Troubled teen retailer Aé ropostale, Inc. filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Wednesday, with plans to trim its chain, rework contracts and emerge in streamlined form.

Aé ropostale is following a path laid out by other mall-based specialty retailers plunged into trouble due to changing consumer tastes and competition from newer fast-fashion chains, but with a difference.

The retailer is taking on the private-equity firm that controls its largest secured creditor and one of its largest suppliers, Sycamore Partners, in an open-court fight. Aé ropostale and Sycamore have been feuding for some time. Wednesday, lawyers for Aé ropostale said in court filings that they suspect Sycamore engaged in moves designed to drive Aé ropostale into bankruptcy and force it to liquidate.

Aé ropostale has lined up bankruptcy financing, and court papers reflect no plans for a liquidation, even though 154 stores are slated for closure. Trimming the chain of about 800 stores is part of Aeropostale's plan to emerge from bankruptcy in six months as a reorganized, smaller chain. In court papers, Aé ropostale Chief Financial Officer David Dick said the company is intent on saving as many jobs as it can. Some 14,500 people are employed at Aé ropostale.

Alongside the restructuring effort, Aé ropostale will be looking for potential buyers, Mr. Dick said.

The turnaround strategy also calls for resolving its troubles with Sycamore, starting with a court-assisted investigation.

"It appears that the Sycamore Parties may have engaged in a long-standing plan to put the Company into bankruptcy for their own purposes. The Debtors therefore have an obligation to other creditors to investigate and assess potential claims against the Sycamore Parties," Aé ropostale lawyers wrote in a court filing.

Sycamore couldn't immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

Business behavior such as demanding faster payment can be called into question once a company is in bankruptcy, on the grounds, for example, that a supplier with special leverage took advantage of its position, to the detriment of other creditors.

Until just months ago, Sycamore was also a big Aé ropostale shareholder, with two members on the company's board. That connection could give rise to claims that the private-equity firm was an Aé ropostale insider, and thus, had duties to look out for the company instead of itself on crucial issues.

In court papers, Aé ropostale's lawyers say they want to look into whether Sycamore interfered with the retailer's attempt to get new terms from another big creditor. Additionally, the company's lawyers say a Sycamore-controlled company "may have used its position as a significant supplier of merchandise" to push Aé ropostale to breach covenants on a loan from another Sycamore-controlled company.

Aé ropostale's debts include $223 million in secured loans, including $73 million owed to a syndicate of lenders, and $150 million owed to lenders led by Sycamore affiliate Aero Investors LLC, court papers say.

Store lease costs top an estimated $200 million annually. Aé ropostale estimates it owed suppliers about $23 million as of Wednesday.

The fight with Sycamore aside, Aé ropostale is joining a line of similar retailers in bankruptcy that includes Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., known as PacSun; women's formalwear retailer Cache Inc.; teen-focused Wet Seal and surfwear seller Quiksilver Inc.

Matt Jarzemsky contributed to this article.

Write to Peg Brickley at peg.brickley@wsj.com and Joanne Chiu at joanne.chiu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 04, 2016 09:55 ET (13:55 GMT)