fashion forever

The chain, originally known as Fashion 21, was founded in Los Angeles, California in 1984 by South Korean Dong-Won Chang and his wife, Jin Sook. The first store opened on April 21st, 1984, located at 5637 N. Figueroa St. in the Highland Park district of Los Angeles, and was only 900 square feet it is still in operation and bears the chain's original name. Trendy designs seen in South Korea were sold and targeted to the Los Angeles Korean American Community. However, people from many other ethnicities began noticing the fashion forward designs, and the store became increasingly popular. By the end of the first year, sales had risen Fashion 21 eventually expanded at the rate of a new store every six months and changed the Fashion 21 brand name to Forever 21.
In 1989, Forever 21 opened its 11th store and first store located in a mall, at the Panorama Mallich is in Panorama City, CA. Forever 21 increased its presence by expanding the average size to 5,000 square feet per store. Since then, Forever 21 has been running specialty stores in major mall locations nationwide. In 1995, the company expanded their store in Miami's Mall of the Americas, this location was the first store outside of California. Adding new stores every six months, Forever 21 had reached a total of 40 stores by 1997.
Creating its own prototype store in Northridge Fashion Center, Forever 21 has employed its proprietary design concepts to all its stores since. By this time Forever 21 also increased its average size to 9,000 square feet (840 m2) per store in prime spots of top tier malls. The first European store is due to open in Dublin, Ireland, in the Jervis Shopping Centre on November 15, 2010. The store will occupy 70,000 square feet over the ground, upper ground and first floor levels.
UK stores are opening soon with the first in Birmingham's Bullring and second opening in London when a site is found. Going up against established stores H&M, New Look and Primark Forever 21 has signed a lease for a 33,000 sqaure foot store in Charleson, South Carolina, in a former Saks Location. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2010. Stores The Forever 21 Retail Inc. owns and operates numerous stores in different formats. The stores are: Forever 21: main and original store carrying women's clothing, accessories, swimwear, lingerie, and shoes.
XXI Forever: flagship high square footage store carrying merchandise from all store formats. Heritage1981: offshoot format store carrying vintage inspiredclothing, accessories, and et-cetera. women merchandise in smaller stores from the Gadzooks, Inc. aquistion. women merchandise in different store format from Reference Clothing Company acquisition. Accessory store.
Twelve by Twelve: Upscale Los Angeles couture inspired clothing.
women's clothing in extended sizes contemporary line for women Forever 21 An exclusive limited edition collection, launching a new theme every 4-6 weeks. Collections so far include Cirque 21, Twist of Punk, Ballet- Tutu Cute, Disco 21, Tres Paris, Rocker Babes, Twisted Wonderland, and All Dolled Up.
kid format equivalent to the Heritage1981 adult line. Formerly named Heritage1981 Mens, is the mens portion with vintaged inspired clothing,accessories, and et-cetera XXI Forever is the name for the newest flagship stores throughout the country. Latest stores openings are XXI Forever, Forever21 still has openings of the original store, but as a big box, including the 21Men line. Not only XXI stores carry the 21Men clothing line, but also the new store openings of Forever21 do as well.
Times Square Plans are in the works to open a 90,000 square feet (8,400 m2) Forever 21 in Manhattan, in Times Square, in the space formerly occupied by the Virgin Megastore, in addition to some adjoining space. The store is set to open inearly to mid June with four levels. Flagship Store On January 23, 2010 Forever 21 opened a new 85,000 square feet store in Cerritos, California. Being one of the largest, the store is designated as the chain's flagship sto e Controversy
In November 2001, factory workers producing clothing for the company called for a store boycott untl working conditions and payroll improved. The lawsuit was dropped when Forever 21 paid the workers' back wages. The matter was settled out of court and the company, which admitted no wrongdoing, agreed to take steps to ensure that its garments were not made in sweatshops. In 2004, under pressure from PETA, Forever 21 agreed to stop selling clothing made with animal fur. Forever 21 has also been accused of stealing designs from high-end fashion brands. Recently, designer Diane von Fürsterg has filed a lawsuit against Forever 21 for duplicating her dress designs.[ Since that time Furstenberg has settled with the company for undisclosed terms.[ Singer and designer Gwen Stefani has filed a federal lawsuit against the fashion megachain, claiming the retailer illegally ripped off her Harajuku Loversdesigns.Designer Anna S has also filed a lawsuit against Forever 21 alleging that Forever 21 sold and offered for sale numerous women's fast fashioclothing items bearing a striking similarity to her products featured at the most recent New York Fashion Week shows The store was the subject of the documentary Made in L. which focused on the awareness campaign organized by the store's garment facory workers.
Forever 21 has also come under fire from the South Central Farmers and other California-based activist groups in a campaign known collectively as Never Forever 21.The criticism is based on Forever 21’s involvement in a proposed deal with developer Ralph Horowitz to build a warehouse and distribution center on the land that was formerly the site of the South Central Farm
Although most shoppers are unaware they are carrying around a Bible verse, Forever 21 has received criticism in the media for printing John on the bottom on their trademark yellow bags. A Spokeswoman from Forever 21's LA headquarters said the biblical quote is a "demonstration of the owners' faith." Some have compared the bags to the In-N-Out Burger chain who prints the quote "John 3:16" on the bottom of its cups. References Retrieved from Categories: Companies established in 1984 Clothing retailers of th United States Clothing brands Companies based in Los Angeles, California Personal tools Variants ViewsThis page was last modified on 14 June 2010 at . Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licenseadditional terms may apply. See Terms of Us for details.Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. a non-profit organization.