Shopgirl Pride: On Kate Flannery’s “Strip Tees”

BY THE TIME I enlisted at American Apparel in 2010, the company was deep in a classy rebrand, swapping the 1970s porny sportswear for a pastiche of late-’80s/early-’90s preppy chic. Think: “Ralph Lauren-Vogue-Nautical–High end,” according to the employee handbook. It was a vague, imprecise dress code in lockstep with the era’s kitchen-sink anachronisms; you’d know it when you saw it. We called this new vintage on-brand.