Almost a decade ago, before Instagram influencers existed, Forever 21 helped teenagers dress like their favorite celebrities, for little money.

It wasn't a novel idea: teenagers have always wanted to dress like their idols.However, the vertiginous speed at which Forever 21 could make these trends available and were affordable..

The company's specialty became a fast fashion, and the chain grew aggressively until it became a basic element in the US shopping centers, opening hundreds of stores and redefining what meant being the anchor of a traditional commercial center.

But some analysts, such as Marshal Cohen of the NPD group, warned at that time that because Forever 21's "freshness factor" could eventually fade, the company had to "be careful not to grow too much".

Apparently it became too big.

It is said that Forever 21 is now in financial problems and developing restructuring plans in the hope of avoiding possible sale or bankruptcy.With about 800 stores around the world and more than 3.000 million dollars in annual sales, Forever 21 - A private family business that began with a single store in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles in 1984 - is being pressed on multiple fronts.

As reported, the chain needs to reinforce its finances, as well as its popularity factor is decreasing and young consumers continue to migrate to other retailers, especially online vendors.

Forever 21's own mistakes have not helped, including their movement to sell clothes and other goods for a wide variety of buyers - an extension of focus that decreased their reputation among young buyers, analysts said.

"They have lost sight of what took them there," said Roger Beahm, executive director of Center for Retail Innovation of Wake Forest University."They have tried to compensate for it expanding the appeal, and I think they ended up diluting what they represented,".

The resulting irony is that Forever 21, which once benefited from the disappearance of traditional retailers such as Mervyn's and Gottschalks when taking care of their stores, is now threatening to become the next problematic point important for the operators of shopping centers that were already in trouble.

Forever 21 is not alone. H&M, un gigante de la moda rápida con sede en Estocolmo, también está en problemas. Los beneficios de H&M han caído, y el precio de las acciones de la empresa se ha reducido a la mitad en los últimos cuatro años, ya que los adolescentes y otras personas gastan más en línea en sitios como Fashion Nova, Asos, Missguided y Lulus, así como en el de Amazon, el principal actor del comercio electrónico, y con revendedores de ropa como Poshmark y Depop.

One of those consumers is the university student Dawn Trevino, 19, who said during a recent visit to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica who now rarely buys in Forever 21 because her styles feel like "past fashionable".

"I want something unique, and I feel that they don't have it anymore," said Trevino.

Even Forever 21's basic garments defrauded it, he said.He often finds a hoodie or a shirt he likes, but when he turns around he realizes that they have phrases like "I love tacos" or "I hate people", and she then put them back in her.

Forever 21 - Property of the couple formed by Do Won Chang and Jin Sook Chang, who emigrated from South Korea before founding the company - has hired restructuring advisors to explore the chain options, including the renegotiation of lease contracts, obtaining a new loan or review of the company's operations, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal recently reported.

Forever 21 refused to comment for this article and, as a private entity, its financial information, including the amount of debt it has, is not publicly available.

As reported, the company has been reducing the size of some of its huge stores, in certain cases yielding parts of the points of sale to other retailers.According to its website, the average Forever 21 stores measures 38.000 square feet.

Its locations include a 94 store.000 square feet en San Bernardino, una de 127.000 square feet en Las Vegas y un emporio de cuatro pisos de 90.000 square feet en Times Square de Nueva York.

The retailer sold his Los Angeles building for 166 million dollars in December.

In addition, some Forever 21 officials asked two of the firm's largest owners, the Simon Property Group Inc.And Brookfield Property Partners, on several options that included a sale, Bloomberg reported.Forever 21 described that report as "categorically incorrect".

Forever 21 is one of Simon’s and Brookfield's largest tenants, according to the recent values records of those firms.And it would not be the first time that the owners rescue a tenant.In 2016, Simon and General Growth Properties - which since then has been acquired by Brookfield - joined to buy Aeropostale, a adolescent retailer who had declared bankruptcy.

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Forever 21 became a fast fashion pioneer selling a quickly changing assortment of dresses, shirts, jeans and other garments and accessories for young women, typically for less than $ 20 each.

Initially it was named Fashion 21, which was changed because “our clients are people between 20 and 30 years old,” said Do Won Chang to CNN through a translator in 2012."Adults wanted to be 21 years old, and young people wanted to have 21 forever".

Forever 21 had approximately 450 locations in 2009, and its assortment "Cheap Chic" was especially popular after the serious recession of 2008-09.Hundreds of buyers queue for the great openings of their new stores.

The firm continued to open more points of sale, and by 2015, the changs had a combined net value of 5.900 million dollars, but that fortune has been reduced since then to 1.600 million dollars due to the problems of Forever 21 and the decrease in valuations between similar retailers, Forbes estimated.

As it grew, Forever 21 expanded to clothing for men, children, maternity and large and cosmetics sizes, among other items.But that caused the chain to look too similar to the failed conventional stores he replaced, said Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Assn commercial group.

Metchek said that teenagers who buy fast fashion often have in mind a specific article or trend, and when they go shopping, "they want to enter, see it, buy it and get out of there," he said, "he said."They don't want to climb, as is customary in a department store".

As purchases move online, the decrease in traffic of traditional shopping centers exacerbates Forever 21 problems, said Ronald Friedman, co -director of Marcum's retail store, an accounting and advice firm.

Forever 21 invested strongly in conventional shopping centers, but "not everyone is going to be good stores," said Friedman."If you have places that lose a lot of money, good cannot compensate for all bad ones.".

The chain still has a very wide audience;With more than 16 million followers on Instagram.But while Forever 21 once helped establish trends for millennia, many in the subsequent population of generation Z are apparently looking for fashion inspiration elsewhere, said Beahm.

"A popular brand among millennia may not be popular among the gen z", and should evolve to stay at the forefront of trends, said Beahm."If you follow them and chase them, you can find yourself in trouble".

Metchek believes that Fashion Nova, a fast fashionable retailer based in Los Angeles, known for her silhouettes that embrace the body, "is the new Forever 21".

Fashion Nova depends largely on influential marketing: it is associated with celebrities, bloggers and others who have great online followers and can boast their clothes, said Metchek, and meets their buyers: young women who want to emulate the aesthetics of the familyKardashian.Meanwhile, he said, "Forever 21 continues to attract everyone".

Forever 21 hopes to avoid the fate of clothing retailers who have declared bankrupt.

The panorama is hard for clothing chains. Abercrombie & Fitch planea cerrar 40 de sus tiendas este año.GAP INC.He is cutting 230 stores of his homonymous brand and is being divided into two public companies, which has resulted in the creation of its best performance Old Navy brand.

But there is still room for physical stores.Some buyers like to visit shopping centers when they want to try clothes and make returns, or as a social activity.

While Trevino and her friend, Marissa Peña, 18, walked through the Third Street Promenade in search of sales on a recent working day, they said they were looking for clothes on the Internet, but that they could more easily find out the right sizes in person.The photos of high and thin models are unsafe from how the garments will be seen in their own 5 feet bodies.

Peña showed a couple of white shoes that he had just purchased at Steve Madden store.Its shoe size is average, and when the footwear goes online sale, its size is often exhausted, but the right torque could be hidden in a full view on the shelf of a store, he said, he said.

Friends are still open to visit Forever 21.That day, Peña even had a couple of white sailor shorts that he had bought in one of his stores this summer, when he found that he was fine.But even before turning 21, they feel that the brand no longer offers what they are looking for.

"It's so difficult because I like Forever 21 on some occasions," said Peña."But at this age, when you are going to do practices, you need prettier clothes and one that lasts, so you can no longer buy in Forever 21".

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