American Apparel, Inc., the downtown L.A.-based clothing company, is bucking the trend of the recession.

The company announced on Wednesday that its first quarter comparable retail store sales increased 37.5 percent from last year.

For March 2008, comparable store sales rose 28.7 percent versus only 25 percent in March 2007.

The 2008 sales comparison tallied 140 of the company’s stores.

American Apparel, which employs 6,700 people worldwide and 187 retail stores, opened six new foreign retail locations this first quarter, including stores in South Korea, Germany and Australia.

American Apparel plans to report its first quarter financial results by May 12.