I was annoyed with what I saw in Prada’s Spring collection at Barney’s last week: a black, unlined, poorly made, ultra lightweight, 100% nylon, dowdy looking double-breasted trench selling for $1895. It wasn’t the price that annoyed me because you can expect insane price tags on new collection items from fashion brands like Prada, Chanel, Gucci and Cavalli. It’s the inferior quality, bad fit and uninspiring design of the garment that got to me. The very least that one should expect from any designer piece is impeccable quality, luxurious fabric, superior fit and exclusive design innovation. Some designer houses do satisfy this criteria, and then there is the rest.

In the rag trade, more expensive does not necessarily mean better and vice versa. Even top designers like to cut corners to increase profit margins. Don’t assume that a Marc Jacobs original is beautifully made and will launder well because of its price and the status attached to the brand (his prêt-a porter collections look particularly shoddy). This is why you need to develop an eye for good quality. You’ll save yourself lots of money if you do. Don’t be put off walking into stores that you perceive as having poor quality items. Chances are high that you’ll find something unique and of acceptable quality if you know what to look for.

Join a discussion on distinguishing good quality from bad in the YLF forum.

I’ve seen these particular designer pieces up close and they were superbly made (with a price to match!)

Banana Republic has lacked flair for some time, but there is hope for a comeback this season. I recently found out from sources at the chain that a new design team is heading up the ladies wear merchandise department. Spring 2008 is the new design team’s debut collection and I like what I’m seeing in stores. The products look a little more interesting, fashion forward and fun. I would like to see Banana Republic succeed because I enjoy their quality, size range and great sales. Be sure to give this retailer another chance if they vanished from your radar like they did from mine. I’ve got my eye on them this season.

Don’t be alarmed by these brights if they’re not your thing. There are still plenty of neutrals to choose from at Banana Republic.

I regard Spain to be the leader in fashion retail because it is home to Inditex, one of the largest fashion distributors in the world and the holding company for eight different chain stores, of which Zara is the biggest and best known. The others are Stradivarius, Massimo Dutti, Pull and Bear, Bershka, Oysho, Zara Home and Kiddy’s Class. Inditex’s 3700-odd stores are represented in a whopping 68 different counties. Most of the merchandise available in these stores is made in Spain – not China.

What impresses me most about Inditex chains is the affordability of their highly creative, sophisticated and current designs. Each chain focuses on a niche market and age group, with levels of quality appropriate to the target market. But even their higher end Massimo Dutti store is more affordable than Banana Republic. I am convinced that this helps to raise the style quotient in Europe. It’s easier to look good when there are gorgeously stylish clothes and shoes at thrifty prices around every corner.

This is what I miss in America. You can absolutely get phenomenal clothes and shoes in the US at fabulous boutiques and department stores, but it is usually expensive. There is no American equivalent to Spain’s Zara, Sweden’s H&M, Britain’s French Connection, France’s Promod or Holland’s Mexx. Banana Republic probably comes closest, but its fashion has lacked flair recently and isn’t cheap unless you purchase on sale.

I hope that Spain continues to spread it’s gloriously affordable and fabulously wearable fashion all over America. Then we too can enjoy eye-catching boutique looks at inexpensive mainstream prices.

Zara in Paris.

Top designers showcase their designs for each upcoming fashion season during “Fashion Week” events in Paris, Milan, London, Madrid, Hong Kong and New York. Multiple fashion shows take place daily during fashion week and it’s what these designers send down the runway that ultimately influences retail fashion six to ten months later. Fashion editors, fashion buyers, fashion critics, fashion designers and fashion photographers are invited to various fashion week events around the world and based on what they see, begin to plan and translate our next retail season.

Fashion Weeks are instrumental trend predictors. And while catwalk creations are often unwearable, general tendencies towards particular colours, silhouettes, items and fabrics are apparent with each collection that’s sent down the runway. These general tendencies are interpreted and filtered by the fashion industry who in turn make clothing available for us to purchase in stores. New York Fashion Week is currently taking place, showcasing designer collections for Fall 2008. While we discuss Spring and Summer 2008 on this site; fashion buyers, designers, merchandisers and clothing manufactures are working on the next season (Autumn 2008), which makes its debut in stores in August.

