plain and simple: american apparel.

I had a job interview this evening and part of what was said reminded me of something I should just post in my blog (oh, but I hope I get a position for that job!) So yes, it’s my extended review on American Apparel. I found this in my laptop from awhile back:

Plain and Simple: American Apparel
Walk into any American Apparel’s imperium and you’re presented by a canvas of multitude colored cotton T-shirts, shiny bathing suits, sheer dresses all organized in a rainbow between white humble walls. As you take a few steps further, you are subtly relaxed by an optimistic atmosphere and begin to browse through clothes at ease. Recurring customers, including myself, appeal to American Apparel because of their simple yet distinct style. Their styles range in casual, sophisticated, funky, and even sexy, depending on how you wear an American Apparel outfit.

When I shopped there for the first time, I didn’t exactly know what I was getting into–shirts had no design; their clothes, individually, were solid and ordinary. There were no regular blue denim jeans but there were colored jeans of sky blue, yellow and red. Perhaps the thing that threw me off just a little, were their high prices as their t-shirts and short sleeves ranged from $17-48 while pants and dresses went $32-68. But as I browsed a little longer, I felt very intrigued by this unusual style, because I could not directly detect or compare this to any other brands of clothing I’ve encountered. It sort of had an 80′s pinch to it except not so wild; just simple and alluring. The colors, I think, really grabbed my attention as well–perhaps the color theory played hand in hand–they were bright but also very rich in their color–”over 30 different colors”, displayed in their online catalog. By the end of my session at the American Apparel on Haight in San Francisco, I ended buying a whole outfit consisting of a plain-jersey-looking green/white buttoned up long sleeve ($28) and a gray-toned/vivid black pair of pants ($48) that I now comfortably and confidently wear.

Although new customers may frankly see American Apparel as a clothing store with a lack of umph due to the large amount of solid colored t-shirts and their “expensive prices”, their first impressions only got to them. Read into the eccentric and simple book, “American Apparel” and it will, in someway, seduce you (nicely) into the their product, whether you be a mother, a teen, or even a dog (yes! they sell dog clothing as well: $14). I also figured out that American Apparel clothing has rocketed into a popular trend in city clubs, musicians, and even television in which a hit dance group called “Fanny Pak” (AA does actually sell fanny packs) from the show “America’s Best Dance Crew” all themed their style of American Apparel product.

To get to my point, the truth is, these basic t-shirts come in over 30 colors expanding from sunshine, royal blue, coral, to just plain black and white and are made of “100% USDA certified organic cotton”, producing reliable comfort and long life-wear: high prices now don’t seem “expensive”. I am attracted to American Apparel not because of their variety of colors, but their bright exposé of straight-forward styles and their overall, “matchless” character. Snugged with a flavor of fun, American Apparel is plainly and simply a brand anyone should look into (including dogs), and you’ll ought to be surprised once you at least try on their product; the clothes you’ve had in your closet now only seemed ordinary.