• by Tanya Gazdik , March 19, 2025

Forever 21 has filed for bankruptcy for a second time in six years. It’s likely its 350 brick-and-mortar stores will shutter. So much for “Forever.”

“it seems safe to say that the days of Forever 21 being a staple of every trip to the mall are behind us. This brought on some real nostalgia, so we gathered some stories about staffers’ favorite purchases and memories. RIP, Forever 21,” according to Slate. 

"I spent many afternoons in college and beyond treating Forever 21 like church,” writes Caitlin Schneider, managing editor, audience development at Slate. “It was a space where my girlfriends and I found community, a shared sense of purpose, a quest for something larger, and retail therapy that was within our limited means.”

The Atlantic takes a more snarky tone, with the headline “Forever 21’s Brief, Hideous Life: Farewell to a beloved purveyor of trash.”

Staff writer Kaitlyn Tiffany writes about when the first Forever 21 opened in her hometown when she was in middle school.

“I remember thinking that it would be a store marketed to retirement-age women who felt young at heart—Forever 21!,” Tiffany writes. “This was wrong, but not so far off: Do Won Chang, one of its founders, has said he chose the name because 21 is “the most enviable age.” And it is, especially if you are 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, or 20, which are the ages at which I bought most of my clothes there. I can still smell the polyester and hear the White Rabbits on the sound system.”

One of the primary reasons for Forever 21's bankruptcy filing is competition from Shein and Temu, something the head of Authentic Brands, the fast fashion retailer's brand and intellectual property owner, seemingly forecast a year ago, according to USA Today. 

Jamie Salter, the CEO of Authentic Brands, spoke during a conference last year and said Forever 21's partnership with Shein in 2023 only yielded modest results, according to Retail Dive.

“The operator of the brand's U.S. unit said Sunday that foreign competition from  fast-fashion rivals, rising costs, economic challenges and evolving consumer trends were to blame,” according to NBC News, which called the brand “a leader in youth fashion retail.”

Ultimately, young shoppers simply moved on from the Forever 21 brand, experts said.

"Forever 21 was the brand that the former generation used," Roger Beahm, a marketing professor and director of the Retail Learning Labs at Wake Forest University, told the Los Angeles Times. "Today’s shoppers want their own brand, they want their own identity."