Josh D. from Seattle e-mailed us to share some photos he had taken for his solo project The Major Cities. He was looking for a super clean high contrast look and after searching all over, he wisely settled on a pair of white Slim Slacks and a Leisure Shirt and painted his tie, belt, shoes, and instruments a bright yellow to finish off the look. And it doesn't hurt that he's a cutie.

Check out the rest of the photos on his MySpace here.

We've moved into your neighborhood. From west going east..

Stop by and say hello at our Trolley Square location in Salt Lake City, UT.

Get your fix at the outlet store at Round Rock near Austin, TX.

For our friends in Kansas City, MO, you can find us at the Country Club Plaza.

A hop across the pond, it's our first store in Scotland. You can find us in Glasgow near St George's-Tron Church.

Stop by the Heidelberg American Apparel store this Thursday night for an exhibition featuring renowned street graffiti artists Smash 137 (Basel, Switzerland) & Stefan Strumbel (Offenburg, Germany). Check out some of Smash 137's amazing work on his site.

The Vernissage is on November 29th at 6pm. There will be a DJ and sekt (that's sparking wine). Exhibition goes til December 29th.

Map and directions here.

While in LA two weeks ago I visited the show room and outlet of American Apparel. Having been home to NYC various times during the summer and viewing the billboard on Houston, I knew, my trip to LA would not be complete without a visit to their outlet.

While visiting their showroom, we asked for a tour of the facility and they were gracious enough to grant that. Clearly, not the garment factory my aunts worked in during the 60's and 70's in NYC but a modern, spotless and artistic environment.

Not only is their quality superior to anything made overseas, they treat their employees with respect. The workers seemed to enjoy the environment and contributed to the hundreds of artistic photographs posted throughout the warehouse.

I was recognized while in the Showroom by a woman who had seen Sicko, the Michael Moore documentary the day before. She couldnt believe I was in front of her and shopping at American Apparel.

Why not I told her, it's trendy, affordable and stylish but the best part is its made in America! I LOVE AMERICAN APPAREL!

While ordering some legwarmers on our online store, blogger Carlye Wisel stumbled upon the cuteness that is Violette, who probably gets more fan mail than any other American Apparel model. "American Apparel = The New Cute Overload"? Awww, thanks!

my co-worker at American Apparel and good friend reese happens to be a designer and blogger and his blog So Posh it Hurts is chock full of interesting information, random rants and other finds. definately not the typical boring blog. well worth the look into. American Apparel gets mentioned quite a few times for obvious reasons :)

Damn I got a good laugh outta this one. Artist Rob Dobi has created a website that dissects every type of "scenster" you've ever seen and apparently American Apparel plays a pretty big role in some of the top scensters wardrobes including the "myspace whore" whose must have item is our boy briefs and the "Williamsburg hipster" who needs one of our striped shirts. These scensters and lots more can be seen on www.yourscenesucks.com.

Note: see the "popcore dork" and the "scene queen" for more AA references

ALL THE BOYS AND GIRLS WHO LIKE TA DANCE AND RUN OR THROW A BALL - Kansas City has just had a lovely AA store open up in our KC midtown plaza,SOOOOOO, DJ Collective LOVE CLUB is going to throw a party over the whole fun adventure!

the party date is still to be announced, so add our collective on myspace and keep in touch, send us stuff or yell at us! whatever you want ta do ! well keep everyone updated with info about new parties and events we have planned , so come dance and kiss us !

love this place and everyone love club

The JC Report asks UK trendsetter Kitty Tebbetts (Co-runner of Flex Fashion, London) what's hot right now in their most recent edition (The Accessories Issue). Her answer?

Although a bit of me dies every time I have to watch this show, (my girlfriend is a fan) I sat down to an episode of MTV's "The Hills" on Monday night and caught off guard to see that American Apparel made quite a few appearances in the show. Not only are both a male and female character were wearing our 2456 V neck t's but the camera pans by one of our Hollywood stores twice to reveal our sign and window display. Also later on in the episode when one of the girls asks about what another one of the girls date was wearing she responded "he was wearing a V-neck from American Apparel."

watch the episode and see for yourself on mtv.ca

The Providence store (RH1) reports that someone's been posting these tightsarenotpants.com flyers around town. We weren't aware that the wearing of tight as pants was such a point of contention but go read the manifesto posted on their site, which clearly states their distaste for this "abomination" and when tights are and aren't acceptable when worn as suitable leg coverings.

