I traded my sequined bolero and my dreams of a Nicole Richie-esque angel wings tattoo SO fast when the first American Apparel opened up in Boston in the early 2000s. Should I buy that textbook or that silver lamé bikini I’ll never wear? The choice was obvious. Do I need those tall retro varsity socks that will never see the light of day or do I NEED them!? These were serious dilemas in my college years, so when I read the synopsis for this book I was both so intrigued and so not looking forward to thinking back on my embarrassing relationship with the American Apparel culture.

This book is pure nostalgia for anyone who remembers the essence of American Apparel first coming onto the scene, but it’s also so much more. It’s an exploration of a young woman on her own in LA, trying to navigate through and climb up in a company that throws traditional rules out the window. It’s a story of the explotation of feminism and the author’s reckoning with her part in it. It’s truly a fantastic story and I would recommend it to anyone — even if you didn’t have an unhealthy obsession with American Apparel in the early days. The story of the male stripper during her college years was a particular favorite for me.

4.25 stars

Thank you Net Galley for

This book drew me in at the outset! It is a non-fiction memoir of sorts of the author's time working for the infamous American Apparel brand. She is a fresh-eyed college graduate from Wellesley College and moves to Los Angeles to start her career/life. She is approached in a bar by a young woman who is a "recruiter" for American Apparel and starts to get pulled into the mythology and misogyny of the founder and the brand. It reminded me so much of other cults such as Nxivm where young women are trying to vie for attention of the abusive founder. Similar to Nxivm, it is young women recruiting other young women. They are exploited too because they are also the unpaid models for the brand. There is sexual harassment and assault in this workplace and it is swept under the rug by HR. This was at times a difficult read and yet I could not put it down. I started to feel disappointed near the end, where it seemed she just would be complacent and complicit and if the company wasn't taken over and eventually shut down, she may have stayed a part of it. But without spoiling the ending, I loved how she has a kind of cliff-hanger of sorts that was extremely well written. I recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt and Company for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

Could not put it down! Maybe it’s because I lived in LA and saw what American Apparel was doing from a distance (while hearing lots of rumors fly). Working close to their production facility and always seeing their ads to hire on Craigslist kept the brand on my radar for some time. Or maybe it’s because I studied and worked in fashion design and an inner look at any company is fascinating because it usually ends up being a very different world once you are inside. No matter your connection to the brand or fashion, I think this book would pull in many female, millennial readers as it is funny, easy to read, and brings us back to a shared moment in time.

This was a fast read. I enjoyed reading an insiders perspective of what it was like working for American Apparel during their heyday. We all know now what a creep Dov charney is but this book shows how he was allowed to get away with it for so long. My only critique is that I wish Kate had written a longer epilogue. We spend the entire time wanting her to leave the company and expose them but she's laid off instead and describes a few failed interviews until she lands on her feet. I would have liked to hear more about her few years after leaving AA.

4.5 ⭐️
Strip Tees is Kate Flannery’s debut memoir telling all about her experience as one of the first girls caught up in the perverse and cultic web that is American Apparel. This memoir exposes the chaotic inner workings of a brand that took the world by storm under the guise of “empowering feminist and sex positive” advertising, “ethical” practices and retro minimalist style, all while being run by pervert CEO Dov Charney. Flannery’s descriptions are so vivid of the landscapes she experienced while scouting for many locations, the interactions between her and the other AA employees and the mental toll the company takes on her throughout her journey. This is a must read for anyone interested in the grimy behind the scenes of Hollywood’s fashion industry.
Big thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co for the e-ARC!

Best when Flannery deeply interrogates herself and her choices. Otherwise a tidy narrative that is occasionally embedded in the Los Angeles of the early to mid aughts. Would pair well with a heavily reported book about the rise and fall of American Apparel.

I really enjoyed Strip Tees! I requested in impulsively, not fully understanding what I was getting into. I loved that it began with Flannery feeling so pleased with herself that she avoided being sucked into a cult. I thought that was great, It was a real journey and quite compelling. I don't read a lot of book about cults and California... unless I do.

“I was in Los Angeles for Less than a month before I got scouted by a cult.”

With an opening line like that, I was immediately sucked into the story which was a fascinating and enthralling read. I was fairly young when American Apparel was in their Prime but had heard of the brand before going into this book. I didn’t know much about the controversy or the true ins and outs of the company. This memoir is juicy and almost reads like a novel, which makes it even more difficult to stomach that so many women including Flannery fell victim to this predatory company. Flannery is a masterful storyteller who really brought the reader into her world.

As the reader there were times I found myself frustrated or questioning Flannery’s actions but ultimately I remembered this happened almost 20 years ago and a lot has changed since then. Her actions were very fitting of the climate at the time period. It’s also so easy to lose yourself at that age especially in a new environment.

This memoir is full of important commentary on not only the predatory allure that can suck in even the strongest women but also on finding/losing yourself, womanhood and identity. Strip Tees highlights the truth that we are all products of our own generations… good and bad. This would be a great read for any millennial or upper Gen Z women who enjoys pop culture or any women interested in cults and predatory business!

Thank you to Henry and Holt for sending me an early copy of Strip Tees!

