Forever 21

History

Forever 21 founders Do “Don” Won Chang (Hangul: 장도원) and his wife Jin Sook Chang (Hangul: 장진숙) emigrated from South Korea to the United States in 1981.[7] The luxurious cars of those in the retail industry influenced "Don" to enter the garment industry and so Fashion 21, later renamed Forever 21, was established. “Don” is the Chief Executive Officer and Jin Sook the Chief Merchandising Officer, with a combined net worth of $5 billion.As of September 2013, the couple ranked 264 in Forbes’ World’s Billionaires list and 90 amongst America’s wealthiest.Their two daughters joined the business in 2009, Linda leading the Marketing department and Esther in charge of visuals. (Forever 21 Wikipedia)

Originally known as Fashion 21, the first Forever 21 store was founded in Los Angeles, California on April 21, 1984 by Chang and Chang. The store is located at 5637 N. Figueroa Street in the Highland Park district of Los Angeles and is still in operation, bearing the chain's original name. Designs similar to those seen in South Korea were sold and targeted to the Los Angeles Korean American community. In its first year in operation, sales totaled $700,000 and in 2013, there were more than 480 stores that brought in revenue of $3.7 billion. (Forever 21 F&Q)

How many stores are there in Malaysia and Internationally

Forever 21 has expanded to more than 450 stores in the U.S. and nearly 100 locations internationally. It charged into Europe, put its foot into China, and now has its sights on Latin America. There are currently 5 stores here in Malaysia.

Shop Logo

In literally a year, people began to discover "Fashion 21" and its trendy Korean style, so after the store started booming, the name changed to "Forever21" and began to market toward younger generations.

While the founder of the store has never quite said why Forever21 is called just that, we can assume (since the store targets younger people) it is because 21 is the ideal age of youth and beauty. That's why you would want to be, Forever 21.

The Forever 21 logo is probably designed based on Din 1451 Eng Neu, with slight modification on “1″.

The owners of the store are Christians, that's why the print John 3:16 at the bottom of their bags. I have a suggestion why Forever 21. Read it backwards: REVE FOR 21. REVELATIONS 21. that is the final prophecy, for ever.

Shop Front

The shop location in the MidValley mall is at the Ground Floor and the First Floor. The Ground Floor store front is facing directly towards ZARA. The picture above is the store front on the Ground Floor. As for the First Floor, the shop is facing a glasses store, named Paris Miki.

Store Layout

The store layout is categorized as free flow as there are many paths to take, with no restrictions. There are many displays tables and clothing racks all around the store.

How do they separate their men, women, etc into sections? Why they separate this way? Where are their tables? What’s on there?

Forever 21 Men section is separated from the female and children sections as seen by placing the two display mannequins in front of the Men section. The Men section is also situated at the end of the whole store.

The kids section was situated right in between the mens n womens section at the ground floor of the store. It also had few mannequins on display in front of that section to promote the products there.

There were not tables in both mens and kids section.

On the left side of the Men section, is the Bohemian section. It has a more hippy looking outfits there, catering towards people who are more into urban hippy styles. There are more patterns on the garments compared to the rest of the garments for sale in the store.

At the front of the store, there are a few more different sections of womens wear.

On the left of the entrance, there was a lady-like section. The garments display there were more girly or lady-like with pastel and nature colors and floral prints. There were a lot of dresses, skirts and blouses at the ‘lady-like’ section. There was a nesting table at this section. They arranged the clothes that the mannequins are displaying so that the buyers can find the items they want easily.

On the right of the entrance, you will see a more street wear section. There were more checkered print and also a darker color scheme. The items there are more edgy and had a street style vibe to it. There were also nesting tables there. There were two mannequins standing on the table displaying

some of the items from that section. The items on the table were mainly shorts and casual printed t-shirts.

There was also a sports wear section for womens at the left side of the cashier counter at the ground floor of the shop. There were no tables at this section, only steel racks.

Moving on to the top floor of the store, when entering the store, there were two to three mannequins on display.

Going in further of the store, there is a sales section before the cashier counter. There were two mannequins standing on the tables displaying some of the clothes for sale. After that section, is the cashier counter of the upper floor of the store. After the cashier counter, is the accessories and bags section and on the left is the shoes section.

And lastly, after the accessories and bag section, is the lingerie section. There were two mannequins displaying the lingerie.

Where is the storage? Fitting room/ cashier counter?

The storage for the ground floor of the store was located at the left corner of the Bohemian section. The fitting room for the ground floor is located at right corner of the Bohemian section. The cashier counter for the ground floor is located in between the sports wear section and the Bohemian section.

The fitting room for the upper floor is located opposite the sales section, while the cashier counter is beside the sales section.

Store interior

The way they display their merchandises are quite simple and easy to understand.

The lighting inside the store is acceptable, some sections have a different lighting as to create the mood for that specific section. For example, the Bohemian section has a more warm lighting to create a warm comfortable

mood. The flooring of the store changes too as in different sections. For example, the Bohemian section has a wooden flooring while the accessories and bags section has black and white checkered flooring.

How many color per wall? Story/ concept? How many clothings per wall?

There were different wallpapers according to the sections in the ground floor of the store. The upper floor has only one color per wall. As for the concept, there were not much only a few such as the lady-like section and the street wear section at the front of the store.

The wall here has three sets of garments and four colors being used.

Store Fixtures

Tiers Table

Nesting Table

Racks

There were four different kinds of racks.

Slatwall