Last night was Victoria's Secret annual fashion show spectacular. Amongst the glitzy Swarovski-encrusted bras and lacey panties, VS Angel, Lindsay Ellingson, modeled her Texas-themed lingerie in a pair of socks that look very similar to AA's own Stripe Thigh-Highs. Being from Texas, I've never seen a cowgirl dressed in a cardigan and paisley panties at the rodeo, but like her license plate says, "Yee-ha!"

Photo source: Getty Images

California Vintage is a new concept from American Apparel, featuring hand-picked vintage clothing from the 1950's through the 1990's alongside American Apparel pieces that you might not find at our regular stores.

We're opening on Saturday, November 17th in Echo Park at 2111 West Sunset Blvd.

Store Hours:
Mon-Sat 11am-9pm Sun 11am-8pm

A sober and clean (100 days!) Lindsay Lohan showed up to the American Red Cross in Pomona, CA yesterday in a Tri-Blend Deep V to do some good at their blood bank and get started on her court-ordered 10 days of community service (+ 24 hours of jail time) for her DUI back in July. Good to have you back, Linds.

Brooklyn-based graphic designer Clinton Van Gemert's operation, Headhoods, screen prints famous faces on hoodies (American Apparel ones, of course) so you can wear the head of a queen, the King, a gorilla, or a work of art around your hood.

From Blue States Lose.

The Cobrasnake. Fools Gold photo #8412: Imagine Moby. Then imagine if Moby were somehow even lamer, wearing a polka dot hoodie, horrible ironic sunglasses that made him look like a pervy white version of Data from Star Trek, and had a whole bunch of chest fur peeking out from a yellow American Apparel V-neck. Now imagine, if you can, that this horrifying scenario was real, and documented in photograph.

If you love tamales like we love tamales, you'll be at The Official 3rd Annual Tamale Festival down in MacArthur Park going on all weekend. Three words: tamale eating contest.

There's a heartwarming little piece in today's NY Post about a Brooklyn Heights web designer named Patrick Moberg who saw the girl of his dreams on the subway on Sunday night, "shared a moment", and then lost her in the crowd of the train. While most of us would just hit ourselves on the head, and maybe be resigned to submit a Craiglist Missed Connection posting at the egging on of our friends, Patrick is a determined fellow and has set out to find his dream girl (who according to his hand-drawn rendition was seen wearing blue gym shorts and blue tights). He created a website NYgirlofmydreams.com in order to get the word out near and far. He's been getting all kinds of reactions including one: "The funniest response I got was someone asking if this was actually an American Apparel advertisement."

We just visited his site and hurrah, he's found said dream girl! Aww, we love happy endings.

We got acquainted with a darling style blogger in Oz by the name of Gala back in August and we thought we'd send a couple of shirts and new styles over to her to see if it would go over well Down Under. Luckily, she was very pleased with the goods and thoroughly reviews the Deep V, the Fine Jersey Racerback Dress, and Matte Black Lamé Legging (never mind what the anti-leggings league thinks!). She requests that we make a maxi-skirt. I'm not really sure what that is - is it a full-length skirt? But since she's offering us cupcakes, we'll get right on it.

Everyone knows I have a special place in my heart for the High School Musical franchise and its talented, young cast. I was depressed for nearly 35.78 hours when the naked pictures of Vanessa Hudgens, the female lead, surfaced on the internet a couple of months ago. Luckily the scandal hasn't hurt her career and she's set to star in HSM3. She was also spotted clothed the other day and looking her normal g-rated self. Here she is going to her boyfriend, Zac Efron's, apartment in the Tri-Blend Deep V, sleeves cut-off and shortened. I approve, Vanessa, and maybe next time you want to take pictures in your skivvies, why not chose a more wholesome and cute-looking pair of panties, like the Boy Brief?

While we're on the topic of costumes, read this hilarious piece over on Something Awful. They analyze and dissect the Finnish fashion blog Hel-Looks, which Dr. Thorpe, one half of SA's Fashion SWAT Team, says "is either a street fashion showcase or a disturbing anthropological study of what happens when Eurotrash collides messily with irony and 80s futurism".

We here at the Canadian head office decided to have a little fun with Halloween and held our very own inter-office costume contest! With everyone using varying degrees of American Apparel (I personally was AA head-to-toe thankyouverymuch!), we had a blast with our very creative outfits, even as our very understanding clients came by for visits. In the end, there was only one winner, and Nat, our resident M&M, won by a unanimous decision. For those of you already planning your costumes for next year: Natalie spray painted sewn-together mattress foam with her color of choice (she chose red) and wore it over red Jersey Leggings and a red Long Sleeve Criss-Cross Dress.

I guess my 80’s costume didn’t quite cut it, but having the opportunity to feel all Jennifer Beals (circa Flashdance) once a year is definitely worth the effort!