The latest release within Netflix’s Trainwreck documentary series is Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel. Directed by Sally Rose Griffiths, this film tackles the rise and fall of clothing brand American Apparel and how it all traces back to the organization’s found, Dov Charney. Charney founded the company in 1989 and was eventually ousted from it in 2014 before going on to start a new clothing company that manufactures Kanye West’s brand, Yeezy. Beyond Charney’s questionable business decisions, controversial management style, and cult leader tendencies, he has had several former female employees accuse him of sexual harassment, and this documentary endeavors to explore it all (or, as much as you can in an hour).
The Gist: Early testimonials in Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel paint broad strokes of the titular clothing brand and its more sinister underbelly. As one interviewee puts it, “It was a fashion cult and Dov was the leader.”
He is referring to American Apparel’s CEO and founder, Dov Charney, a charismatic Canadian turned Los Angeles-based clothing entrepreneur who, in one old video, proudly claims to run the business in an “instinctive” and “impulsive” manner. From early on, Charney seemed to build being controversial into his brand as both an individual and overall as American Apparel, whether it was through the company’s risqué advertisements or his own willingness to engage in sexual relationships with employees or walk around naked in front of them.
Former American Apparel employees give firsthand stories of their time spent at the company as well as around Charney to fill in the bulk of the documentary’s content. Jonny Makeup was a drug addict and phone sex worker who found salvation and belonging at American Apparel and eventually worked his way enough into Charney’s inner circle that he spent some time living with the corrupt CEO in his Silver Lake mansion.
Carson was a 17-year-old who wanted to rebel against his strict Mormon upbringing when he made his way to American Apparel, a place that quickly made him feel powerful and important despite his youth and inexperience. E.J. was a self-descripted hipster when she was picked up by the clothing brand, and she enjoyed the rush of earning two phones and a direct line to Charney by the age of 25. Lastly, there’s Michelle, whose first introduction to American Apparel was stealing from them before wearing that shoplifted shirt to her interview with the store, which the company didn’t even bat an eye over.
What all of these former employees have in common is that they were young, vulnerable, and made to feel important by Dov Charney and his company. They describe being hired on the spot at their interviews, which were more “vibe checks” than anything requiring a resumé. They talk about how Charney charmed them, made them feel essential and empowered… and then eventually belittled, small, and frightened.
Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel delves into how Dov Charney managed to attain a cult leader-like status within his own company of mostly young and impressionable workers, and how he used their youth and malleability as tools for his own entertanment and pleasure.
Beyond the questionable ways he’d treat his store employees (lack of boundaries both emotional and physical, publically berating them, turning them against each other, etc), Charney is also called out for the management of his factory workers. Although Charney boasted about American Apparel’s sweatshop-free labor and American-made clothes constructed by well-cared for employees, an audit revealed that about 1,500 of his workers were there with faked documents.
But perhaps Charney’s most egregious misdemeanors called out in the documentary are the multiple accusations of sexual assault and sexual harassment levied against him by former employees. Charney would have his employees sign documents that legally prohibited them from speaking out against him, effectively silencing the women from speaking out about their experiences and preventing them from achieving any true justice or closure. In just a 54-minute runtime, Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel paints a fairly vivid picture of the nightmare that Charney hid behind an engaging facade as it examines the brand he built and the pain he wrought in the process.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Viewers will likely be reminded of other recent Trainwreck documentaries like Poop Cruise, The Astroworld Tragedy, and Mayor of Mayhem, as well as other docs about various formerly thriving, cultish compoanies or businesses like White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn, and Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion.
Performance Worth Watching: No matter how you end up feeling about him, Jonny Makeup is certainly a character! I never really knew what he was going to say next, starting from the very first moment we officially meet him, where he strolls to his interview chair while quipping, “Ugh, you’re having me walking and I didn’t even have enough time to get on Ozempic.”
Memorable Dialogue: Of American Apparel’s unique recruiting process: “They definitely were hiring freaks and geeks, you know? I mean, it felt like the weirdo club. And actually one of the slogans was, ‘If you see someone shoplifting, let ’em know we’re hiring.'”
Sex and Skin: One interviewee described American Apparel ads as “basically softcore porn,” and this is reflected in various onscreen images that vary from suggestive to outright breast and butt-baring.
Our Take: Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel is certainly enlightening and chilling when it comes to describing the ways Dov Charney was able to build a brand, curry favor, and manipulate others into staying under his thumb. From the man’s obsession with The 48 Laws of Power (which essentially seems to be a how-to book for cult leaders and sociopaths) to his strategic usage of legally binding documents and social hierarchies to keep himself touchable, there’s no question that Charney is ultimately portrayed in the negative light he so deserves to be cast in.
Despite all of this, there were some aspects of the story that felt like they were missing that I felt the documentary could have benefitted from overtly mentioning. While it’s good that Charney’s sexual misconduct and strange behavior towards women is addressed, it does feel like they could have expanded on it more explicitly. On top of that, it felt like racism at American Apparel was implied but never expressly discussed, which I think is a missed opportunity, especially considering that all of the interviewees and many of the past employees shown in old footage appeared to all be white or white-passing.
It wasn’t really mentioned in the documentary, but in addition to sexism and sexual abuse, Charney has been accused of making racist remarks towards former employees. This isn’t really that surprising, considering we see a clip of a young Jonny Makeup perpetuating that same behavior as he chirps an almost mocking “Hola!” at a group of American Apparel laborers whilst walking past them in the main Los Angeles-based factory.
There’s also this quote in the doc about how catching someone shoplifting could just be a method of recruitment, but this must have just been true for white people, as further research revealed that employees were sometimes instructed to racially profile Black shoppers as potential shoplifters. It just feels as if this is worth mentioning since it’s a pretty sicnificant piece of the puzzle that is Charney and American Apparel’s overall wrongs, failings, and mistratment.
Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel is an engaging and informative watch, but it’s definitely a bit shallow or surface level compared to how deep they could have gone with the subject matter. If you’re going to make a documentary about a bad man and his crumbling company, you may as well commit all the way. At the very least, this was a good start to get people talking about the ills of Dov Charney and the toxic environment he encouraged at American Apparel.
Our Call: If nothing else, STREAM IT to help the victims’ voices be heard and to give these women the opportunity to finally be allowed to share their own stories without legal suppression or smothering. And hey, maybe the more viewers this doc has, the more likely it will become that Dov Charney is held accountable for all of his crimes, microaggressions, and misdeeds, as well as the many ways he hurt people. Here’s hoping!