Pleated and shirred skirts and trousers are back in style, and I don’t know about you, but I look terrible in them even though I like the styling.
It seems the secret to wearing these if you have a fuller figure is to look for a dropped waistline.
Kathleen Donohue
Career change, self-management, and the business of fashion
Category Archives: Trend Research
Economics: The 0.01 Percent
In the issue 98 of Textile View, David Shah said:
The world’s biggest luxury goods purveyors enjoyed a record-breaking 2011. … this is a reflection of a new economic reality. We are not talking about recession here: we are talking about the polarization of wealth and the arrival of a very small, but fabulously wealthy stratum of society that has created a new, super luxury niche market.
So how are your couture sewing skills? Sounds like we’ll all have to take our opportunities where we can get them.
Retail Trends: The end of Big Box?
I haven’t posted lately, because work life has been … interesting.
Bloomberg as well as other outlets are reporting the end of the big box store (Wal-Mart, Target, K-Mart) era. It seems that schemes like Amazon Prime are offering people convenience and greater savings.
What does this mean for the fashion business?
This means that since people are shifting their focus to online buying, small labels with an e-commerce presence will be able to compete at a global level with even the big brands to a certain extent. This will make small producers even more competitive.
Maybe we’re seeing the beginning of the age of dominance of retailers like Shabby Apple!
Retail Trends: Grownup fashion for kids
Another major trend we’re seeing is grownup designs for kids. The most stunning recent example of this is Diane Von Furstenberg for BabyGap.
Honestly, I was floored when I saw these. DVF for babies? Could there be anything cuter than that?
See what I mean?
Spring 2013: Genteel Poverty
Another big retail trend we are seeing are people who used to buy high-end goods shopping at discount stores. Some of this is due to this group of shoppers being more conscious of their cash flow, but many of these are people who find themselves in reduced circumstances.
These shoppers are bringing a taste and sophistication to lower-end shopping.
Missoni and Liberty for Target
Vera Wang for Kohl’s
Spring 2013 Trends
The Spring 2013 trend reports are out (yay!) Some trends I’m loving:
Bike style
More botanicals
Latin style
Silhouettes
My sister is getting married an I’ve been trying on a lot of dresses, which has got me thinking about silhouettes. Silhouettes are the basic shapes of garments that affect the way they look on the body.
Have you ever noticed how many empire-waisted bridesmaid dresses there are?
This is because empire waists are the most flattering styles for the most figures. It emphasizes the bust while drawing attention away from the hips. This is a very deliberate decision on the part of the designers.
So when designing a line, be sure to keep in mind what’s on the mind of the people who will be shopping for your garments. What are the silhouettes that look best on your customers?
Why don’t pants fit?
I am fascinated with the fit of pants. Mostly because they are the most difficult garments to fit, I only wear pants, and as a result, I like to understand what a good fitting pair of pants looks like.
Most of us will not know what that is, because women’s pants sold today do not fit.
Exhibit A:
These cute Banana Republic cropped chinos do not fit the model. See those wrinkles in the front spreading out from the fly? That means the hips have been cut too narrow.
Bad fitting pants are all over the website. Here’s another one.
Exhibit B:
Another cute pair of chinos that don’t fit the model. Here, you can see from the bagginess in the crotch that the front crotch curve was cut too long.
There are more fit problems on the BR website, but I won’t point them out here. Let’s just say “cameltoe” and leave it at that.
I don’t want to be overly critical here. One of the issues with making mass-produced clothing is that you cannot make a garment that fits everyone. Sometimes you have to settle for 80% and be ok with that. However, these are the photos that are selling the clothes, and they don’t look that good.
I’m not just going to pick on BR. Brooks brothers has these $118 chinos that are cut too narrow in the seat. You can tell by the diagonal wrinkles going down the model’s legs:
But it’s not all bad news. Brooks Brother’s label Black Fleece has these beautifully fitting pants:
And the back:
See? Virtually wrinkle free, hangs straight and gracefully. All for the reasonable price of $375
Hanger Appeal
Hanger appeal is a very important but difficult to imagine concept in merchandising. It means that a garment that looks beautiful on a model looks blah on a hanger. This can be a serious issue since unless you are selling your merchandise through a catalog or a fashion show, your customer’s first encounter with your clothes will be on a hanger, or folded on a fixture.
Here’s an example from one of my all-time favorite brands, Humanoid:
It’s really hard to imagine what this dress would look like on a person. It actually looks like this:
Which has a very different presentation. If I saw the first picture, I probably would have passed up this dress.
