RIP BCBG: Reliving the 2000s Prom Destination Store

When I think about BCBG, I think about two things: bat mitzvahs and prom.

My first real interaction with the brand was during bat mitzvah season. From the ages of 12 to 13, AKA the peak of my social life, I attended elaborate bar and bat mitzvah parties every weekend. My favorite part of these parties was obviously seeing the bat mitzvah girl’s dress. The cool place to buy your party dress was BCBG. If you weren’t rocking a Betsey Johnson number, your dress was most likely from BCBG. So naturally, like many of my friends, I bought my light purple ruffled bat mitzvah dress from there.

Fast forward five years to prom season. Again, the place to be was BCBG. There were at least five different BCBG dresses at my prom and I saw many girls on Facebook wearing the same dresses to their respective proms. Personally, I went a different fashion route for prom, but I think it’s safe to say that for many girls, BCBG is THE dress store for the big night.

Well to  bat mitzvah girls and high school seniors everywhere, it is with deep sadness that I say: many BCBG stores are closing. In order to keep up with the ever-changing fashion industry, BCBG has decided to close a majority of its retail stores and focus more on its online presence. BCBG spokesman Seth Lubove said, “Like so many other great brands, BCBG has been negatively impacted by the growth in online sales and shifts in customer shopping patterns and, as a result, has too large a physical retail footprint.” The brand will also continue to be sold by major retailers.

For me, this feels like the end of an era. I can’t imagine going to my beloved mall in Troy, Michigan, and not seeing the BCBG store en route to Madewell and Aritzia. Admittedly, I don’t think I’ve considered buying a BCBG dress since bat mitzvah season, but that doesn’t mean I won’t miss it. BCBG is the epitome of a classic mall brand. I have such fond memories of trying on my perfect bat mitzvah dress and immediately falling in love.

If you’re feeling as distraught by this news as I am, remember that the brand will still be online. And if we’re really lucky, it’ll come back around. As we’ve learned from the recent resurgence of Juicy tracksuits, even the brands that we don’t want to come back eventually do. There’s still hope for finding that perfect bat mitzvah dress.