Forever 21

Forever 21 is an American fast-fashion retailer founded on April 16, 1984, by Do Won Chang and Jin Sook Chang, a married couple who had emigrated from South Korea, in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. It sold cheap, quickly changing clothing for young women, and in its larger stores that included lingerie, bralettes, sleepwear and swimwear. After two bankruptcies, in 2019 and 2025, the company closed all its American stores by May 2025. The name lives on through licensed operators in other countries.

Fashion 21 in Highland Park

The first shop was called Fashion 21. The Changs ran it as a small clothing store in northeast Los Angeles. Renamed Forever 21, the business grew on the formula that defines fast fashion: follow what is selling, produce it quickly, price it low, and replace it within weeks.

The formula worked spectacularly well for about twenty-five years. Forever 21 moved into malls across the United States and then abroad, and by the late 2010s it had around 600 stores and operations in about 40 countries. In 2006 it opened a large flagship in Pasadena that showed the full spread of its range under one roof, from clothing and accessories to lingerie. In 2017 it added a beauty chain, Riley Rose.

Where lingerie fit in the fast-fashion model

Forever 21 never built a serious bra business, and it never tried to. Fitted underwire bras in a wide range of cup sizes need expensive pattern work, fit testing and long-running core styles, all of which run against a model built on speed and constant change. What fast fashion does well is the part of the underwear drawer that behaves like clothing.

In the fast-fashion chains that means soft bralettes in lace and mesh, usually sized small, medium and large rather than by band and cup, along with briefs and thongs in seasonal prints, camisoles and sleepwear, and bikinis in summer. Forever 21's lingerie belonged to that tradition. At its prices, a lace bralette was as likely to be worn as a top for a night out as under anything.

This is the same territory later taken over by online sellers. Shein and Fashion Nova sell bralettes and lingerie sets at even lower prices and with faster turnover, and they did so without the cost of hundreds of mall leases. Next to a rival like H&M, which treats lingerie as a department of its own, Forever 21's intimates sat closer to the accessory counter.

Two bankruptcies

The decline came quickly. On September 29, 2019, Forever 21 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced it would pull out of 40 countries and close a large share of its stores. The causes were the usual ones for mall retail of that era: heavy rents, falling foot traffic, too much space, and younger shoppers moving online.

In February 2020 the brand and its assets were sold for 81 million dollars to a group made up of the mall owners Simon Property Group and Brookfield Properties and the licensing company Authentic Brands Group. Management passed to SPARC Group, a joint venture of Simon and Authentic. It was a landlord rescue as much as a retail one. The new owners also controlled the malls where many of the stores stood.

The rescue did not hold. On March 17, 2025, the operating company filed for Chapter 11 a second time, and by May 1, 2025, it had closed every one of its stores in the United States.

Forever 21 under license

The brand did not die with the American chain. Forever 21 continues abroad through licensees: IB Group in Mexico, AR Holdings elsewhere in Latin America, Lasonic Limited in China, YM Inc. in Canada, Aditya Birla Fashion in India, and Poetic Brands in Britain and Europe. Each runs its own stores or online shop under the name, with its own range, including the intimates and swim pieces that were always part of the mix.

For the history of underwear, Forever 21 is a case study rather than a maker of note. It showed how far the bralette could be pushed as a piece of fashion, and how little a bra business that depends on speed alone can survive once someone else is faster.

Last updated October 7, 2026