Fashion weeks cause a lot of hype because predicting what’s in store for us in future is a hot topic. I don’t pay close attention to what goes on at each fashion week every season because trends are still in their infancy at that stage and there is no guarantee that runway fashions will become mainstream in one season. But from what I’ve gathered at the New York fashion week, the waist-cinching belt and hour glass silhouette has never been stronger, and we can look forward to this for Autumn 2008.

British designer Nicole Miller recently showcased her Fall 2008 collection in New York.

Imagine if the government set out to measure the nation’s height, weight and curves in order to improve the sizing of clothes in retail fashion. Well, Spain’s health ministry has taken on this mammoth task. The goal of the study is to ensure that fashion houses “promise to fit their clothes to real women, rather than the other way round”.

From a recent article in The Independent:

Last month technicians from Spain’s health ministry visited the first of 59 towns across the country to measure 10,415 Spanish women, aged between 12 and 70, to find out what size and shape the nation’s females really are. The nationwide measuring operation continues until 21 December, and results are to be announced next spring.

Women are chosen at random from the city’s census and invited to participate in an “anthropometric study”, which the state-sponsored National Consumers Institute claims to be the first in the world. The aim is to promote “a realisable image of healthy beauty – neither Rubens women nor anorexic girls”, according to the health minister, Bernat Soria. “It is our commitment that beauty and health go hand in hand.”

The results from the study will be used to standardize clothing sizes across the industry.

This step follows Spain’s leadership in banning ultra-thin models from the Madrid catwalks a year ago. And that isn’t the end of it…

The government has also extracted a promise from retailers to banish skeletal plastic mannequins from shop windows – said to encourage unrealistic ideals of beauty – and replace them over time with those sized at least 38 – a British 10 [this is roughly an American 6, where mannequin’s today typically wear an American 2] .

Regardless of your position on the government playing such an active role in consumer affairs, these are fascinating moves. Spain has tremendous clout in the fashion world because they are home to the biggest and most successful fast-fashion retail chain in the world – Zara. I’m looking forward to next Spring when the results of the study will be announced. It will be incredibly interesting to see whether they can be applied successfully, and whether other countries follow Spain’s example.

Will idealizing the skinny ever be out of fashion?

The US Apparel sector is having a hard time at the moment. Data from MasterCard spending and reports from the retailers themselves show that sales were weak this September. Consumer spending is down a little because of the rising gas prices and a difficult housing market; and unseasonally warm weather “quelled demand for fall fashions” in particular. Analysts also point out that the year on year comparison is tough (September 2006 was a particularly good month).

My own favourite American department store, Nordstrom (which normally beats Wall Street estimates), announced late last week that sales figures would rise less than expected. It is resorting to additional markdowns to reduce inventory levels. Smaller margins for Nordstrom means better prices for us, so there definitely is a silver lining for shoppers. Be on the lookout for good deals!

As an ex fashion buyer, I look to the merchandise when sales drop. While the other factors do have an undeniable impact on retail sales, the strength of the product is key. If the merchandise at Nordstrom was up to scratch in both in style and value this season, sales might not be so soft. I am a loyal Nordies girl and choose to spend many fashion dollars there, but I have not been as enticed lately. And the same holds true for my clients.

Let’s hope the sales are good and the floors are cleared to make space for the much anticipated holiday lines. It looks like the weather may start to lend a helping hand.

It’s half-time for the 2007 Autumn and Winter collections. Most retail stores are on sale and there are bargains to be had. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, October is one of the best times to shop for cold weather clothing because:

• Transitional Autumn merchandise is marked down
• Dressy holiday ensembles begin to hit stores
• The best woolen items make their debut (outerwear, coats, cashmere and merino wool knitwear)

Lightweight knits, trenches and cotton-rich items get pushed off store floors to make room for fancy occasion wear, resort wear (in case you’re off to a sunny spot to thaw), and heavy weight winter garments. You’ll see additional inputs of fresh winter merchandise hit stores in November.

