American Apparel Stock Value Plummets Amidst Talk Of Bankruptcy

American Apparel's stock value is plummeting upon news earlier this week that the company may be forced into bankruptcy over its vanishing credit line with vendors.

After warning this week that there was "substantial doubt that the company will be able to continue as a going concern," the company saw its stock fall 21.3% on Wednesday, ending at an all-time low of 81 cents. That was on the heels of a 26% plunge the day before. In recent months, the troubled company has been beset by sales declines, losses, a crackdown on undocumented workers, problems with its debt, delayed quarterly filings and, most recently, an investigation by the U.S. attorney's office in New York related to the company's abrupt change in accounting firms. Industry experts say the company's problems are so severe that nothing short of a major overhaul in its business practices and management, which could include a possible bankruptcy filing, can pull it out of its free fall.

Some analysts contend that the company could only be saved with the removal of mercurial CEO Dov Charney, who has also faced numerous sexual harassment allegations from staffers.

BUTT Towels

BUTT Magazine has launched a line of beach towels. Slideshow here.

The limited-edition, 31-by-64-inch towels come in the mag's signature pink-and-black palette, and each one features a tasty BUTT model, including artist Brian Kenny and porn star Arpad Miklos. The towels cost $45 each, and a portion of the sales benefits the Ali Forney Center.

The towels are sold exclusively at American Apparel, a place only the Ali Forney Center could get me to patronize.

(Tipped by JMG reader Band)

American Apparel: We Don't Hire Uglies

Yesterday Gawker dug up an internal memo from American Apparel directing managers to send in photos of potential new employees so that anybody not up to their model-pretty standards could be immediately weeded out. One former manager tells Gawker about the kind of black girls she was instructed to hire: "None of the trashy kind that come in, we don't want that. We're not trying to sell our clothes to them. Try to find some of these classy black girls, with nice hair, you know?"