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Dov Charney teases his latest venture with a new website, posts to social media

An April 2016 file photo of American Apparel founder Dov Charney in south Los Angeles where he hopes to open a manufacturing facility for his new apparel brand.
An April 2016 file photo of American Apparel founder Dov Charney in south Los Angeles where he hopes to open a manufacturing facility for his new apparel brand.
(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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The L.A. T-Shirt guy is indeed plotting a comeback.

If anyone suspected Dov Charney’s new apparel endeavor was all talk, there’s a pretty good record and indication of what he’s been slowly building in South Central for perhaps as much as a year. His love for Los Angeles appears written all over it.

The American Apparel founder quietly put up a site more than a month ago called That’s Los Angeles by Dov Charney. He tipped WWD off to the endeavor, yet declined to discuss it. The site appears to still be in its nascent stage with the only content posted being a slideshow of images, many of them shot by Charney, of various streetscapes, wall murals, residential neighborhoods, freeway overpasses and local businesses scattered throughout downtown Los Angeles, South Central and other places. Aside from that, there’s a contact box for inquiries but no address.

It’s no secret Charney has been working on a new apparel line, with the company’s headquarters in South Central, but he’s otherwise been generally mum on the specifics. Chad Hagan of Hagan Capital Group, who went in with Charney on a bid for American Apparel in January, told WWD earlier this year the new line would be a basics brand for men and women made in the U.S. with a focus on building out the wholesale business, at least initially. Information beyond that has been hard to come by.

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Charney said earlier this month while in Las Vegas for the trade showstaking place there that he was doing “subterranean work” for his new business, although he confirmed he was not showing his new line there.

Another “subterranean” effort is an Instagram account that appears to belong to Charney, which includes snaps — many of which also live on the site — of him cutting denim, cutting T-shirts and inside a South Central dye house.

Even more telling is another post with a caption that sheds some light on the new venture’s supply chain, including Georgia-grown cotton (Georgia being where Hagan Capital has offices) and yarn spun in South Carolina.

It all appears marketing build-up as Charney plots his second act.

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