The History of the Common Stores. Long Stories Short.

Well, this is basically going to be a stupid little (rather long) rant about stores that everybody shops at, and everybody tries to copy their mannequins which is super annoying. Don't do it people. Be original.

Forever 21 has no dresses I haven't seen before. According to the history of Forever 21, a man named Do-Won Chang opened it in California in 1984 and was formerly known as Fashion 21 (I like that better.) His trick was to import clothes from Korea, and sell it at Fashion 21, creating a sort of knockoff of designer styles. They aimed these clothes at Korean-American teenagers. Niice try. People of all ethnicities and age groups embraced the Asian fashions of Forever 21. Forever has been accused multiple times for stealing designs of high-fashion designer brands. I'd like to know where those Korean thingies everybody raved about are! I love how the stuff there is very cheap, but what happened to being unique? I bought a panda shirt (one that was all by its lonesome) and saw somebody else with it. I am in the makings of splatting it with paint, to make it stand out more. Results later.

I used to be addicted to Forever last year, but now it's played out. Everybody is shopping there, everybody. Either that or somebody is distributing knockoffs. I think it's time our generation found a new store to obsess over. Maybe Forever should change it up a little. Maybe add a little bit more sophistication and a little less frill. Or maybe people should calm down and stop copying the mannequins, and start taking little pieces of each store and making it their own. Yeaah, right. 

Urban Outfitters was formerly known as The Free People's Store. Sounds kinda cute, hippy-ish even. The styles displayed all around the stores are vintage, bohemian, and retro. Over the years, UO has meshed (heehee, meshed) with Lacoste, Evisu, Diesel, True Religion, and Seven For All Mankind. They put emphasis on creativity, blah blah blah. Hmm , nothing interesting about them. They've gotten tons of complaints about religious shirts and racist board games and that sort of thing. Oh how I love looking at the pointless books and toys and fake cameras and candies and snowglobes and piggy banks. I adore that store for its useless baubles. Oh, and for their balls at giving such high prices for things you could get cheaper at Forever 21. Haha, hypocrite status riight there, and proud.

I say all of this good-naturedly. Both stores have contributed to my closet, but not as much as some other people, I am happy to say.

- Joelle