The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at the mall. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s the story of what happened to Wet Seal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read next: The evolution of budget fashion and what’s next<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nSource: Canva.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe early years<\/h2>\n\n\n\nLorne\u2019s > Wet Seal > New Owner > Merchandise Expansion > Public Company<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal opened its doors as Lorne’s in 1962, launched by entrepreneur Lorne Huycke. The shop sold beachwear in Newport Beach, Calif. Lorne\u2019s wife reportedly inspired the name change to Wet Seal after using the phrase to describe a bathing suit she saw at a fashion show.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn its first 20 years, Wet Seal expanded to 17 stores, all located in California. The expansion took a toll. By 1980, Wet Seal was reportedly\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a> burdened by debt and struggled with profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1984, Canadian retailer Suzy Shier bought the retailer for $2 million. The owner’s new management team promptly expanded the collection to include juniors sportswear. Selling patterned miniskirts alongside colorful bikinis turned out to be brilliant. Teen girls flocked to Wet Seal stores, more locations opened, and sales grew 900% between 1985 and 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe public years<\/h2>\n\n\n\nContinued expansion > Tough times > Contempo Casuals acquisition > Failed experiments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal went public in 1990<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, raising $37 million to pay down debt and fund continued expansion. By the end of that year, the retailer had 93 stores across five states. The company continued adding locations in the early 1990s, but profits and then sales begin to falter.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1995, Wet Seal purchased women\u2019s retailer Contempo Casuals<\/a> in a stock transaction valued at $1 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. Contempo Casuals had been very popular in the 1970s but lost money in 1994. The deal included Contempo\u2019s 237 stores and immediately gave Wet Seal a national footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wet Seal experimented with expansion efforts, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nLaunch of Limbo Lounge, a unisex store for teens with an entertainment focus<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Britches Great Outdoors stores<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Episode<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores<\/li>\n\n\n\nLaunch of Arden B<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, a chain targeted women aged 20 to 40<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Zutopia<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores, targeted girls aged 5 to 12<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWet Seal also attempted to buy competitor Rampage out of bankruptcy, but lost the bid<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> to another teen store Charlotte Russe<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThings fall apart<\/h3>\n\n\n\nFinancial losses > shake-ups > bankruptcy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSpread too thin, Wet Seal began closing or converting<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> all Limbo Lounges and Contempo Casual stores to its legacy brand in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn April 2002, Wet Seal stock sold for about $25<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> per share. By November 2004, the stock price had fallen to $1.45<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. In the interim, the company\u2019s same-store sales declined, contributing to a $102.8 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> loss in the second quarter of that year. Also in 2004, Wet Seal also announced the closure of all Zutopia stores. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe company continued to limp along for several years. By early 2010, the stock price had moved into the $3 range. <\/p>\n\n\n\nClinton Group<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHedge fund and Wet Seal\u2019s third-largest shareholder Clinton Group won control of the company\u2019s board in 2012<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The investor had previously pushed for Wet Seal to sell itself, but then changed course and predicted a turnaround. A flurry of management changes followed, along with an ugly discrimination lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Lorne\u2019s > Wet Seal > New Owner > Merchandise Expansion > Public Company<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal opened its doors as Lorne’s in 1962, launched by entrepreneur Lorne Huycke. The shop sold beachwear in Newport Beach, Calif. Lorne\u2019s wife reportedly inspired the name change to Wet Seal after using the phrase to describe a bathing suit she saw at a fashion show.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn its first 20 years, Wet Seal expanded to 17 stores, all located in California. The expansion took a toll. By 1980, Wet Seal was reportedly\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a> burdened by debt and struggled with profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1984, Canadian retailer Suzy Shier bought the retailer for $2 million. The owner’s new management team promptly expanded the collection to include juniors sportswear. Selling patterned miniskirts alongside colorful bikinis turned out to be brilliant. Teen girls flocked to Wet Seal stores, more locations opened, and sales grew 900% between 1985 and 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe public years<\/h2>\n\n\n\nContinued expansion > Tough times > Contempo Casuals acquisition > Failed experiments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal went public in 1990<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, raising $37 million to pay down debt and fund continued expansion. By the end of that year, the retailer had 93 stores across five states. The company continued adding locations in the early 1990s, but profits and then sales begin to falter.