Dov Charney Held An American Apparel Rally, Refuses To Give Up On Company

What kind of person appropriates (and botches) the words of John F. Kennedy without a hint of irony?  Dov Charney, of course. The man whose contentious run as American Apparel's chief executive ended with an ouster in June, made official in December, has refused to walk away from the company he founded despite public humiliation and bilious headlines that seem to relish in his slow-boil demise.  Well, #TeamDov is not phased.  BuzzFeed reports that last weekend 300 current and ex-American Apparel factory workers gathered in a backyard in South Central L.A. to hear Charney deliver a speech that went something like this: “Don’t ask what you can do for me. Don’t ask what you can do for yourselves. Ask what you can do for the company."  With the help of a Spanish translator, Charney told the crowd his side of what went down last summer. He had been betrayed by the imposition of a new board, he said, and the people now at the helm don't have a connection to the company's roots, “and it’s dangerous.”  After the event, many stuck around to smile and pose for pictures, in a scene BuzzFeed describes as not unlike fans to a rock star. If Charney has made enemies, not a single one of them was in the crowd. Maria Luisa Salgado, a spokeswoman for “Coalition of American Apparel Factory Workers United to Save American Apparel," told BuzzFeed that the company’s current management “is estranged from the cultural spirit that existed at American Apparel under the leadership of its founder, Dov Charney." Clearly, his message is being heard.  New CEO Paula Schneider only took the reins in January, and though she's been faced with numerous challenges, she seems to be making a concerted effort to clean up the company's image (penning a new 12-page ethics code, for example). A day before Dov's rally, she also reached out to employees in Spanish, with a memo pledging her continued support, plus a thinly veiled warning to be cautious concerning Charney's advances. Until the dust settles on this chapter of Charney-gate, let's revisit the unmistakable bright light in this whole thing. (Buzzfeed)