Hello everyone.
Today’s letter includes: A dispatch from New York’s new Los Angeles Apparel location with special reporting from Lauren Servideo, the Carpathia to NeueHouse’s Titanic, slushies are back in Dimes Square, and The RealReal stopped publishing on Substack in June…
Current roles on the Feed Me Job Board include “Swag” at Kalshi, a Social Media Editor at Town & Country, and a Culture Calendar Editor at Dorsia.
Los Angeles Apparel, the cotton-focused basics brand from American Apparel founder and former CEO Dov Charney, has expanded east, launching a flagship store at 480 Broadway in Soho. I went on Monday, the second day the store was open, to do a bit of scene reporting at the 20,000-square-foot, two-story palace of schoolgirl skirts, bodysuits and sweatpants in every color.
American Apparel exploded to nearly 300 stores and more than $600 million in revenue before collapsing under the weight of debt and consumer whiplash. By late 2014, the board had pushed Charney out as CEO, following years of sexual misconduct allegations against him from former employees. Charney has consistently denied any wrongdoing. Some of you may have seen the documentary about his tenure that came out earlier this summer, Netflix’s Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel.
I wonder if this is why there has been so little coverage around the opening. As it happens, the first thing I clocked in the store was Dov himself, pacing the floor anxiously while speaking into his cell phone, snapping photos of racks, and stacking baskets. Classic CEO-on-the-floor theater.
The store looked remarkably similar to the American Apparel stores I shopped at growing up: white iron racks and white walls, one notable New York nepo baby with a stack of tank tops in her hand as she shopped with a friend. Only now, blown up photos of Jessie Andrews were replaced by downtown New York model Ava Pearlman, and there was a small case of Salt and Stone deodorant and Vacation Sunscreen (both brands were founded years after American Apparel’s second bankruptcy).