American Apparel Exec Made Teen His ‘Sex Slave,’ Lawsuit Says
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
“We love AA!” exclaims the handwritten note posted on American Apparel founder Dov Charney’s personal home page from a staffer named “Krystal.” But Charney got a less sanguine message yesterday from another female subordinate: Irene Morales, a former American Apparel store manager, is suing the bicoastal schmatte mogul for making her his “sex slave” and “ sodomizing her” on her 18th birthday, according to the New York Post.
Morales was only 17 “and working as a Manhattan sales clerk for the racy teen retailer in 2007 when her dirty-old-man boss slobbered to her that he wanted them to have sex when she turned 18, according to the stunning, $250 million suit filed yesterday in Brooklyn Supreme Court,” the Post reported.
And in April 2008, just after the high schooler’s birthday, “Charney pounced, the suit says. The alleged lecher — who in the past had been targeted by a slew of sexual-harassment suits — demanded that the beautiful brunette come to his Manhattan apartment, the suit says.”
Indeed, the Forward reported last year that online magazine Jezebel had named Charney “America’s sexual-harassiest CEO” for the company’s photo-based hiring decisions, and the company higher-ups’ apparent habit of critiquing (and mocking) their retail drones’ appearances.
Charney, the UK Guardian noted today, also “built a fashion empire around hipster chic and a louche lifestyle that embraced pornography and lascivious advertising.… His past antics included having oral sex with an employee in front of a journalist and appearing in his underwear with two women in an ad headlined “In bed with the boss.” Charney has not commented on the new accusations, the Guardian said. But the 42-year-old has pooh-pooh’d previous claims of harassment as “sexual shame tactics.”
Charney’s own web site makes no reference to his personal challenges, focusing instead on his Jewish background, Quebec upbringing, Montreal bagels and immigration.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
