dELiA*s has filed for bankruptcy. Abercrombie & Fitch/Hollister is in trouble.

[randomness]

A comment thread about Zara in rednikki's LJ reminded me that I'd been putting together a post about fast fashion chains like H&M and Forever 21 pushing specialty teen clothing retailers out of business.

From The New York Times' Dealbook blog:

Unable to find a buyer or arrange a financial lifeline, Delia’s said on Friday that it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and seek to close all its stores and distribution centers. The company said it would aim to run going-out-of-business sales.

...

On Friday, Delia’s warned its shareholders that it “does not anticipate any value will remain from the bankruptcy estate.”

From The Wall Street Journal:

Delia’s news followed the bankruptcy filing Thursday by Deb Shops, whose 300 stores also were booming in the 1990s.

“When there’s one of these guys that’s kind of sick, it tends to infect all these guys,” Paul Lejuez, a Wells Fargo Securities analyst, said of the hypercompetitive environment teen retail environment.

From MarketWatch:

Teen retailers like Delia’s have struggled to compete with fast fashion players like H&M and pure online retailers that cater to millennial shoppers who increasingly do all their buying on the Web.

And from Business Insider:

But Eric Beder, specialty apparel analyst at Wunderlich Securities, said he believes Abercrombie is running out of options.

"What is going to turn the tide?" Beder asked in a note to clients. "Frankly, we have no idea."

Beder notes that Abercrombie has already exhausted numerous turnaround strategies, to no avail.

"Abercrombie has already aggressively closed domestic locations, cut back on inventories, shifted away from logo products, and cut costs," Beder writes.

The once-leading teen retailer has struggled to stay relevant since the surge in demand for fast-fashion brands like Forever 21 and H&M.

One of my fraternity siblings in Manhattan has a roommate who's in the industry and claims that "everything is fast fashion now". My friend and I agree this is hyperbole but there is clearly a sense in which fast fashion is setting the pace.

It's just a thought, but an overdose of fast fashion may be one driver behind the rise of vintage.

Comments

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

Interesting! I know that some brands worry a lot about the sort of people that use their stuff because some people buy on that basis. The only specific instance I'd heard about previously was that Tommy Hilfinger works hard to keep its stuff out of Wal-Marts ... and there's a thriving grey market of diverting TH stuff to Wal-Marts. But this sort of strategy is vulnerable to shifting demographics and shifting tastes. Not to mention that the teen and early-20s markets are subject to serious ups and downs in population, because the age groups are so narrow. Lena Dunham alone might undermine the business of Abercrombie if she manages to cut the obsession of teen girls with being thin.