Fashion retailer Forever 21 files for bankruptcy

NEW YORK – The US operator of fast-fashion retailer Forever 21, a brand that once attracted droves of young women and girls to shop for cheap, trendy clothing, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in six years.

The move likely means liquidation for the company, which was unable to find a buyer for its roughly 350 US stores. Its trademark and intellectual property – still held by an entity called Authentic Brands Group – may live on in a different form.

Forever 21 closed its last physical store in Singapore in June 2021.

Founded in Los Angeles in 1984 by South Korean immigrants, Forever 21 at its height was popular among young shoppers on the prowl for stylish but affordable clothing. By 2016 it was operating around 800 stores globally, with 500 of those in the US.

But the rise of e-commerce, paired with the slow death of the American mega mall, has been an ongoing headwind for Forever 21. It previously filed for Chapter 11 in 2019 and was bought out of bankruptcy by Sparc, a joint venture between label owner Authentic Brands Group and mall operators Simon Property and Brookfield Asset Management.

Forever 21 said it will conduct liquidation sales at its stores while simultaneously conducting a court-supervised sale and marketing process for some or all of its assets.

The company listed its estimated assets in the range of US$100 million (S$133.4 million) to US$500 million, according to a filing with bankruptcy court in the District of Delaware, with liabilities being in the range of US$1 billion to US$10 billion. The filing also showed creditors in the range of 10,001 to 25,000.

In the event of a successful sale, Forever 21 said it may pivot away from a full wind down of operations to facilitate a going-concern transaction.

The company said its stores and website in the United States will remain open and continue serving customers, and that its international stores remain unaffected.

Forever 21 is owned by Catalyst Brands, an entity formed on Jan 8 through the merger of Forever 21’s previous owner, Sparc Group, and JCPenney, a department store chain owned since 2020 by mall operators and Simon Property Group.

When Catalyst Brands was formed, it said in a statement that it was “exploring strategic options” for Forever 21.

Authentic Brands will continue to own Forever 21’s trademark and intellectual property, which could live on in some form. Authentic Brands chief executive Jamie Salter in 2024 called acquiring Forever 21 “the biggest mistake I made”. REUTERS, BLOOMBERG