaystyles/10HARASS.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5090&en=79e76efd724185ff&ex=1278648000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss]Charney attended
Tufts University, but left the school before graduating. He started an apparel company in
1989 in
Columbia, South Carolina, but the business went bankrupt in 1996. He founded the new version of
American Apparel in 1998.
[http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_26/b3939108_mz017.htm#2]His uncle is the Israeli architect
Moshe Safdie.
*Official American Apparel webiste
*The New Rich - Dov Charney, webiste recap from the 20/20 episode from July 31, 2006
*Sexy marketing or sexual harassment?, recap of the Dateline NBC episode from July 28, 2006
*"Dov Charney, Like It or Not", from Inc. magazine (September 2005)
*"Mr. No Logo", interview from montrealmirror.com
