From Kate Flannery, who now works for RuPaul's Drag Race, comes Strip Tees, a memoir of her 20s living in Los Angeles and working at American Apparel. Flannery's debut, set in the 2000s, is an engaging personal history of a corporation, and a reflection on the manipulation of feminist ideals for profit. Fresh from Bryn Mawr with a bachelor's degree in creative writing, Flannery works a stint as an office drone at Urban Outfitters in Philadelphia. She moves to Los Angeles, seeking a reset and better opportunities in fashion. A woman in a bar recruits her to join American Apparel, an upstart company selling hip clothes made in the U.S. Flannery is desperate for steady income, impressed by the company's feminist mantras and many female employees, and eager to catch a wave, so she joins. After an impromptu amateur modeling session--standard for young female employees, apparently--she is hired to work at a store in Echo Park.
At first, she's worried she has traded office drone life to be a retail go-fer. But when she hires and photographs a young woman that the founder and CEO finds attractive, Flannery's career is turbocharged. She begins touring the country, opening store after store as the brand expands. She revels in the responsibility, glamour, and seeming liberations--until the contradictions of her life and work become irreconcilable. Flannery's beliefs and social awareness are challenged, and she must redefine self-respect. Told in unembellished prose, the story propels itself, but Flannery's telling is balanced with thoughtful retrospection, contemporary context, and dark comedic irony. --Walker Minot, writer and editor