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1995, Wet Seal purchased women\u2019s retailer Contempo Casuals<\/a> in a stock transaction valued at $1 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. Contempo Casuals had been very popular in the 1970s but lost money in 1994. The deal included Contempo\u2019s 237 stores and immediately gave Wet Seal a national footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wet Seal experimented with expansion efforts, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nLaunch of Limbo Lounge, a unisex store for teens with an entertainment focus<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Britches Great Outdoors stores<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Episode<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores<\/li>\n\n\n\nLaunch of Arden B<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, a chain targeted women aged 20 to 40<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Zutopia<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores, targeted girls aged 5 to 12<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWet Seal also attempted to buy competitor Rampage out of bankruptcy, but lost the bid<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> to another teen store Charlotte Russe<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThings fall apart<\/h3>\n\n\n\nFinancial losses > shake-ups > bankruptcy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSpread too thin, Wet Seal began closing or converting<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> all Limbo Lounges and Contempo Casual stores to its legacy brand in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn April 2002, Wet Seal stock sold for about $25<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> per share. By November 2004, the stock price had fallen to $1.45<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. In the interim, the company\u2019s same-store sales declined, contributing to a $102.8 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> loss in the second quarter of that year. Also in 2004, Wet Seal also announced the closure of all Zutopia stores. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe company continued to limp along for several years. By early 2010, the stock price had moved into the $3 range. <\/p>\n\n\n\nClinton Group<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHedge fund and Wet Seal\u2019s third-largest shareholder Clinton Group won control of the company\u2019s board in 2012<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The investor had previously pushed for Wet Seal to sell itself, but then changed course and predicted a turnaround. A flurry of management changes followed, along with an ugly discrimination lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Wet Seal opened its doors as Lorne’s in 1962, launched by entrepreneur Lorne Huycke. The shop sold beachwear in Newport Beach, Calif. Lorne\u2019s wife reportedly inspired the name change to Wet Seal after using the phrase to describe a bathing suit she saw at a fashion show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its first 20 years, Wet Seal expanded to 17 stores, all located in California. The expansion took a toll. By 1980, Wet Seal was reportedly\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a> burdened by debt and struggled with profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1984, Canadian retailer Suzy Shier bought the retailer for $2 million. The owner’s new management team promptly expanded the collection to include juniors sportswear. Selling patterned miniskirts alongside colorful bikinis turned out to be brilliant. Teen girls flocked to Wet Seal stores, more locations opened, and sales grew 900% between 1985 and 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe public years<\/h2>\n\n\n\nContinued expansion > Tough times > Contempo Casuals acquisition > Failed experiments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal went public in 1990<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, raising $37 million to pay down debt and fund continued expansion. By the end of that year, the retailer had 93 stores across five states. The company continued adding locations in the early 1990s, but profits and then sales begin to falter.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1995, Wet Seal purchased women\u2019s retailer Contempo Casuals<\/a> in a stock transaction valued at $1 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. Contempo Casuals had been very popular in the 1970s but lost money in 1994. The deal included Contempo\u2019s 237 stores and immediately gave Wet Seal a national footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wet Seal experimented with expansion efforts, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nLaunch of Limbo Lounge, a unisex store for teens with an entertainment focus<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Britches Great Outdoors stores<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Episode<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores<\/li>\n\n\n\nLaunch of Arden B<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, a chain targeted women aged 20 to 40<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Zutopia<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores, targeted girls aged 5 to 12<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWet Seal also attempted to buy competitor Rampage out of bankruptcy, but lost the bid<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> to another teen store Charlotte Russe<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThings fall apart<\/h3>\n\n\n\nFinancial losses > shake-ups > bankruptcy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSpread too thin, Wet Seal began closing or converting<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> all Limbo Lounges and Contempo Casual stores to its legacy brand in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn April 2002, Wet Seal stock sold for about $25<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> per share. By November 2004, the stock price had fallen to $1.45<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. In the interim, the company\u2019s same-store sales declined, contributing to a $102.8 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> loss in the second quarter of that year. Also in 2004, Wet Seal also announced the closure of all Zutopia stores. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe company continued to limp along for several years. By early 2010, the stock price had moved into the $3 range. <\/p>\n\n\n\nClinton Group<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHedge fund and Wet Seal\u2019s third-largest shareholder Clinton Group won control of the company\u2019s board in 2012<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The investor had previously pushed for Wet Seal to sell itself, but then changed course and predicted a turnaround. A flurry of management changes followed, along with an ugly discrimination lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
