Forever 21 Named VMSD Retailer of the Year

VMSD editors have announced the winner of the magazine’s 2010 Peter Glen Retailer of the Year award: Los Angeles-based apparel sensation Forever 21.

This annual award, created in 2001 in honor of the late retail observer, motivational speaker and longtime VMSD columnist, is given to the retailer who best exemplifies Glen’s standards of retail excellence: innovation, service and intelligence. Past winners include Urban Outfitters (2009), Costco (2008), Best Buy (2007), Nordstrom (2006) and others.

Forever 21's fast-fashion approach to getting trendy goods from the runways of Milan and Paris to its 500 stores is a blueprint for how to succeed in a challenging environment. Another testament to its success, the retailer recently opened a 91,000-square-foot store in New York’s Times Square.

Forever 21 executive vp Larry Meyer and store designer Jas Nakaoka will accept the award in a special presentation at VMSD’s International Retail Design Conference (IRDC), held October 13 to 15 in Toronto.

For insight into the success of one of retail’s fastest growing brands, see VMSD’s October issue. For more on IRDC, including session line-up, speakers, networking events and registration, visit www.irdconline.com. The early-bird registration discount ends August 31.