Flashback Fashion Friday: What Ever Happened to 5-7-9?

Editor’s note: We originally published this story about the 5-7-9 stores in 2014. We’ve rewritten it to be less one-sided and accurate. 

Supply

There’s nothing how retailer 5-7-9 got its name. Back in the’80s, the shop, which catered to girls, concentrated its set on three sizes — you guessed it, sizes 9 and 5, 7.

In those days, the store chain was exceptionally popular. I had been in high school at the time, and I recall seeing a 5-7-9 shop. With a selection of trendy clothes, the shop was a magnet for teenage girls.

The 5-7-9 Debate: Just for Skinny Girls?

It’s important to note here that sizing has evolved over time, kinda radically. Junior sizes 5, 7 and 9 in the’80s probably equate to sizes 0, 3 and 5 today.

In the current world, it seems ridiculous that a shop would focus on the smallest of dimensions. Because of this, the original version of this article characterized 5-7-9 to low self-esteem and body shaming as a evil because of its own contribution. We snubbed their noses in the women who needed to store elsewhere, and stated that girls who shopped 5-7-9 did so proudly.

The Other Side of the Story

I suspect I will get skewered in the remarks to this, but I don’t recall 5-7-9 shops being exclusive. I was in high school from 1986 to 1990, and my memory tells me that sizes 5, 7 and 9 coated a large-ish chunk of people in these days.

Yes, curvy women, which stinks were excluded by the shop. But the sizing wasn’t so intense that it only catered to a tiny minority of underweight women. I had been of average size in high school — larger than I am by 15 or 20 pounds — and that I could wear a 7.

But I never shopped there and thought, gosh, it’s nice to not bother with all those plus, tall or petite sizes. Nor did I consider it a badge of honor that I was a customer.

The’70s and’80s were rough on girls. Girls in magazines, TV and films were thin, such as Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface. Keep or girls and Girls went to extreme measures to get and cases of bulimia and anorexia spiked.

Inside my mind, 5-7-9 shops were a product of the toxic environment — although maybe not the cause or even a contributing element. And…I’ll duck now if you’re taking a swing.

The End of an Era

Based on Wikipedia, Edison Brothers Stores between 1970 and 1999 owned the brand. The company was in the business of operating and expanding chains. They were good at it and they were not. Edison Brothers Stores went bankrupt and sold .

5-7-9 Today, Or can it be Rainbow?

While many of the first stores have vanished, some are actually living. 5-7-9 has developed in ways. The positive is that the stores now carry a broad range of sizes, from petites to plus (applause here). On the flip side, the selection is pretty low-end.

The easiest way to get a flavor of the 5-7-9 is to navigate the online shop at RainbowShops.com. Rainbow is the sister store of 5-7-9, and the two brands are intermingled. 579, if you try to stop by with the old site. Com, by way of example, you’ll get redirected to RainbowShops.com.

Where 5-7-9 has its very own identity outside of Rainbow the only place I could find is an unkept Facebook page. It has not been upgraded since February of 2017, although Regrettably, the page has nearly 128,000 followers.

Shop Locations

If you really want to take a nostalgic trip down the 5-7-9 memory lane, I’d receive a list of all remaining stores in the continental U.S. out of Rainbow’s corporate office. Here they are:

California

224 Second Street Calexico

Colorado

Aurora Mall — 14200 East Alameda Ave Aurora

Georgia

Greenbriar Theater — 2841 Greenbriar Pkwy SW Atlanta
Stone Mt Square -5370 Stone Mountain Hwy — Stone Mountain

Massachusetts

Meadowbrook S/C — 211 Plain St. Lowell

Ohio

Shore Center — 22650 Shore Center Drive Euclid

Has dozens of places in Puerto Rico. If you do have a trip into one of those shops, come back and let us know how it went!