In 1984, Canadian retailer Suzy Shier bought the retailer for $2 million. The owner’s new management team promptly expanded the collection to include juniors sportswear. Selling patterned miniskirts alongside colorful bikinis turned out to be brilliant. Teen girls flocked to Wet Seal stores, more locations opened, and sales grew 900% between 1985 and 1989.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Continued expansion > Tough times > Contempo Casuals acquisition > Failed experiments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal went public in 1990<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, raising $37 million to pay down debt and fund continued expansion. By the end of that year, the retailer had 93 stores across five states. The company continued adding locations in the early 1990s, but profits and then sales begin to falter.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1995, Wet Seal purchased women\u2019s retailer Contempo Casuals<\/a> in a stock transaction valued at $1 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. Contempo Casuals had been very popular in the 1970s but lost money in 1994. The deal included Contempo\u2019s 237 stores and immediately gave Wet Seal a national footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wet Seal experimented with expansion efforts, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nLaunch of Limbo Lounge, a unisex store for teens with an entertainment focus<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Britches Great Outdoors stores<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Episode<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores<\/li>\n\n\n\nLaunch of Arden B<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, a chain targeted women aged 20 to 40<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Zutopia<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores, targeted girls aged 5 to 12<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWet Seal also attempted to buy competitor Rampage out of bankruptcy, but lost the bid<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> to another teen store Charlotte Russe<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThings fall apart<\/h3>\n\n\n\nFinancial losses > shake-ups > bankruptcy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSpread too thin, Wet Seal began closing or converting<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> all Limbo Lounges and Contempo Casual stores to its legacy brand in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn April 2002, Wet Seal stock sold for about $25<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> per share. By November 2004, the stock price had fallen to $1.45<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. In the interim, the company\u2019s same-store sales declined, contributing to a $102.8 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> loss in the second quarter of that year. Also in 2004, Wet Seal also announced the closure of all Zutopia stores. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe company continued to limp along for several years. By early 2010, the stock price had moved into the $3 range. <\/p>\n\n\n\nClinton Group<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHedge fund and Wet Seal\u2019s third-largest shareholder Clinton Group won control of the company\u2019s board in 2012<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The investor had previously pushed for Wet Seal to sell itself, but then changed course and predicted a turnaround. A flurry of management changes followed, along with an ugly discrimination lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Wet Seal went public in 1990<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, raising $37 million to pay down debt and fund continued expansion. By the end of that year, the retailer had 93 stores across five states. The company continued adding locations in the early 1990s, but profits and then sales begin to falter.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn 1995, Wet Seal purchased women\u2019s retailer Contempo Casuals<\/a> in a stock transaction valued at $1 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. Contempo Casuals had been very popular in the 1970s but lost money in 1994. The deal included Contempo\u2019s 237 stores and immediately gave Wet Seal a national footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wet Seal experimented with expansion efforts, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nLaunch of Limbo Lounge, a unisex store for teens with an entertainment focus<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Britches Great Outdoors stores<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Episode<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores<\/li>\n\n\n\nLaunch of Arden B<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, a chain targeted women aged 20 to 40<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Zutopia<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores, targeted girls aged 5 to 12<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWet Seal also attempted to buy competitor Rampage out of bankruptcy, but lost the bid<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> to another teen store Charlotte Russe<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThings fall apart<\/h3>\n\n\n\nFinancial losses > shake-ups > bankruptcy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSpread too thin, Wet Seal began closing or converting<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> all Limbo Lounges and Contempo Casual stores to its legacy brand in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn April 2002, Wet Seal stock sold for about $25<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> per share. By November 2004, the stock price had fallen to $1.45<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. In the interim, the company\u2019s same-store sales declined, contributing to a $102.8 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> loss in the second quarter of that year. Also in 2004, Wet Seal also announced the closure of all Zutopia stores. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe company continued to limp along for several years. By early 2010, the stock price had moved into the $3 range. <\/p>\n\n\n\nClinton Group<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHedge fund and Wet Seal\u2019s third-largest shareholder Clinton Group won control of the company\u2019s board in 2012<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The investor had previously pushed for Wet Seal to sell itself, but then changed course and predicted a turnaround. A flurry of management changes followed, along with an ugly discrimination lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
