Search Results for: Los Angeles Times

Forever 21's Fast (and Loose) Fashion Empire

Forever 21’s Fast (and Loose) Fashion Empire

Forever 21’s Fast (and Loose) Fashion Empire

Longreads Pick

How did the Changs, Korean immigrants who opened their first store in a gritty section of Los Angeles in 1984, become such important players in fast fashion? The family credits its accomplishments to hard work, faith, and frugality, though Forever 21 has not prospered without controversy. The company has been accused many times of not just following the trends but selling copies of clothes created by trendy designers. Some of its suppliers, many of whom are part of a tight-knit Korean-American community of manufacturers and vendors that dominate the garment industry in Los Angeles, have been accused of underpaying their workers. Now Forever 21’s expansion raises a question, both strategic and existential: When is more too much?

Source: Businessweek
Published: Jan 21, 2011
Length: 18 minutes (4,630 words)

Juli Weiner: My Top 5 Longreads of 2010

Juli Weiner blogs for Vanity Fair.

***

These are the pieces I sent out to friends with the all-caps subject line, “THIS.” These are the pieces I come back to when I’m looking to improve my own writing. These are the pieces I’ll be re-reading well into 2011.

Jon Ronson: And God Created Controversy, The Guardian, October 9, 2010

Hilarious discussion about theology with members of Insane Clown Posse.

Nathan Heller: Trench Coat, Unlit Cigar, Slate, July 13, 2010

The beautifully written deconstruction of the Wise and Cranky Kaplan Twitter feeds.

Nancy Jo Sales: The Suspects Wore Louboutins, Vanity Fair, March 2010

Dishy account of the celebrity-worship and avarice that fueled a spate of burglaries in Los Angeles.

David Grann: The Mark of a Masterpiece, The New Yorker, July 12, 2010

The history of American connoisseurship takes the form of an impossible-to-stop-reading crime drama.

David Segal: A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web, The New York Times, November 26, 2010

A gripping and legitimately terrifying account of an online conman and the insidious side-effects of poor customer reviews.