Aéropostale (clothing)
Encyclopedia : A : AR : ARO : Aéropostale (clothing)
Aéropostale is a clothing retailer oriented towards teenagers ages 11-18, selling athletically geared casual clothing which is under $50 in most retailers. Aéropostale stocks teen outerwear (jeans, T-shirts, accessories), mostly under the Aéropostale and Aéro names. The Aéropostale name originated from a 1920s French/Latin-American airmail firm, Compagnie Générale Aéropostale.
Its symbol is a small butterfly for the girls' line and a small, standing bulldog for the guys' line.
History
The first Aéropostale store was opened in 1987. Macy's current parent, Federated Department Stores, sold Aéropostale to its management and Bear Stearns Merchant Banking in 1998. As of January 4, 2006, the company operated 670 stores in 47 states. Aeropostale has also recently acquired another brand, Jimmy'Z, which adds 14 stores in 11 states to the Aéro family.Place in popular culture
Some consider it an imitation of other preppy retailers such as American Eagle Outfitters and Abercrombie & Fitch Co., but it is really more for teenagers. Although all three stores carry a similar style of clothing, Aéropostale tends to target a younger age group (11-18 as opposed to 15-25 of American Eagle Outfitters), and offer a lower pricepoint than the other retailers. More recently, however, the brand has been gaining ground targeting mainstream America, and the brand is booming. The popularity of the brand has increased, and a new "more hip" format of dim lighting and more open store layouts can now be seen throughout the chain. The clothing has also been altered, upping the target age from teens to 20-somethings.Pronunciation
The retailers name is sometimes mispronounced. Some variations include:- air - o - paws' - dal
- air- ro - pos' - tal
- air - o - paws' - tal
- eh-roh-paws-tal.
- air - ro - pastel
- air - o - pos - tal'
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.