The one question on everybody's lips: Since when has American Apparel founder Dov Charney ever looked so respectable?

Perhaps someone should also ask Portfolio editor Joanne Lipman why she decided to put the notorious playboy/sleazebag who reinvented the Lycra bodysuit on the cover of their November issue when the whole world is collapsing and their magazine could stand to profit off a little coverage (like Financial Times!).

Oh, someone already did:

"American Apparel is a huge retail story," said Ms. Lipman in an e-mailed statement sent through a Portfolio spokeswoman. "Its sales are up 24% for the 3rd quarter at a time when the entire retail industry is in deep decline‹ plus Dov Charney (the owner) is out there on the eve of the biggest election in decades talking provocatively about the immigration issue."

Heh, whenever Dov Charney needs to validate his self-worth or look in the mirror, he just reminds himself that he cares about sweatshop labor and immigration rights. That totally makes up for all those pesky sexual harassment suits filed against him, right?

If Lipman's tactic was to keep readers distracted from the economy long-enough to remember how much they hate Charney but ooh…sort of need to buy some new leggings at American Apparel (and thus bolster the market?) then, touché, friends. Your subliminal buy-American marketing scheme is a total success.