American Apparel Celebrates the 6th Anniversary of Its First Stores

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- American Apparel (NYSE Amex:
APP) is celebrating its sixth year anniversary as a retailer. On October 13th,
2003, American Apparel opened its first store in Montreal, following it
quickly with a store in New York City and Los Angeles. It was the beginning of
the fastest roll-out in retail history.

The first store, in Montreal on St-Laurent Blvd, opened the day after Canadian
Thanksgiving and did $1,100 in sales. On October 19th, 2003, the company
opened in Echo Park in Los Angeles at the corner of Sunset and Alvarado. In
New York City, a few weeks later, the American Apparel on Broadway and
Washington Place sold $5,500 worth of clothes on its first day. Two of the
original stores remain flagship locations for American Apparel in Los Angeles
and Manhattan. In the six years since, American Apparel has grown from those
three stores to more than 275 in 20 countries including Brazil, Israel, China,
Japan and others.

"This has been a very interesting journey for us," said CEO and founder, Dov
Charney. "It couldn't have happened without the hard work and support of our
employees and customers."

In 2003, American Apparel was a small company, known for the blank t-shirts it
sold to screen printers and private labels. The first stores sold just these
basic t-shirts, dresses, socks, underwear and sweatshirts. Today, American
Apparel has expanded to include men's button-down dress shirts, swimsuits,
jackets, hosiery and other products in a wide array of prints and fabrics.
These garments are knit, dyed, sewn, designed, distributed, marketed and
modeled by American Apparel employees in Los Angeles - a vertically-integrated
operation that now includes over 9,000 employees and $500M in annual sales.

"We've had a challenging year but we've accomplished a lot in a short time. In
my opinion, we're just getting started," Dov Charney said.

About American Apparel

American Apparel is a vertically integrated manufacturer, distributor, and
retailer of branded fashion basic apparel based in downtown Los Angeles,
California. As of September 30, 2009, American Apparel employed approximately
9,000 people and operated over 275 retail stores in 20 countries, including
the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria,
Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland,
Israel, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and China. American Apparel also
operates a leading wholesale business that supplies high quality T-shirts and
other casual wear to distributors and screen printers. In addition to its
retail stores and wholesale operations, American Apparel operates an online
retail e-commerce website at http://www.americanapparel.com.

SOURCE American Apparel

Marsha Brady of American Apparel, +1-213-488-0226, marsha@americanapparel.net