In 1995, Wet Seal purchased women\u2019s retailer Contempo Casuals<\/a> in a stock transaction valued at $1 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. Contempo Casuals had been very popular in the 1970s but lost money in 1994. The deal included Contempo\u2019s 237 stores and immediately gave Wet Seal a national footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wet Seal experimented with expansion efforts, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nLaunch of Limbo Lounge, a unisex store for teens with an entertainment focus<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Britches Great Outdoors stores<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Episode<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores<\/li>\n\n\n\nLaunch of Arden B<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, a chain targeted women aged 20 to 40<\/li>\n\n\n\nAcquisition of Zutopia<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> stores, targeted girls aged 5 to 12<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWet Seal also attempted to buy competitor Rampage out of bankruptcy, but lost the bid<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> to another teen store Charlotte Russe<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThings fall apart<\/h3>\n\n\n\nFinancial losses > shake-ups > bankruptcy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSpread too thin, Wet Seal began closing or converting<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> all Limbo Lounges and Contempo Casual stores to its legacy brand in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn April 2002, Wet Seal stock sold for about $25<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> per share. By November 2004, the stock price had fallen to $1.45<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. In the interim, the company\u2019s same-store sales declined, contributing to a $102.8 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> loss in the second quarter of that year. Also in 2004, Wet Seal also announced the closure of all Zutopia stores. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe company continued to limp along for several years. By early 2010, the stock price had moved into the $3 range. <\/p>\n\n\n\nClinton Group<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHedge fund and Wet Seal\u2019s third-largest shareholder Clinton Group won control of the company\u2019s board in 2012<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The investor had previously pushed for Wet Seal to sell itself, but then changed course and predicted a turnaround. A flurry of management changes followed, along with an ugly discrimination lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wet Seal experimented with expansion efforts, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wet Seal also attempted to buy competitor Rampage out of bankruptcy, but lost the bid<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> to another teen store Charlotte Russe<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThings fall apart<\/h3>\n\n\n\nFinancial losses > shake-ups > bankruptcy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSpread too thin, Wet Seal began closing or converting<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> all Limbo Lounges and Contempo Casual stores to its legacy brand in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn April 2002, Wet Seal stock sold for about $25<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> per share. By November 2004, the stock price had fallen to $1.45<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. In the interim, the company\u2019s same-store sales declined, contributing to a $102.8 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> loss in the second quarter of that year. Also in 2004, Wet Seal also announced the closure of all Zutopia stores. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe company continued to limp along for several years. By early 2010, the stock price had moved into the $3 range. <\/p>\n\n\n\nClinton Group<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHedge fund and Wet Seal\u2019s third-largest shareholder Clinton Group won control of the company\u2019s board in 2012<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The investor had previously pushed for Wet Seal to sell itself, but then changed course and predicted a turnaround. A flurry of management changes followed, along with an ugly discrimination lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Financial losses > shake-ups > bankruptcy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nSpread too thin, Wet Seal began closing or converting<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> all Limbo Lounges and Contempo Casual stores to its legacy brand in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn April 2002, Wet Seal stock sold for about $25<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> per share. By November 2004, the stock price had fallen to $1.45<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. In the interim, the company\u2019s same-store sales declined, contributing to a $102.8 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> loss in the second quarter of that year. Also in 2004, Wet Seal also announced the closure of all Zutopia stores. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe company continued to limp along for several years. By early 2010, the stock price had moved into the $3 range. <\/p>\n\n\n\nClinton Group<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHedge fund and Wet Seal\u2019s third-largest shareholder Clinton Group won control of the company\u2019s board in 2012<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The investor had previously pushed for Wet Seal to sell itself, but then changed course and predicted a turnaround. A flurry of management changes followed, along with an ugly discrimination lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Spread too thin, Wet Seal began closing or converting<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> all Limbo Lounges and Contempo Casual stores to its legacy brand in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn April 2002, Wet Seal stock sold for about $25<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> per share. By November 2004, the stock price had fallen to $1.45<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. In the interim, the company\u2019s same-store sales declined, contributing to a $102.8 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> loss in the second quarter of that year. Also in 2004, Wet Seal also announced the closure of all Zutopia stores. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe company continued to limp along for several years. By early 2010, the stock price had moved into the $3 range. <\/p>\n\n\n\nClinton Group<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHedge fund and Wet Seal\u2019s third-largest shareholder Clinton Group won control of the company\u2019s board in 2012<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The investor had previously pushed for Wet Seal to sell itself, but then changed course and predicted a turnaround. A flurry of management changes followed, along with an ugly discrimination lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
