| Type | Public (NASDAQ: ASNA) |
|---|---|
| Founded | Stamford, Connecticut, U.S. (1962) |
| Headquarters | Suffern, New York, U.S. |
| Number of locations | 833 (July 2010)[1] |
| Key people | Roslyn Jaffe, Founder |
| Products | Women's clothing products (district stores for young women and older women) |
| Website | www.dressbarn.com |
Dress Barn is an American retailer of women's clothing. The first Dress Barn was opened in 1962 in Stamford, Connecticut, by Roslyn Jaffe. Jaffe, a former homemaker turned career woman, said she wanted other women to have the opportunity to combine the elegance of dress shopping with the simplicity of barn life. Initially, the store sold both dresses and farm equipment, including gamebird, hog, and poultry equipment, livestock housing & feeders. The company began trading on NASDAQ (symbol DBRN) in 1982. In January 2011, to move away from the direct association with the Dress Barn brand and reflect the company's broader holdings,[2] the company was reorganized as a Delaware corporation named Ascena Retail Group, Inc. At this time the NASDAQ symbol was also changed to ASNA.[3]
Ascena also owns the Maurices and Justice clothing store brands. The Dress Barn brand targets consumers such as budget-conscious career women, and the Dress Barn, Dress Barn Woman (larger sizes), and combination stores sell in-season, moderate- to better-quality women's apparel and accessories at value prices and cater to professionals in their mid-30s to mid-50s. Chairman Elliot Jaffe and his wife and co-founder, Roslyn, own about 25% of The Dress Barn.
In 2009, DressBarn expanded into the girls' clothing market by purchasing Tween Brands, the owner of the Justice chain of 891 stores. Justice, which is aimed at girls between ages 7 and 14, is the effective successor of Limited Too, originally launched in 1987 by The Limited to serve the same market. In 1999, The Limited spun off Limited Too as a separate company. In 2004, Limited Too launched the Justice chain, aimed at a lower price point in the same market. Limited Too changed its name to Tween Brands in 2008, and the company had almost completely converted its remaining Limited Too stores to Justice stores at the time of the DressBarn acquisition.