In my estimation, which I’m aware carries little if any weight whatsoever, one of the finest softcore websites going these days is AmericanApparel.net, the official site of L.A-based American Apparel, a trendy manufacturer and retailer of clothing aimed at ‘contemporary metropolitan adults’ with stores across the country and in fashionable cities like Paris and Tokyo.
Intended or not, AmericanApparel.net is just as much a destination for ogling ‘amateur’ models in skimpy underwear as a website one might find featured in this magazine—no doubt in an article written by me.
Yeah, they’re sweatshop-free. Yeah, they’re about unconventional corporate ideas. Yeah, Chief Executive Officer Dov Charney has a cool name and attracts notoriety for both his progressive business style and time spent dealing with sexual harassment suits against the company because of much-gossiped, inter-office romances.
All that’s fine—and everyone loves a comfy T-shirt, but one click on the site’s women’s store and what materializes is a hothouse of nubile young lasses parading about in simple, yet sexy undergarments and other assorted ‘made-in-America’ attire.
The Shop Online homepage greets with a bronzed lovely spread out on her tummy and wearing a pair of Hot Shorts, nicely snug up her ass. Then it’s onto Swimwear and then Intimates: one picture after another of lithe beauties posing in a Cotton Spandex Jersey Hot Short or Baby Rib Brazilian Bikini Panty.
It’s a dizzying display of girls, sans makeup and attitude, photographed in uncomplicated tableaus, looking at times as if they had just rolled out of bed.
The galleries appear as if you could have taken the photos yourself with a cheap camera—equivalent to those naughty shots you took of your girlfriend to keep in your desk or that drunken slut you met last night and photographed as a memento to show your friends.
Crotch shots are de rigueur. And they’re not just crotch shots, but just enough midsection to show off a smooth tummy and toned upper legs. It’s an ideal image for girls interested in buying panties and guys who like to view luscious pudenda.
The models are framed mostly from mouth to thighs, distorting the lines of person and sex object. Placed in rows of four, the photos become a mosaic of body parts and colorful apparel. The pictures are as lifeless as they are arousing, like faultless plastic bodies in a store window.
The result is beguiling as it eviscerates any intimacy, leaving only a cold yet titillating image.
The men’s department also provides an equal-opportunity procession of minimalist sexuality.
You’ve no doubt seen the sassy advertisements plastered across the media landscape, a provoking marketing blitz that blends vintage pop culture, sexuality, and ’70s- and ’80s- inspired kitsch. The stores themselves are brand bait; if I walk by a store and witness a large poster of a girl who is spread eagle on a couch and wearing tiny jogging shorts, I’m probably going to pop in to browse.
Most striking about their marketing scheme are the types of girls (and guys) they employ; no big-bosomed models or bleach-blonde bimbos, these are for the most part ‘real’ people, photographed in a natural, low-key style, wherein the clothes play a central role in slice of life imagery.
Many who are photographed are students, local gals found hanging out at Starbuck’s, and in many cases, genuine American Apparel employees, which adds to the allure and the peculiarity.
"Kelly is an American Apparel employee in the art division, and hey, she looks scrumptious in this red, nylon bikini."
Even porn star Lauren Phoenix–noted for her mind-bending anal scenes–has been featured in American Apparel ads. Selling socks!
There’s also a section called Models of American Apparel, a slideshow to survey the girls in various stages of undress. I checked Gap.com. There’s no model slideshows there to speak of. It seems American Apparel, a mainstream company if there ever were one, has succeed thus far in its quest to link the fringes of what can be considered ‘adult’ entertainment, commerce, and, perhaps most essential to the brand progression, the virility of the Net.
I found an article courtesy of the Link Editorial Board from The Manitoban Online, which dutifully illustrates the type of ‘sex sells’ methodology Charney utilizes, which, it should be noted, totally works on me:
“Displaying nubile females like they are about to be fucked is nothing new for advertising—asses in the air, coy looks over the shoulder, crumpled and vulnerable posture. It screams ‘Stick it in,’ as much as ‘Buy me!’”
American Apparel is as much a clothing brand as a burgeoning sub-culture. I assume the team behind the sizzle assumes if I linger long enough in the girl’s section I might somehow be persuaded to click over and buy a California Fleece Pullover Hoody.
Perhaps, but for now I’m happy to gaze at amateur babes frolicking in their panties in what eerily looks like pre-sex scene stills taken from a low-budget porn film.
But I’m sure that’s the point. Now I’m off to buy more socks!
