Random fashion thoughts - Part II (A New Hope)

Yeah I mean H&M and the like has a stranglehold on the college demographic for cheap prices and trendier pieces. The problem with AA isn't the basics though it's the 90's revival normcore hilfiger garbage they started churning out a few years ago. If they stuck with keeping things simple/minimal they might do alright. There just isn't a lot of young people (their demographic) looking for striped hoodies or denim sweatpants - atleast I hope there's not.

I noticed that they recently started selling Selvedge. Shame they didn't hop on that train earlier. They could have competed with Unbranded for the entry level denim spot.

Everything I've ever owned from AA has fallen apart quickly. The only thing good from them, imo, is their loose summer crew necks. Grana scoop necks blow those out of the water, and at $15 a pop it's a no brainer

A isn't all that cheap. I think when they started they cornered the market on affordable "cool" well fitting basics. Now H&M, uniqlo, Zara and even Old Navy sell those pieces in similar cuts and colors. And Bangladeshi sweat shops are way cheaper than the ones in DTLA.

bows1 said:

This movie. Goddamn. I think this is how it would be if @Parker had his way

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Is that Black Mass? I'm so not tough enough for that. I'm more like Inherent Vice meets Darjeeling Limited.

Isn't that young Harvey Keitel + De Niro = Mean Streets or smth

I'm still not tough enough for DeNiro or Keitel. But I do like me some late 70s. Casino was also a great wardrobe movie.

Definitely Mean Streets.

Nobodys though enough for those shirt collars

A expanded too much too quickly. Everyone blames Dov Charney because he's a pedophile but the downfall of the company can likely be traced to some greedy businessmen at the higher level positions in the company chasing quarterly gains. Not that I think Charney is a good guy or anything but he's an easy scapegoat for a bunch of nameless/faceless investors.

What's wrong with non-iron shirts?? I hate ironing!!

conceptual 4est said:

I don't think they are going out of business though, I think they just filed for bankruptcy? From what I remember they're still keeping their LA factories and all US stores open.

They just aren't cool any more, but I don't think they know how to adapt to being an uncool brand that is in every mall and college town

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I don't think that it's that. I think that they just way over-expanded their B&Ms during a time when the real growth was in online sales. And their stores tend to be large and in prime traffic locations.

nicelynice said:

What's wrong with non-iron shirts?? I hate ironing!!

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Wore one for a wedding last weekend. Fabric was very gross feeling. Hard to describe. Plastic-y? Felt sweatier than usual and the collar chafed my neck bad enough that it stung in the shower the next morning. I Left it at home for my dad.



sipang said:

Isn't that young Harvey Keitel + De Niro = Mean Streets or smth

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Baron said:

Definitely Mean Streets.

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Correct

nicelynice said:

What's wrong with non-iron shirts?? I hate ironing!!

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wear very warm. also, some of the chemicals used are apparently bad for your skin.

also - they still wrinkle.



dieworkwear said:

I don't really understand how American Apparel is going out of business. They make super simple, made-in-USA basics. I get that they were associated with a sort of trashy hipster look that's gone out of fashion, but people still need t-shirts and whatnot, no?

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LA Guy said:

I don't think that it's that.  I think that they just way over-expanded their B&Ms during a time when the real growth was in online sales.  And their stores tend to be large and in prime traffic locations.  

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I've heard that this was a serious problem along with getting severely undercut by wholesalers (although I think they reined that in later to at least some extent).

I still can't believe they completely missed the train with the whole premium athleisure thing. All they had to do is:

- Come out with a few new, more fashion-y cuts for their basic sweats, tees, and tanks
- Develop a couple of new "custom" fabric blends and weights
- Throw in some hardware that wasn't the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel **** they usually use
- Brand the whole thing as a "premium" line and build a marketing campaign around it

They could rake in a higher margin from the same people who were buying the trashy hipster **** ten years ago and now have some more discretionary income, plus they'd seem incrementally more of-the-moment now that they're beyond their prime in terms of cultural relevancy.