In a dimly lit private dining room at the Redeye Grill in Manhattan, four board members of American Apparel and their lawyer plotted out their next 24 hours over steaks and red wine.

It was time; they had gathered there in conclusion, aiming to fire the company’s founder and chief executive, Dov Charney, whose flamboyant leadership under mounting legal and financial setbacks had finally snapped the close bond with his handpicked board.

But executing his dismissal would require a bit of staging, a bit of role-playing among the board members, who envisioned various situations that could unfold once they approached Mr. Charney with the intention of ousting him.

The small, intimate group — two board members were absent, along with Mr. Charney — braced for a bruising, explosive fight with the man who was about to lose the company he had devoted his life to since founding it in 1998. And there seems little doubt that strategies for dealing with the public fallout weighed on the board members’ minds. Allan Mayer, a board member, was a co-author of a book on public relations called “Spin: How to Turn the Power of the Press to Your Advantage.”