Fashion: An Identity?

The first thing you learn when you get into a class dealing with fashion is that fashion creates an identity. So why are runways featuring men with more woman-like clothing (such as Prada featuring mini-skirts outside of men's pants), and women with the "boyfriend" suits on? Gender is part of your identity. The biggest fad of this season is combining the two genders to be more alike to portray equality.

There are many complaints about retailers not jumping on the population majorities such as making clothes that fit Hispanics better because they are built differently, and making more lines that fit the overweight population of America (which is more than 60% of the population) because they are built differently, too. However, men are built differently than women, so why are their clothes becoming more uniform with eachother?

While I don't have a problem with the idea of metrosexual dress types, there are still people that dont identify with that style. So how are they going to create their own identity if the new style is to wear clothes that are similar with the opposite gender?

I personally like the clothing, and the message behind the clothing that states that women are equal to men. But the question of identity comes into play. If there are any other thoughts out in the world on this topic, feel free to comment.

Krystal

New York Fashion Week, Fall 2008

The Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, Fall 2008 was held Feb. 1st-8th. It was an exciting time for the runway with several designers pulling their creative ideas from past historical events to other cultural aspects of life. Fashion designers, such as Vera Wang, Anna Sui, Michael Kors, Perrie Ellis, Betsey Johnson, Calvin Klein and many more were able to show the runway their latest ideas.
The skinny leather pants with the high heal were very popular on the runway. Also there were significant amounts of fur used in jackets and longer coats. High waist pants and skinny belts were used to signify a woman's waist and attribute to here natural curves. Also there were short shorts with high waisted belts. Neutral and black tights were worn under garments. Fabric flowed as the models walked, and ruffles were used especially in evening formal apparel.
My favorite designer for the New York Fashion Week was Anna Sui. I could appreciate here creativity because I could tell she was trying to embrace other cultrues with here choice of color, pattern, and style. Several of her items looked similar to the Native American Indian culture, which I strongly believe is very interesting- (after all they were the first peopel in America to wear clothing). Also, I felt she was trying to identiy with the Asian culture with the similar Kimono style and the way garments wrapped around the body. There seemed to be a lot of cultural traditions embrased in the color choices she made with the garments.
Elizabeth

Metro Future Store

In our Retailing Class, our professor introduced a YouTube video describing how technology will be used in the future. Imagine going to the local grocery store and everything is right there from a click of a button to high tech-gadgets. How is this possible? With German radio frequency (RFID) products of technology. These items include a digital grocery list, a portable scanner, navigation system which can locate items in the store, and creative advertising with technology. The future sounds so exciting and I strongly believe it is perfect time for our society to try something like this because technology is the latest trend.
The radio frequency program is IBM based and has been tested and studied by several scientists. In class, this made me very excited because it allowed me to think and take time about all of the things which will be waiting to happen in the next 10-15years.
For the future I would like to suggest a digital grocery list connected to cell phones becuase it is a device several Americans and pretty much all global peopel use.

Other ideas about the future? Please post your ideas on this blog! Someone in our class discussed how they would love to have a refrigerator locate experation dates on certain items in the fridge. I think that this would be a wonderful idea and very helpful.

The paterns of people's lifestyes are going to change becuase of the future. I strongly believe this will be for the very best. Shopping for someone in a retailing store will not be the same. Instead, technology will tell a person's height, exact size, and color favorites and picking out a perfect outfit for your great-aunt, or best friend won't be that hard. I can not wait to see how retailing will change with the latest technology. There is so much to explore.
Elizabeth :)

Talbots for Women

In our retailing class we are discussing how to understand our target market. The reason why retailers need to know their customers is simply because it will enable them to understand the customer’s needs, desires, and behaviors of shopping. The better you understand consumers, the better retailer you will become.

Our professor asked us to take one store and discuss their customer and identify an in-depth profile. She asked us to discuss the generation and what major trends and events affected them in the past and how does this influence them as customers.

I decided to pick Talbots because I have been an employee for about two years, and have experianced the high demand for women who are getting older. A lot of woman who shop at Talbots are 35+ years old. I strongly believe that these woman what to look classy yet very beautiful as their bodies change, because they are being influenced by society that woman should look as young as they possibly can. This might mean dying your hair the shade of natural color rather than any grays flying in the way, always putting some kind of formula on your face to keep wrinkles away, and possibly getting plastic surgery.

These women who shop at Talbots are usually mothers, aunts, grandmothers, a wife, a friend, business woman, or teacher to society. These women have been through so much. Weather is was raising a child, finding a job, losing a husband or mother or father, recovering from a divorce or trying to recover from cancer or some other type of operation these women have been through so much. And these events really affect a woman’s way to shop.

The events that might affect the customer’s behaviors of shopping: I have had a woman who just had a new born baby trying to find new clothes because she said she had nothing that fit her right. Also, I have had a mother shop for a mother of the bride dress. And there have also been the customers who just want to shop to impress, or going to a business interview and need a new outfit. There are also several women who have to go to some type of party, school event, or even a cook-out trying to find something cute yet very comfortable that has quality.

Economically, Talbots is a high end store for women who are classy. From doctor’s wives to singles that are living off of social security – it just shows that there is a high demand for woman’s clothing who are 35 and up.

Talbots offers a petit, misses (regular size), and plus size clothing for all woman. With my experience in the location that I work, there are a lot of White, African-American, and Asian woman who shop at Talbots. I have come across some Hispanics women but not as much.

Elizabeth

Customer Profile: Bath & Body Works

Using Market Segmentation, retailers portray who their customers are. They break down their masses of consumer populations into smaller groups based on their characteristics. Bath & Body Works, for example, may have various types of people come into their store, buying all sorts of things. Using Market Segmentation, they may split up their consumers into groups, such as the middle schoolers that come in and buy a small bottle of lotion, the highschoolers that stop in for christmas/birthday packages, the college students that buy wallflowers for their dorm rooms, and the older women that go in and buy entire bag-fulls of scented candles and skincare products for themselves and friends.

When establishing Bath & Body Works' customer profile, the concentration is put on the consumers who go to Bath & Body Works specifically to find something and to spend their money. Their main customers are older women, especially the ones who have daughters in school. These women are women that think they need to restock their showers with scented shower gel and handsoaps. They frequently visit the mall, to buy things for their daughters, and they think that things bought at the mall are higher quality than what is bought at a grocery store or convenience store. When they go to Bath & Body Works with their daughters, they spend even more, because they buy their favorite scent, their daughters' favorite scents, and anything that their daughters may spot in the clearance baskets that they would have missed.

Bath & Body Works accomodates these consumers very well and makes sure that they see their store as higher than their competitors (such as the grocery stores and convenience stores that have shower gels and air fresheners available). They have a wide variety of scents and always come out with more. They also have several scents that have been around for a while so that no one ever misses their all-time favorite scent.

Krystal