Dress Barn to close all stores!

Dress Barn, a subsidiary of Ascena Retail Group, announced today that they will wind-down their operation this year. The move will close over 650 stores covering the Dress Barn brand. The announcement was made of May 20th, with the online store and physical store remain open at the moment while liquidation is planned. 

Dress Barn will close all remaining store this year, and appears to include the Dress Barn spin-off Roz & Ali. Roz & Ali was started in 2017 when Dress Barn began to renovate stores under the new marque; the store is named after Dress Barn founders Roslyn and Elliot Jaffe. We will update this story when the closure of Roz & Ali is confirmed.

Dress Barn was founded in 1962 in Stamford, Connecticut; the founders sold low-cost woman's apparel when women were beginning to enter the workforce; they sold clothes out of an old barn-style building. The company continued to expand; acquiring companies like Catherine, Maurices, Cacique, Lou & Grey, and Lane Bryant.

Dress Barn acquired Tween Brands, the parent company of Justice and Limited Too (formerly L Brands.) The purchase of the company closed in 2009, with Limited Too converting all their stores to the Justice brand by the end of that year. The company accepted an offer to acquire ANN inc; the parent company to Ann Taylor and Loft; eventually closing on the purchase in 2015.

In 2019, Dress Barn, now know as Ascena Retail Group, announced their sale of the struggling Maurices brand to a private equity firm. Ascena announced the closure of their flagship brand on May 20th. 

Dress Barn has area locations Willimantic, at the Eastbrook Mall, and another location in Enfield at Brookside Plaza. Roz & Ali has area locations in Manchester, Connecticut at the Plaza at Buckland Hills, a location at Westbrook Outlets in Westbrook, CT, and another location at Corbin's Corner in West Hartford, Connecticut. The Roz & Ali locations still sport signs with their designated name, but interior signage has been transitioned back to Dress Barn branding. The Roz & Ali website now directs back to Dress Barn's home site.

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