Forever 21 opens in Times Square

It's four stories, 91,257 square feet, and 121 dressing rooms, the largest retail venue in Manhattan devoted to a single brand. The L.A.-based chain, which many New Yorkers are obviously not familiar with, took over the Virgin Megastore space. The place is open until 2 a.m. seven days a week. No wonder fashion writer Cintra Wilson describes it as "raw-capitalism-as-spectacle-a-go-go." From NY magazine:

Many of the wares -- look-specific, clumsily wrought, disposable kinder-slutwear -- hearken back to the Flashdance era. But the prices are even lower than they were in 1983 -- so low, in fact, they seem wrong. Your brain can't help but factor in the invisible stuff: "Oh dear, surely there is a basement of horrors in some far-off land that makes these $4.50 stretch-capri leggings possible ... " But then your eye gets caught by another shiny gold lamé headband, and you end up carrying around half a dozen hangers' worth of V-neck T-shirts just because they're priced at a mind-boggling $2.50 apiece.

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Forever 21 isn't about fashion any more than fast food is about cuisine. The addictive component is kicky shapes at price points you can find beneath the cushions on your couch, and the fact that you can buy 37 clothing items for under $200. If it's the slow-food, slow-clothes, minimalist approach of "less but better" you want in a wardrobe, you'd best skip this Times Square monstrosity and bugger off to Europe. Forever 21 is a shrine to the American obsession with More New Stuff. Suppress any thoughts of faraway places of horror; at these crazy prices, you can't afford not to fence your grandma's VCR and buy more neat tops.