Today is the day I realized I’ve outgrown Forever 21. I wanted to go there and find some cheap blazers to wear for work. I remembered getting some cute ones before and thought I could pick up a few to round out my summer business wear. Apparently, the Forever 21 of my memories doesn’t exist anymore.
The first thing I saw when I walked in was a bunch of crop tops. I should have known it would only be downhill from there. I looked around, attempting to find anything worth trying on within the overly-packed-displays. I’m sure the store is organized in some fashion, but I had the hardest time finding any rhyme or reason to how things were arranged. With that said, though, there was a section for bedazzled clothes. So, if I needed something bedazzled I was covered.
As I trudged through the mess (and I mean mess) of clothes, I kept wishing that I were in J.Crew with the nice spaced out displays where you can actually see the clothes. But, of course, our store closed a few months ago. The gaping hole in that mall and my heart will never truly be fixed.
I ended up finding one cherry red blazer that looked decent and then a few dresses I impulsively picked up because I can’t resist a good dress. There was one blazer I saw that was actually really striking – 60’s swing style with tweed and black lining. And then I saw it was $42.00.
Nice try, Forever 21.
Anyway, the Forever 21 employee who I’m convinced was just out of junior high led me to a dressing room and I set out on on the sometimes-fruitful-mostly-awful task of trying on what I had chosen. The blazer went first since it was what I actually went there to buy, and while it wasn’t awful something about it didn’t look exactly right on me so I put it to the side. The dresses were next, and while both of them looked like a normal length on the rack, they ended up hitting inches from my baby maker. The sad thing is that these were the longer dresses in the store. Others were much shorter and I’m guessing are in danger of bringing the idea of flaunting your femininity to a very literal level.
I made another short round after the dressing room to see if I had missed anything, but a row of bustiers scared me and I left. I know Forever 21 always had some edgier clothing, but considering that its main audience is high school students, I found the amount of overly-sexualized clothing bothersome. I mean, no one except Madonna circa-1987 should be wearing bustiers.
Bottom line, Forever 21 and I have officially parted due to irreconcilable differences. It was time. So, good riddance Forever 21. I’m sure there will be enough teeny-boppers and beyond to keep you in business for many, many years to come. As for me?