All you need to know about the ‘new’ American Apparel

Many have cherished this weekend that American Apparel is finally back after a year of ups and downs that ended up with the Canadian brand Gildan acquiring the troubled fashion brand last January for 88 million dollars.

Fast-forward six months and the renewed retailer is back, online and dialling back the ‘American’ side of things. Six months ago Gildan bought American Apparel’s intellectual property, leaving its operations divisions behind – the Canadian retail group actually acquired Don Charney’s brainchild’s intellectual property, that’s the name, brand, and designs.

So, how does the ‘new’ American Apparel look like? “Globally Sourced, Ethically Made, Still Sweatshop Free. That’s American Apparel,” according to the new web. A web that looks pretty much the same than the former Charney’s American Apparel.

Truly ‘American’ apparel limited to eight garments made in the U.S.

The most noticeable difference is that loyal American apparel’s fans can still but a limited collection – made of eight different garments – actually manufactured in the U.S. and pay a premium (average price is 20 percent higher for this truly ‘American’ garments than other similar ones manufactured in any of the international factories owned by Gildan Activewear.)

Market sources told FashionUnited that other difference, less obvious, was that even if the photography bears a large resemblance with older American Apparel campaigns, this new look and feel “is less saucy.”

The reasons why Gildan’s executives are not concerned about Charney’s new fashion label

In the meantime, American Apparel’s founder Don Charney has also made a comeback with a quite similar first collection for its ‘Los Angeles Apparel’.

Commenting on the potential shadow that Charney’s latest venture could throw on American Apparel rebirth, a spokesperson for Gildan told ‘Business Insider’ that “The fashion basics business is crowded already with lots of brands. The only time we would ever become concerned is if something he was doing was seen to be infringing on any of our intellectual our property rights or purposely misleading consumers into believing the apparel he is selling is American Apparel."

Earlier this month, Gildan’s CEO Glenn Chamandy expressed confidence that the American Apparel brand purchase “will be one of the best acquisitions this company has ever made in terms of investment. At the end of the day, we will do very well with this brand.”

The Canadian retailer issued its second-quarter figures at the beginning of August, indicating that “Sales reflected the impact of contributions from acquisitions, which came in as expected, with progress on integration activities well on plan.”

Photo: American Apparel Web