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American Apparel kicks off mass layoffs, is going out of business for good

R.I.P.

AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
AP Photo/Keith Srakocic

American Apparel, where the tops are always cropped and the spandex is forever sparkly, started laying off its 2,400 workers in Southern California on Monday, just over a year after declaring bankruptcy. The company is preparing to close or sell its California factories. Its 110 retail stores will remain open until April; their fate after that is unclear.

As the L.A. Times reports, the brand and manufacturing equipment were sold at auction to Gildan Activewear in Bankruptcy Court last week. The Canadian clothing maker spent $88 million on the acquisition and has opted not to take over American Apparel’s stores or factories. Gildan makes the lion’s share of its products in Central America and the Caribbean and has not decided yet whether to continue making American Apparel products in the United States.

It is a day of mourning, but also of shopping, as all of American Apparel’s wares are at least 40 percent off. Will you regret impulse-buying a deep-V backless bodysuit that’s really more like a leotard in Athletic Gray? There’s only one way to find out.

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Meanwhile, Dov Charney — American Apparel founder who was fired for cause in December 2014 in the wake of his suspension for a number of sexual misconduct allegations — is angling for a comeback with a new clothing brand, possibly in the hopes that, like so many men accused by women of such behavior, those pesky allegations won’t sideline him for long.

Read the official ThinkProgress obituary for American Apparel, written when the retailer declared bankruptcy in October 2015, here.