Los Angeles: As Forever 21 continues to rocket into the 21st century, competitors are undoubtedly trying to decode the fast-fashion chain's successful formula.
Low prices? Trendy merchandise that cycles in and out of stores on a daily basis? Super-size stores modelled after the 86,000-square-foot location that recently opened in Cerritos, California?
Forever 21 has all that, but the real secret weapon may be a couple of women who look as if they're barely out of high school. Linda Chang, 28, and her sister Esther, 23, the Ivy League-educated daughters of Forever 21's Korean-American founders Don and Jin Sook Chang, seem to have the stylish eye and marketing savvy to take the $2-billion (Dh7.34 billion) brand into the future and make it a competitor on a global level with European fast-fashion giants H&M, Mango and Zara.
The Chang sisters joined the LA-based company a little over a year ago — Linda to run the marketing department, and Esther to spearhead visuals, including graphics, store displays and window design. Linda is the quintessential young professional in Alexander Wang boyfriend jackets and Forever 21 jeans, cooking lasagna on weekends for friends in her Hollywood apartment.
Esther, the Gen Y younger sister in Forever 21 denim shorts, a TopShop flannel shirt and American Apparel knee-highs, still lives at home with mom, who is Forever 21's chief merchandising officer, and dad, who is chief executive.
If this is the first time you're reading about the sisters, it's because the company has shied away from courting the media. A reporter visiting Forever 21's downtown Los Angeles headquarters is admitted only to the lobby and a conference room. The building doesn't even have a sign outside.
Best friends
But now the Chang sisters, best friends who are "pretty much inseparable" when they aren't travelling, are talking — and they are such perfect faces for the brand, you wonder why they haven't been out front.
Don and Jin Sook Chang, who were born in South Korea and immigrated to Los Angeles in 1981, embraced the fashion business while Don was working at a gas station and noticed the best cars were driven by clothing merchants.
The couple opened the first Forever 21 store in LosAngeles' Highland Park area in 1984; initially, the merchandise was similar to the clothing you'd find in the stalls in downtown's Santee Alley: cheaply made knockoffs.
There were some lean years in Koreatown while the Changs built the business, but eventually, Linda said, the family had enough money to afford private school — Buckley and Harvard Westlake — for the girls, and a Beverly Hills estate.
By 2000 the company had 100 stores. Nonetheless, Linda and Esther weren't swimming in free clothes. "I never felt like it was a candy store," Linda said. "I was always concerned about how we could make it better."
Retail format
Last year, the retailer took over several leases from bankrupt department store Mervyn's, signalling a move from specialty store to big-box retail format. One of those was in Cerritos, where the new Forever 21 store is the prototype for all openings going forward.
There, all eight of Forever 21's collections are merchandised in separate departments, each with its own visuals. Every current spring trend is covered — tribal ($11.50 belted zigzag tunics), military ($22.80 cropped khaki cargo jackets), florals ($29 baby-floral print lace-up booties) and creative knits ($27.80 crochet dresses). And that has earned the chain some props.
Forever 21 has been name-checked by "American Idol" contestants and Hollywood stylists, and last week announced its first designer collaboration — a collection of graphic T-shirts with designer Brian Lichtenberg. (A favourite of Lady Gaga, Lichtenberg designed the caution-tape outfit for the singer's Telephone video.)
"Forever 21 offers great, trendy merchandise at low prices, and it turns very quickly," said Michael Stone, president and chief executive of brand licensing and consulting firm Beanstalk Group in New York.
