American Apparel to rehire former creative director

American Apparel has reportedly rehired Iris Alonzo as its senior creative director, according to sources close to the

matter.

Alonzo reappointment is thought to help the retailer bring back a sense of normality to its company, whilst overseeing its ongoing development during its period of turbulate change. Earlier this year, the company's board unanimously voted for the removal its founder, Dov Charney, from his position as CEO due to his misconduct and abuse of corporate funds. Alonzo was fired shortly after his exit.

However since then, Charney has taken on a series of lawyers to fight against what he called “wrongful and baseless allegations,” and has been pressuring the company board to be reinstated by increasing his stake in the company to 40 percent. Some sources claim that Alonzo's rehire is proof of the ongoing influence Charney continues to hold at American Apparel, with the creative director said to be big supporter of Charney.

“If he were to not be put back into a leadership position, the steam would soon dissipate,” said Alonzo to the Los Angeles Times earlier this summer. However other internal sources have rejected this idea, claiming that Brubaker is the one calling the shoots now at American Apparel. “Charney has had no impact one way or the other on any personnel decisions being made. [Interim ceo] Scott Brubaker is the one ultimately making those decisions, not Dov,”
said a source close to the company to WWD.

Another source added that although Brubaker has spoken to Charney and received his recommendations, Charney still does not have free reign so to speak at the company. Although he is currently acting as a consultant for the company according to one source, he is only asked to participate in its ongoing business at Brubaker's call and does not hold a supervisory role.

“Dov is fighting hard to regain the CEO job,” said the source. “Dov is being very difficult in terms of accepting anything less than the CEO position.”