Strip Tees gives you an inside look at the rise and fall of American Apparel. Flannery spares no one in her tail of manipulation, abuse, and poor ethics. Reading this was like being told hot gossip, it was a quick read. Flannery’s style is matter of fact and makes you feel what she was feeling. Even if you don’t particularly care about American Apparel, this is still interesting read.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Kate Flannery, and Henry Holt & Co for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This was such a fascinating and enthralling read. Although I was only 7 in 2005 (the year in which most of Strip Tees takes place), I can definitely remember the prominence of American Apparel in the teen mags I read growing up and seeing the ads everywhere. They were iconic in the sense that the branding was immediately recognizable: a little brash but also seemingly effortlessly cool and minimal in an era that was over the top. I vaguely knew about all the controversy surrounding the founder, Dov, back from when the company went bankrupt, but I didn't know the true ins and outs. Flannery is a masterful storyteller that brought me as a reader directly into her world of the dark side of sunny LA. Strip Tees is extremely juicy and almost reads like a novel, which is even harder to stomach realizing this happened to so many women, including Kate herself. There is so much important commentary within the memoir on not only the predatory allure that can easily suck in even the strongest woman, but also on identity, finding/losing yourself, and womanhood. As someone who was a little girl who thought the women in these ads were so "cool", it truly is a bit sickening and heartbreaking to realize the brutal truth and what the women went through. I'm 25 at the time of reading this, the same age as Kate was working for American Apparel; it is mind-boggling both how much things have and have not changed within our society since then. I highly encourage reading this if you are a millenial/upper Gen Z woman or if you enjoy pop culture memoirs/commentary. Flannery is a talented writer that writes a brutally honest account of the dark side of fashion that immerses you on every page.

No, didn’t like it, but also couldn’t put it down. I wish she talked about her post American apparel life though.

Anyone cognizant during the early 2000s remembers the provocative often explicit advertising of American Apparel. I was in college when the t-shirt company was at its height and its stranglehold on popular culture could not be avoided.

This memoir tracks Kate Flannery’s experience with the company - the highs and the lows - and also offers a look at what it was to be coming of age during this very particular time.

I was captivated by this story, not just for the salacious, insider gossip, but because it offered up an often overlooked narrative of how women are often complicit with the patriarchy. It’s a fascinating read and I highly recommend it, especially to anyone who once owned a pair of thigh-high tube socks. Iykyk.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Strip Tess recounts Kate Flannery's experiences working for American Apparel. A company that would be full of so much controversy, so many lawsuits, and would ultimately file for bankruptcy and fade into oblivion with the likes of Von Dutch and others.

This memoir is a brave, honest, and unapologetic spilling of the tea. As we follow Kate navigating the early 2000s in Los Angeles, one cannot help but be swept up in nostalgia. The days before social media dominated the world. The phone to have was a Blackberry, and Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan names were on every gossip girl's lips.

Not only do we get all the dirty details of what went on behind the scenes of this fashion company and it's toxic yet intoxication promises from the CEO and the woman under his spell, we see the very real thought process as Kate attempts to balance what this business demands and what her self-respect requires while staying true to herself as a sex-positive feminist.

Strip Tees was a memoir of a young girl who gets recruited into the work force of the American Apparel company. She is excited for her new life and new adventures in LA but quickly finds out that the company is run like a cult by a domineering and overly sexual man. This story is eye opening because it brings to light many problems facing young women in the workforce today.

Lots of things to love about this book- it’s captivating and well-written. It shows the drive of a young woman and her determination to succeed and rise through the ranks without stooping to the level of sleeping with her perv off a boss.

That said, the corporate structure is toxic. When the head of a company is an inconsiderate, horny prick, everyone under him pays the price (no pun intended).

The only thing I didn’t like about this book is that Kate couldn’t find her way out until she was laid off. To recognize such a negative environment and remain in it is frustrating to me.

Strip Tees was an entertainment, enlightening, nostalgic memoir about a young woman, starting her career during the American Apparel revolution. There was a beautiful balance of humor, frustration and feminism from the eyes of a 20 something making her way in the world.

I loved American Apparel in the late 00s-early 10s and I was somewhat aware of the Charney scandal and allegations, but I never grasped the full scope of the grooming and abuse of power and the toxic pseudo sex-positivity until Strip Tees. Much like Flannery, AA and their ideals and especially their ads were exciting and dazzling to me as a young adult/baby feminist and looking back now, while it’s hard to remove the soft glow of nostalgia I associate with them, the underlying exploitative nature of it all is disturbingly apparent. Even more so after this memoir. It was addictive and enthralling and anyone who came of age in the indie days of the aughts will love it.

I would like to thank Henry Holt and Net galley for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC. I am an unlikely person to read this book. I am more the age and disposition if the authors mother than the author. In the early 2000's, I was working in healthcare management and sending my children off to college, not navigating the world of retail fashion in California.However, Kate Flannery made this a book I could not put down. Kate moved to LA, and fell into a job with American Apparel. AA was , basically, a tee shirt company, but to Kate and a lot of others, it became, home, job , family, a way of life. As she describes it, a cult. She is unsparing in her descriptions of her bosses, co workers and her self. She buys in to whatever they were selling , T shirts, sex, mushrooms, fame. It is a well written, well thought out book. I wish she had given a little more of, what happened after, but that is just me. I highly recommend this book.

I freaking loved this book! It's a fun and sometimes serious insider look into the clothing company American Apparel and its CEO. The first line reads, "I was in Los Angeles for less than a month before I got scouted by a cult." Funny, right? It's so well written I read it in a day because I couldn't put it down.

This is such an interesting memoir looking at one woman’s time working for American Apparel in the early 2000s. It shows how easily people can be taken advantage of and how ideas like sex positivity and feminism can be warped to excuse abuse and exploitation. I was vaguely aware of the CEO of American Apparel having done inappropriate things, but I never knew the whole context of what happened behind the scenes at the company. So it was interesting to hear Kate Flannery’s story of how she was brought in, the things she saw from the CEO and other employees, how she was at first able to rationalize them as positive things, to finally realizing how exploitative the business actually was.

I did find myself wishing that a bit more time was spent on what she did after leaving American Apparel, that part of the book is over pretty quickly. But overall I think this is a really fascinating read. It’s a great look back at the early 2000s and the ways that media and culture overall treated women. Definitely check this one out if it sounds interesting to you.