Getty Linda Chang and Esther Chang
Linda and Esther Chang are the founders of the beauty chain Riley Rose and the daughters of the couple that launched Forever 21, Do Won and Jin Sook Chang.
Both companies have been named in a copyright lawsuit filed by musician Ariana Grande. According to the civil lawsuit filed in the Central District of California, the singer says Forever 21 and Riley Rose “stole her name, likeness, and other intellectual property to promote their brands for free.” She is demanding compensation of at least $10 million. You can see the full complaint embedded in fact #5 of this article.
The lawsuit comes on the heels of reports that Forever 21 is potentially planning to file for bankruptcy.
Here’s what you need to know.
1. Linda & Esther Chang Founded Riley Rose in 2017 With Millennials & Gen Z Shoppers as Their Target Audience
Linda and Esther Chang expanded the family business with the boutique beauty line called Riley Rose in 2017. The first store opened in Los Angeles in the fall of 2017 and now has more than a dozen locations nationwide.
Retail analysts told CNBC at the time that the launch of Riley Rose could help boost Forever 21 sales. The network spoke with GlobalData Retail Managing Director Neil Saunders, who said at the time, “This is definitely a play to boost growth. The core business at Forever 21 is under pressure from slower growth, fickle consumers, and price deflation in a discount-driven market.”
Linda Chang told BeautyIndependent.com that she and her surer decided to run with Riley Rose because they felt “there was a hole in the market” when it came to brands specifically geared toward the younger generations. “We’ve been able to travel around the world, and we’ve seen some really cool things happening, but we felt there’s nothing like this in the U.S.: a brand that combined beauty with home and lifestyle and catered to the millennial and gen z generations.” She also told Teen Vogue that the goal was to make Riley Rose a “one-stop shop” for beauty products, accessories and home decor.”
Linda explained the name of the company to the New Yorker in 2017. “Riley sounds like a girl that’s more of a tomboy, rose is more feminine. I’m technically the Riley, and Esther’s the Rose.” The magazine added that the sisters’ outfits for the interview reflected that statement. Linda was wearing a pantsuit and Esther was wearing a polka-dot print dress.
That brand matches with the audience Ariana Grande caters to with her music. Grande and her attorneys directly named Linda and Esther Chang in the civil lawsuit when explaining the connection to Forever 21. The lawsuit reads, “Riley Rose founders Esther and Linda Chang, daughters of Forever 21 founder and CEO, Do Wan Chang, reportedly stated that ‘Forever 21 and Riley Rose have a similar customer base,’ but that the goal when creating Riley Rose was to make something ‘very trendy and Instagram-worthy’ as the ultimate ‘homage to millennials.'”
2. The Chang Sisters Worked in Forever 21 Stores as Teenagers & Both Attended Ivy League Colleges
Linda Chang and Esther Chang did not receive a lot of free clothes growing up. Instead, they were actively involved in helping out with the Forever 21 brand. Linda Chang told the Los Angeles Times in a 2010 feature, “I never felt like it was a candy store. I was always concerned about how we could make it better.”
That mentality may have come from watching their parents build the company from scratch. Their parents, Do Won and Jin Sook Chang, moved to the United States from South Korea in 1981 without much money. They opened their first clothing store in 1984 in Los Angeles. Today, there are about 800 Forever 21 stores around the world. Despite declining sales in recent years, the Changs still have an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion, according to Forbes.
Linda Chang explained in the 2010 Times piece that she and Esther’s teenage years involved working in Forever 21 retail stores during their summer vacations. They’d also spend time working in warehouses “wielding price tag guns” during the busy holiday season.
After high school, both of the girls went on to Ivy League colleges. Linda Chang attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Younger sister Esther chose Cornell University.
3. Linda Chang Worked For Merrill Lynch Before Launching Forever 21’s Marketing Department
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Forever 21 CEO Don Chang and his daughter Linda Chang, senior marketing manager, on June 24, 2010 in New York City.
Linda Chang graduated from Wharton in 2004 and got a job as an analyst with Merrill Lynch, according to her LinkedIn page. She then spent nearly two years as a Control Buyer for the Pottery Barn before she decided to go back to work in the family business.
Linda became Forever 21’s marketing director in September of 2008. She told the Los Angeles Times that when she joined the company, Forever 21 didn’t even have a marketing department at the time. She hired the entire department, launched social media pages and started a blog.
Linda Chang appears to have grasped the power of social media early on. She told Marketing Week in 2011 that Forever 21’s initial success was not due to advertising, but word of mouth. “We built a brand through choosing the right locations and having customers talk about us to their friends. This viral campaigning has made us what we are.”
4. Esther Chang Runs the Visuals Department at Forever 21
Ariana Grande sues Forever 21 over failed deal and lookalike model
Younger sister Esther Chang has been the brainchild behind the look of Forever 21’s storefronts and graphics. She told the Los Angeles Times in the 2010 feature referenced above, “Because we don’t advertise that much, I want to distinguish our brands using interior finishes and visuals, giving the customer a sense of who we are.”
Before joining the family business, Esther completed internships at CosmoGirl and Nordstrom. Both sisters appear to be more reserved, especially when it comes to sharing their private lives. But Esther appears to be even more careful about this. In interviews, it tends to be Linda who is quoted far more often.
5. Ariana Grande Accused the Family & Their Companies of Stealing Her Likeness For Ad Campaigns
Ariana Grande and her attorneys filed the civil complaint against Forever 21 and Riley Rose on September 2, 2019, in the Central District of California federal court. Grande says that Forever 21 executives approached her in early 2019 about an endorsement, but a deal was never developed. The lawsuit states that Grande “explicitly declined due to Forever 21’s unwillingness to pay the fair market value for a celebrity of Ms. Grande’s stature.”
Grande alleges that Forever 21 and Riley Rose went ahead and used her likeness anyway. The lawsuit alleges that ad campaigns “capitalized on the concurrent success of Ms. Grande’s album Thank U, Next by publishing at least 30 unauthorized images and videos misappropriating Ms. Grande’s name, image, likeness, and music in order to create the false perception of her endorsement.” The lawsuit includes screenshots from Forever 21’s social media pages in which Grande is shown and tagged in the posts.
Grande also says the companies used models that looked like her but also incorporated accessories and clothing similar to what Grande had used in music videos. The lawsuit claims that after Grande’s representatives reached out to the two companies about the images, Forever 21 and Riley Rose failed to remove the posts for several weeks. Grande’s lawyers wrote that the “Defendants improperly misappropriated and profited from Ms. Grande’s influence and star-power for approximately 14 weeks.”
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