In April 2002, Wet Seal stock sold for about $25<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> per share. By November 2004, the stock price had fallen to $1.45<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. In the interim, the company\u2019s same-store sales declined, contributing to a $102.8 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> loss in the second quarter of that year. Also in 2004, Wet Seal also announced the closure of all Zutopia stores. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe company continued to limp along for several years. By early 2010, the stock price had moved into the $3 range. <\/p>\n\n\n\nClinton Group<\/h3>\n\n\n\nHedge fund and Wet Seal\u2019s third-largest shareholder Clinton Group won control of the company\u2019s board in 2012<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The investor had previously pushed for Wet Seal to sell itself, but then changed course and predicted a turnaround. A flurry of management changes followed, along with an ugly discrimination lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The company continued to limp along for several years. By early 2010, the stock price had moved into the $3 range. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hedge fund and Wet Seal\u2019s third-largest shareholder Clinton Group won control of the company\u2019s board in 2012<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The investor had previously pushed for Wet Seal to sell itself, but then changed course and predicted a turnaround. A flurry of management changes followed, along with an ugly discrimination lawsuit. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Wet Seal lost $113 million in 2013 and closed all Arden B stores in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In January of 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Wet Seal defaulted on its debt, closed 338 stores, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\nVersa and the Gordon Brothers<\/h2>\n\n\n\nVersa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Versa Capital Management LLC bought Wet Seal at auction in 2015<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWith a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
With a plan to refresh its collection and return to the graces of the teenage girl, Wet Seal continued on. The company eeked out some margin improvement<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> in 2016, but it was not enough. Versa declined further financing and Wet Seal announced<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a> closure of its remaining stores in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\nGordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Gordon Brothers, a branding firm and liquidator, bought the Wet Seal brand in 2017 for $3 million<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. According to Retail Dive<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, Gordon Borthers still owned the brand as of January 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\nCan you still shop Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nYou can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nWet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
You can no longer shop Wet Seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wet Seal\u2019s Instagram has been dormant since 2021. WetSeal.com was a functional ecommerce shop before undergoing a redo in March 2022, according to Wayback Machine<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a>. The website revived briefly that year with a lookbook and no online sales before disappearing again.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThere is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTeen shops that survived<\/h2>\n\n\n\nTeens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nShein<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nAmerican Eagle Outfitters<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHollister<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nPacsun<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\nHot Topic<\/use><\/svg><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\nWhat happened to Wet Seal?<\/h2>\n\n\n\nWet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
There is an ecommerce shop at thewetseal.com. The store implies a connection to the original brand, but it\u2019s likely unrelated. The contact information is generic and none of the social media links are functional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teens no longer have Wet Seal, but they do have these options for trendy fashion with a California slant:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wet Seal had a moment in the sun but could not convert it into a sustainable business. Too many failed experiments left the company unable to compete with faster, more efficient competitors. That proved fatal when mall traffic declined and fickle teens found other sources for the bright, flirty styles they craved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The headlines hit the wires in January 2017: Teen fashion retailer Wet Seal had shut down after 55 years in business. Once a wildly popular mall store, Wet Seal suddenly became another sign of changing times. Despite acquisitions and new store brands, the company could not survive a world where shopping didn’t always happen at… Read More »What happened to Wet Seal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1663302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-43431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping-guide","tag-dresses"],"mv":{"thumbnail_id":1663302,"thumbnail_uri":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1200-300x158.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1663303,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43431\/revisions\/1663303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1663302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"What](\"https:\/\/www.thebudgetfashionista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/wet-seal-1000.jpg\" "\\"\\"")