by Nissa Hanna
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Lucky Londoners have Girl Meets Dress. Fashion-fortunate New Yorkers have the Albright Library. Now all stateside fashionistas can rejoice: Rent The Runway is rolling out mail-order dress rentals nationwide.
The service gives cash-conscious clotheshorses access to designer dresses (from the likes of Diane Von Furstenberg, Proenza Schouler and Hervé Léger) that would otherwise [...]
by Abelardo de la Peña Jr.
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Three young Venezuelan students are rocking the Maracaibo fashion scene with their Oh! Nena line of hand-crafted headwear, with their sights set on North American success.
Taking their name from the title of a romantic ballad by Argentinean rocker Fito Páz, the pieces from their latest collection called “Wink” are [...]
Consumer strategists Barbie Casasus and Nissa Hanna break down Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2010 and consumers’ changing mind-set toward fashion in a down economic climate.
Download the podcast here:
How did Fashion Week fare?
14 min., 28 sec.
by Nissa Hanna
How do you coax consumers back into clothing stores? Fashion’s Night Out dangled irresistible carrots: celebrities, customization and cocktails. The global event, held September 9, was a rallying cry for retailers whipped up by Vogue and the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
It was not retail as usual. In New York, celebs and [...]
by Katie Elfering
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Until recently, most fashionistas wouldn’t be caught dead in the same frock every day for a whole year. But that’s exactly what style-setter Sheena Matheiken is doing with the Uniform Project, her effort to showcase a sustainable wardrobe model and raise money for charity.
Every day, Matheiken dons 1 of her 7 identical [...]
by Nissa Hanna
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Paper or fabric? House-Wear chose the former as the material for its Paper Wear clothing collection.
Artist Laura Sansone created the avant-garde label that uses Tyvek (yep, like the mailing envelopes) as the material for pants, dresses, jackets and some home accessories (Inhabitat.com 5.17.09).
So, why Tyvek? It’s strong, soft (and more so with [...]
by Lisa Parks
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Keeping rappers on a reasonable budget in this economy is like pulling teeth and that’s truer than ever for hip hop artists who are used to putting their money where their mouth is.
Rap stars and wannabes are ditching their gold and diamond encrusted teeth, called “grillz,” at websites like SellYourGoldTeeth.com. That’s right! [...]
by Nissa Hanna
Like many Millennial and Xer consumers, I’m an eclectic sartorial shopper, mixing mostly moderate-priced pieces with fast fashions. I’ve come to accept that aside from the occasional splurge in a high-end store, I’m just not paying enough to get good customer service. But a recent encounter at apparel store Martin + Osa changed [...]
by Katie Elfering
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Consumers can wear their status on their sleeves … er, chests, as two companies put Facebook and Twitter updates on T-shirts.
Status King is a Facebook application that lets consumers order T-shirts with their favorite status updates (Mashable.com 2.6.09). There’s no Facebook branding on the shirt, since it isn’t sponsored by the social [...]
by Nissa Hanna
WHAT’S HAPPENING
To help recessionistas cope in this economy, apparel rental services are coming to the rescue.
Dress Vault facilitates the lending, borrowing, buying and selling of frocks. Members put pics of their dresses into their virtual closet and include a rental or purchase price (JCReport.com 2.12.09). Borrowers cover shipping costs, but not the cleaning [...]
Alexandra Smith, Barbie Casasus and Nissa Hanna give a quick rundown of Fall 2009 Fashion week with the industry’s pre-Fashion Week mood, discussion of key trends from Fashion Week and we’ve decoded what it all means for shoppers.
Download the podcast here:
Translating Fashion Week
19 min., 50 sec.
by Nissa Hanna
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Department stores once enjoyed a committed relationship with designers, but that’s now on the rocks as labels create cheap-chic collections for discount stores or defect to the arms of high-paying competitors (New York Times 3.8.08). The exclusive partnerships of yore have given way to a market that resembles an exercise in speed-dating.
Fashionistas with retail vertigo may need a [...]
by Alex Smith
The last place I would normally spend my post-Thanksgiving Friday is the mall, least of all the Twin Cities’ Mall of America, that big, be-roller-coastered bastion of magnet stores and pushy kiosk workers. But in the name of observational research, I sucked it up and hit the Black Friday scene to scope sales-hungry [...]
by Cree McCree
WHAT’S HAPPENING
Too much stuff? Enter “the Simplifier.” The new psychographic, identified by marketing expert John A. Quelch, is a middle-aged affluent looking to downsize during the downturn because she wants to, not because she has to (Harvard Business Publishing 10.15.08).
Consumers with assured wealth look around at all their stuff and feel more sheepish [...]
by Nissa Hanna
Throughout my life, lofty trendsetters have largely inspired my wardrobe. I’ve followed fashion trends in magazines (sticking Elle pages into my sixth-grade math book), TV shows and movies (don’t even ask what happened after I saw Clueless). Even now, at an age too old to be doing so, I occasionally tune into The [...]
