Dov Charney

Dov Charney (born January 31, 1969) is a Canadian entrepreneur and clothing manufacturer. He is the founder of American Apparel,[1][2] which was one of the largest garment manufacturers in the United States until its bankruptcy in 2015.[3] Charney was fired from American Apparel in 2014 due to allegations of sexual harassment and assault.[4] He subsequently founded Los Angeles Apparel[5] which produces Kanye West's line Yeezy.

Charney is a nephew of architect Moshe Safdie and a cousin once removed from the Safdie brothers.

Early life

Charney was born to a Jewish family in Montreal, Quebec, on January 31, 1969.[6] His father, Morris, an architect, and his mother, Sylvia, an artist of Syrian-Jewish descent, divorced when he was young.[7][8][9] Charney is a nephew of architect Moshe Safdie.[10] Charney is dyslexic and was diagnosed with ADD in kindergarten.[6]

He attended Choate Rosemary Hall, a private boarding school in Connecticut[11] and St. George's School of Montreal.[12] According to Charney, he was heavily influenced by both Montreal culture and his own Jewish heritage.[10][13]

While attending high school in the United States, Charney began importing Hanes and Fruit of the Loom t-shirts from the U.S. to his friends in Canada. In an interview with Vice, he described smuggling the shirts on Amtrak trains from New York to Montreal.[14]

American Apparel

Charney began selling t-shirts under the American Apparel name in 1989.[15] In 1990, he dropped out of Tufts University, borrowed $10,000 from his parents and established American Apparel in South Carolina.[16] Over the next several years, he spent time learning about manufacturing and wholesale before moving to Los Angeles in the mid-'90s. By 1997, Charney had moved all manufacturing into a factory located in downtown Los Angeles.[17] American Apparel products were marketed towards "young metropolitan adults."[18]

The company had about $12 million in sales by 2001. In 2003, Charney opened the first store in L.A.'s Echo Park neighborhood, followed by one each in New York and Montreal. Within two years, the company had expanded to Europe and opened 65 new stores. By 2006, there were 140 total stores.[19]

In 2009, it expanded to 281 total retail locations, making it "the fastest retail roll-out in American history."[16] In 2014, the company reported record sales of $634 million.[20]

Los Angeles Apparel

In 2016, Charney founded Los Angeles Apparel. He opened its first factory in South Central Los Angeles, with aims of replicating the successes he experienced in the 1990s with supplying wholesale clothing. The origins are similar to those he deployed while expanding American Apparel.[39] When interviewed by Vice News regarding his new venture, Charney said, "my previous company had an effect on the culture of young adults ... I want to reconnect and do that again before I die".[40]

The company grew to over 350 staff during the second year of operation. During an interview with Bloomberg, Charney drew comparisons to the growth he experienced with American Apparel calling it the equivalent of "year eight". Charney expected the fashion line to grow to $20 million in revenue by 2018.[39]

Similar to American Apparel, the manufacturing of all Los Angeles Apparel garments are kept in the U.S. to maintain low lead times and offer better completion times than overseas competitors.[41]

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Charney repurposed his business operations to help increased demand for PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).[42] According to the Los Angeles Times, Charney spotted shortages as early as February, and this is when his apparel company began to consider manufacturing face masks.[43]

Charney was interviewed in March 2020 by a number of media outlets, speaking about his desire to turn Los Angeles Apparel into a medical equipment manufacturer during the pandemic. Los Angeles Apparel then began manufacturing cloth facemasks and medical gowns at the facility in South Central. Charney told The New York Times that he aimed to create 300,000 masks and 50,000 gowns each week.[44] In an interview, Charney said he was "losing money on the venture," as he was giving many of them away.[45]

In 2020, public health officials ordered the shut-down of Los Angeles Apparel due to "flagrant violations of mandatory public health infection control orders."[33] 300 workers were infected with COVID-19 and 4 workers died before the factory was ordered to close.[46]

The company produces Yeezy, Kanye West's brand, of which Charney is CEO. West, a longtime friend of Charney, owns Yeezy.[47] Items include t-shirts, hoodies, windbreakers, trench coats, shorts, joggers, footwear, and socks.

Allegations of sexual harassment and assault

Charney has been the subject of several sexual harassment lawsuits, at least five since the mid-2000s, including allegations of sexual harassment, sexual assault, racist remarks, and abusive behavior against numerous employees.[48][49][50][51] He has been accused of sexually harassing employees as young as 17.[52] Due to employees signing documents revoking legal claims against Charney or the company, many lawsuits were thrown out by the courts and had to go through internal arbitration at American Apparel.[5]

Charney denied the allegations, accusing lawyers in the lawsuits against American Apparel of extortion.[53][54][55][56][57] Charney has said numerous times that he sees no problem with sexually pursuing his employees.[58]

In 2004, Claudine Ko of Jane magazine[59] published an essay narrating that Charney began masturbating in front of her while she was interviewing him.[23][60][61][62] The article's publication brought extensive press to Charney. In a follow-up to her first article, Ko wrote that her article had been misconstrued, stating that her encounter with Charney "was being used to feed a flawed cliche where men are evil and omnipotent while women are mute victims lacking free will." She further questioned the notion that she had been taken advantage of: "Who was really exploited? We both were—American Apparel got press, I got one hell of a story. And that's it." Ko did not ever claim Charney masturbating in front of her was consensual.[63]

Personal life

Charney lives in Garbutt House, a mansion atop a hill in Silver Lake.[6]

In the media

Charney is the subject of Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel a 2025 American documentary film directed by Sally Rose Griffiths.[64] It premiered on Netflix on July 1, 2025, as part of the Trainwreck series.[65]

External links

• Official American Apparel website
• Dov Charney website