American Apparel its known for two things: sweatshop-free, American-made basics and risqué (some might say raunchy) ads. But just four months after the ouster of founder and CEO Dov Charney over multiple allegations of sexual impropriety and poor corporate stewardship, the brand is cleaning up its act.

American Apparel’s newest ad, tagged “Hello Ladies,” features several women...but they aren’t the skin-baring ingénues of the company’s past. Instead, they are fully clothed and smiling former and current employees at the company’s Los Angeles headquarters — Hilda and Cecilia from quality control, Paula and Bianca from hosiery, and so on.

At the top of American Apparel’s revamp is new CEO Paula Schneider, a former BCBG Max Azria executive who has promised to eradicate Charney’s “culture of sleaze.” 

New leadership, sans sleaze

Past American Apparel ads have regularly stirred controversy for their overt sexuality, such as a number of NSFW ads for miniskirts that only showed models from the rear, bent over or astride bicycles. Another ad appearing last fall as part of a back-to-school campaign was banned in the U.K. for its “inappropriately sexualizing” up-skirt shots.

American Apparel’s contention at the time was that its ads attempt to show wearers of its merchandise in a natural, unrehearsed setting. But the unstaged, high-contrast look of the photography has often contributed to the ads’ sleaze factor.

American Apparel ads will no longer be “sexual for sexual’s sake,” Schneider told the Los Angeles Times.

It's worth noting that “Hello Ladies” has drawn fire for listing longtime creative directors Iris Alonzo and Marsha Brady in the ad — Charney acolytes fired by Schneider. Nonetheless, it is running in the tastemaking (if male-skewing) alternative newsmagazine Vice, which has a new, female editor in chief, Ellis Jones, who is also looking to broaden her brand’s reach.

“We have had a great relationship with Vice for years, and plan on continuing to work closely with them on future campaigns and partnerships,” American Apparel’s senior vice president of marketing, Cynthia Erland, said in a statement.

Cleaner ads for consideration

Another new ad turns the American Apparel template on its head to go full-on cute for an Earth Day promotion. “Meet Buttercup,” the tagline says, showing a three-toed Bradypus sloth in what might, for another species, be a suggestive reclining pose. Buttercup will appear on a limited-edition T-shirt designed by artist Todd Selby, with 30% of sales proceeds going to the Sloth Sanctuary of Costa Rica, where she lives.

Last month, American Apparel started scrubbing its product ads clean of any perceived impropriety, Photoshopping pictures to remove nipples and pubic hair when promoting sheer undergarments on live models — only a year after adding merkins to mannequins in stores under the Charney regime. Ironically, these ads have drawn fire from feminists who find airbrushing unrealistic and regressive.

The hope is that the “Hello Ladies” empowerment message and other efforts will help the brand stay au courant without the smut.

“[American Apparel] is an edgy brand and it’s always going to be an edgy brand, and it’s about social commentary, it’s about gay rights, and it’s about immigration reform,” Schneider told the New York Times. “It’s about the things millennials care about.”

Creating structure where little existed

Beyond toning down its salacious image, Schneider plans to install a legitimate corporate structure at American Apparel in place of Charney’s capricious micromanagement. While Charney might hand-pick models and specify fabrics, he wasn’t big on outlining nuts-and-bolts policies for essentials such as employee evaluations.

American Apparel has also been losing money — more than $300 million in the last five years. Schneider “has driven several turnarounds in her career, and that was an important thing to consider when we were looking for a CEO,” board chair Colleen Brown told the Los Angeles Times. “The company has not made money for a while, so we needed someone who could get a strategic plan and put it into place.”

Schneider’s full plan is due this month. She has so far streamline American Apparel’s product line, added staff to improve demand forecasting, and hired the company’s first chief digital officer to improve e-commerce efforts, an area where American Apparel lags. “When we look at it compared to our peers, there is a lot more room to grow,” she said in the Los Angeles Times report.

Schneider has her work cut out for her. But a cleaned-up, socially conscious American Apparel could clean up well in the marketplace.