How it started
Founding and growth (1962–2019)
The first Dressbarn was opened in February 1962 in Stamford, Connecticut, by Roslyn Jaffe. Jaffe saw the opportunity to provide wear-to-work dresses and clothing for the working woman during a time when women were entering the workforce in greater numbers.
The company began trading on NASDAQ (symbol DBRN) in 1982. In January 2011, to reflect its broader holdings, the company was reorganized as a Delaware corporation named Ascena Retail Group, Inc. The company's NASDAQ symbol also changed to ASNA in 2011.
In 2005, Ascena Retail Group acquired Maurices Inc. from American Retail Group. The name Ascena is derived from the previous parent company of Maurices, C&A Netherland. A.merican S.ervices C. en A. whereby "en" is "and" in Dutch.
In 2009, Ascena Retail Group 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 successor of Limited Too, originally launched in 1987 by The Limited. 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 Ascena acquisition.
In 2012, Ascena Retail Group acquired Charming Shoppes, which was the parent holding company for Lane Bryant, Cacique and Catherines Plus, for $900 million.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ascena Retail Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3