• Home
  • V1
  • Fashion
  • Forever 21 opens epic flagship

Forever 21 opens epic flagship

By FashionUnited

loading...

Scroll down to read more

Fashion

Fast fashion retailer Forever 21 opens its gargantuan new store on New York's Times Square on Friday. The Times Square store will be the brand's biggest location, spanning four floors and the equivalent of 1.5 football fields. The modestly

sized street-level entrance gives way to three sprawling subterranean floors, with 151 dressing rooms and 32 cash registers.

  It's likely to take market share from teen retailers, many of which are in the neighborhood, reports the Wall Street Journal: across the street is American Eagle Outfitters Inc., the preppy retailer that targets college students. American Eagle opened its four-floor, above ground 25,000-square-foot store last November and outfitted the exterior with a massive video screen that projects photos of customers. Aeropostale Inc., which has a similar aesthetic but a younger audience, has plans to open a 14,000-square foot store nearby
by the end of the year.

Forever
21 says its sales will approach $3 billion this year, up from $2.3 billion last year and more than triple its 2005 level.

The company is helmed by Don Chang, a Korean immigrant who came to the U.S nearly three decades ago. Mr. Chang and his wife opened their first clothing store in 1984, a 900-square-foot boutique on Figueroa Street in Los Angeles named Fashion 21. Within five years, the Changs had changed the name to Forever 21 and expanded the fleet to 11
stores, averaging about 5,000 square feet.

Forever 21's store size expanded rapidly as real estate became available. The company joined with Kohl's Corp. to buy the Mervyns leases and now occupies 23 of those 46 spaces.

More recently, Forever 21 said it would take over the lease of Saks Fifth Avenue's 33,000-square foot store in downtown Charleston, S.C., that the luxury department store is closing.

Forever 21 has been rolling out new categories in recent years to expand its range. It launched menswear in 2006 and children's apparel early this year. The company has also added several additional women's lines, including the plus-sized collection Faith 21 and the more envelope-pushing Twelve by Twelve, which is its most high-fashion line. They also offer footwear, accessories and a small selection of beauty products.

In its core fast-fashion market, which is known for low prices and fast inventory turnovers, Forever 21 ranks among the most inexpensive sellers. Its prices fall well below those of Arcadia Group Ltd.'s Topshop and Inditex SA's Zara, both of which target a slightly older set of shoppers. In many categories, Forever 21 is also less expensive than H&M, one of the most ubuquitous low-priced fashion brands on the U.S. retail landscape.

Forever 21 now has roughly 480 stores, primarily in the U.S. but with a handful of locations in Asia.

The Times Square location won't be Forever 21's biggest for long. Later this year, it plans to open a 120,000-square-foot store in Las Vegas, in addition to the 85,000-square-foot store in Cerritos, Calif., outside of Los Angeles, that opened earlier this year.

Image: Forever 21 Times Square
Source: WSJ
Forever 21
Forever21