Cynical Picture Emerges In 'Splasher' Mystery

So, any theories at all?

"I think someone is trying to implicate us," she says.

Aha! It's not American Apparel, it's an enemy of American Apparel. A setup, if you will. Perhaps someone less than satisfied with its $18 forest/gold fine jersey ringer tank with contrast binding and generous armhole openings, hmmmm? Or the disgruntled owner of a $30 nylon tricot men's swim brief, front lined with durable stitching all around, plus water-wicking Helenca lining.

Or it could be any of the locals who groused when American Apparel opened a store two years ago in Williamsburg. We're talking about the capital of boho cool, a place that's always been hostile to retail chains of any kind.

"That store just seemed to open up one day out of the blue, and there were plenty of people who weren't happy about it," says Billy Campion, a rocker who performs under the name Vic Thrill. "I wouldn't put it past someone around here to frame the place."

The inelegantly titled "I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin" blog discovered and photographed the new AA-infused manifestos on Sunday night and posted those photos Monday, along with some idle guesses about what it all means. Theory No. 1: It's been American Apparel from the get-go, no matter what they say.

"Naturally, they'll deny everything -- after all, graffiti in all forms is still technically a crime, isn't it," the blogger wrote. Or it could be someone is splashing the Splasher, as a blogger with the Village Voice hypothesized on Tuesday. A way to say, "You've got all the street cred of a semi-naked bozo in an American Apparel ad." Or words to that effect.

Then again, it could be that American Apparel wasn't the Splasher from the beginning but now is trying to leap on the Splasher bandwagon with a little guerrilla marketing. Maybe the company pasted up a bunch of manifestos that incorporate AA ads, hoping that it would turn up on blogs (as it did), then be amplified in newspapers by nitwit reporters (gulp).

This required closer inspection. A couple of the ad-festoes were examined up close Monday afternoon on North Sixth Street in Brooklyn. It was clear that these are digital photos, not originals. (They look kind of grainy, for one thing.) These particular examples were on a wall one block from that aforementioned American Apparel store. So it seemed like a good idea to head inside the place and accuse the employees of graffiti splashing.

Oh, like they cared. Staffers in this place greet every customer, it seems, with a look that could only be described as "get it yourself," and reporters are treated no differently. The store manager was Pete Ruppert, a young man sporting a bunch of colorful tattoos, including one that read "Be Your Own Boss," next to an image of a handgun. He said he had not heard of any Splasher-American Apparel connection. Really, cross his heart and hope to die. He then agreed to take a walk and look at the faux splatterings on that North Sixth Street wall.

"That's Glen," said Ruppert, as he studied the evidence. "I went to school with him."

For a moment, it seemed like he was saying, "Glen did this," but it turned out he was referring to the dude in the green undies. Okay, Mr. Ruppert, you know a male model. But any idea whether AA is actually behind this paste-up?

He shook his head, on which rested a Detroit Tigers cap, tipped sideways for a hint of hip-hop flava. "If this had anything to do with our advertising, I'd know about it," he said.

Case unclosed, it seems. Which might be better than the alternative. American Apparel shills, in the street, with color photocopies and paste-- frankly, this urban game of Clue deserves a better ending than that.