Last night New York-based advertising agency Lume Creative hosted an industry only seminar on social media in fashion featuring two of the biggest names currently in the field.

American Apparel, already known for their wide variety of colorful cotton apparel have launched a line of nail polish.

For this year’s Shenzhen Biennale, Los Angeles based design group Ball-Nogues Studio have come up with a full-scale installation using 10,000 AA shirts.

In Sweden, one company has created T-post, which claims to be “the world’s first wearable magazine”.

You’ve got to hand it to American Apparel- they’re always finding new ways to make tired cotton and spandex duds into something exciting and marketable. In perhaps it’s more extreme permutation, American Apparel will now be bypassing design and production altogether and opting to sell the Bag-O-Scraps, which the AA website describes as :
“collected cuttings from some of your favorite fun fabrics from around the American Apparel factory to make one-of-a-kind bags of scrap fabrics. Use them for all sorts of arts and crafts. Make clever jewelry, accessories, a card for your grandma or a colorful hanging sculpture for your [...]

We saw this on Spring Street, NYC during our lunch break. It kinda stood out from the regular flag they hang outside the American Apparel store.

People expect companies to do more than just sell stuff. They want to know what you stand for, what choices you make as a result and what difference that could make in the world. So when it comes to people making their brand choices, Cause Marketing can be a tiebreaker.  Almost 80% of Americans are more likely to switch to the brand supporting a good cause over a competitor with the same price and quality. But Cause Marketing is not just about photo opportunities, oversized checks and warm fuzzies. It can be an opportunity to turn commercial interest into real [...]

American Apparel is no stranger to controversy. In the last couple of years they’ve induced the ire of zoning boards, spawned a league of proto-porn copycats, and were even denounced by Woody Allen. At the focal point of detractors’ arguments against the brand is the use of blatant sexual imagery in their advertising. Perhaps as a result of bad PR, law suits, and the general confusion surrounding the brand’s messaging, or maybe just as a show of good will, the LA based cotton clothing purveyor is attempting to democratize their newest Ad campaign in Harlem by allowing residents to vote [...]

We spotted this American Apparel ad on the back of a local NYC publication. We suspect it has less to do with a reversal of the company’s provocative campaigns of the past and more to do with the current economic conditions. Foregoing the depiction of a scantily clad model for once, American Apparel instead introduces us to the wholesome image of Willie, “A valued member of our Fabric Control Team.”

With a total of 21 stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn – one location (pictured at right) recently opening up down the street from the PSFK offices – American Apparel could stand [...]