UPDATE: Juicy Couture Will NOT Be Shutting Down – Here’s What’s Going On…

UPDATE: 26.06.14

So it would appear that the fashion press got a little bit carried away when it came to Juicy Couture's supposed future. Stories were published that all US stores would be closing, causing everyone to have a trip down memory lane in order to remember terrific trackie times of the past. Today Juicy Couture's owners, Authentic Brands Group, LLC, released a brand strategy that in fact states the very opposite. For 2015 there are plans to expand the label into US territory - and most importantly, in places where they'll find affluent shoppers a-plenty, like New York and Los Angeles. 'The Juicy Couture brand is strong and thriving globally, and Authentic BrandsGroup is committed to driving a comprehensive, multi-dimensional strategy to expand Juicy Couture across our international markets and to re-energize the brand in the U.S. and Canada,' says Jamie Salter, Chairman and CEO of Authentic Brands Group.

From sweatsuits to sasspot - this is how Juicy Couture looks today

These old shops were purchased by the brand's previous owners, plus they 'were no longer representative of the Juicy Couture brand today and ABG’s vision for the brand’s future' according to the press release, and therefore they'll be replaced with the aforementioned new locations. ABG will also be relaunching the Juicy website, growing their kidswear, footwear and intimates ranges, as well as powering on with blue chip projects with Elizabeth Arden, Steve Madden and more. SO, for those of you who have been crying into your terry toweling for the past few days, it's not over. In fact, it sounds like it's only just beginning.....

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Since Juicy Couture’s velour tracksuit boom in the early noughties the American brand has gone through many changes. After the founders, Gela Nash-Taylor and Pamela Skaist-Levy left in 2010 to set up their own label (Skaist Taylor launched in 2012 and has been bought by the likes of Net-A-Porter and Nordstrom), speculation whirled that the girls departed because the label wasn’t performing as strongly as it once had. Others assumed that by netting $200 million, it’d be a pretty safe time to take a jump and try something different – after all, these two made a fortune from a project that started first as maternity jeans and then as a revolution of the slogan t-shirt.

Two of the original Juicy girls: Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton on The Simple Life

Juicy’s intellectual rights were recently sold to NY-based brand development and licensing company American Brands Group and today the news comes today that the Californian label will be packing up its terry towelling and closing all of its US stores. Should you need a diamante fix, you’ll still stand a chance in Europe and online, but these Stateside retail hotspots are rumoured to go to Lucky and Kate Spade New York.

According to fashion history, the celebrity endorsement grew thanks to the designers setting up a VIP suite in the Chateau Marmont; the perky bottoms of Madonna, Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie now had an even easier way to slip into the low-slung trackie pants and zippy, often-personalised, hoodies. They were so popular; you’d even find them on the red carpet. Not something you’ll probably ever see again thanks to this generation’s highly maintained fashion plates. So let’s dedicate a bit of gallery-time to the most instantly recognisable signifier of all things Hollywood during a whirling time when being papped in a trackie was an acceptable – nay, appreciated and as(s)pirational – thing.