Retailers generally resist further delivery of sales stock from the first week of December till Christmas because they don’t like to bulk up stocks just before Christmas. Business tends to fall flat straight after Christmas and unsold goods leads to reduced profit. January is markdown month and Spring lines start making their cheerful entry in February. So what you see in stores between now and the end of November is everything that this season still has to offer.

If you are a lucky sale shopper, then now is your time. If you haven’t updated adequately for the upcoming season – get cracking! The good stuff, whether it’s in terms of design or value, flies out of stores. Continue to make savvy decisions when you shop . Do not buy something if you do not know how to wear it, or how to build it into an ensemble from the other items in your wardrobe. The item will remain unworn and that’s a waste of money.

I make a beeline for Banana Republic Menswear at this time of year. Half the store is on sale and the best of their Autumn and Winter collections makes its debut. It remains one of my favourite places to buy hip, affordable and good quality basics for gentlemen clients.

This Autumn season is for purple lovers. The writing was on the wall towards the end of the Spring 2007 season when glimpses of vivid violet started appearing in very small doses amongst the multitudes of black, white, red, yellow and cobalt items in stores. I distinctly remember seeing a magnificent, bright purple suede Prada ballet flat at Nordstrom in May. It stood out like a sore thumb and this was a sign. When top designers introduce “a new colour” into their collections at the end of a season, fashion buyers often test a few items of that new colour in stores almost immediately. This is precisely what happened to “it” colours like yellow and cobalt a few seasons ago. The early experiments make it possible to spot future colour trends. This was the basis of my hunch about purple being big for Autumn and sure enough, it’s by far the most popular jewel tone. There’s purple clothing everywhere at the moment.

This particular shade of blue-purple is the colour that reminds me most of my Flashdance 80’s fashion days. I personally like it best with magenta, warm mustard yellow, grey and black (but not all at once). Love it or loath it, purple is the “it” colour this season and its richness has certainly spiced up Autumn’s traditionally dark palette. If head-to-toe in this royal hue is a little too much for you, sport a shoe or handbag in purple instead.

My recent post on vanity sizing generated a lot of discussion. I talked about the popular interpretation of this trend, which is that the industry is pandering to our egos as we get larger as a population, but Kathleen from Fashion Incubator offered a different perspective. It is worth bringing this out of the comments and into the main page because Kathleen is a pattern maker and has a true insider’s viewpoint on production as it happens in factories today.

Kathleen’s main point is that, far from being about our egos, the evolution of the sizing curve is driven by efficient material utilization…

“Consider: most manufacturers cut a size range of 6-14, nearly all do, if not, 8-16. Now, sales wise, the vast majority of orders are in the center of the size spread. Now, as the average person gets heavier, over time, sales begin to weigh in (excuse the pun) on the upper end of the size range so the size spread is off kilter. Now why does this matter? It matters because of marker design and allocation (arcane as I said). To make an efficient marker (keep fabric waste to a minimum) you need balance. For every size 6, you need a size 14. For every size 8, you need a size 12. The 6/14 and 8/12 balance each other in a marker. So, if you have orders for too many of the larger sizes and not enough of the smaller sizes because people are getting fatter, you don’t have balance because now you need 3 size 12’s for every size 8 or 2 size 14s for every size 6. So, you change the sizing structure. This way it rebalances.”

Read more detail in Kathleen’s comment itself, or take a look at the related entries on her blog:

• Fit and sizing entropy
• Sizing evolution

No doubt the industry uses our egos as a powerful marketing tool (and I’m still suspicious of those “skinny mirrors”), but they also drive profits by reducing production costs. And regardless of the industry’s motivation, this sizing evolution trend will probably continue as long as we are getting larger on average. My advice to men and women who are faced with being “sized out” of American clothing labels (when the smallest size available is too big) is to shop European and Asian clothing labels instead.

“Vanity sizing” is a term for the industry’s practice of inflating the dimensions associated with a particular size tag over time. What was considered an American size 8 a decade ago will pass for a size 4 today. Size inflation becomes more extreme the further back in time we go. Marilyn Monroe’s voluptuous size 12 body would probably fit into the equivalent of what we know as a size 6 today.

How this phenomenon started is anyone’s guess. It is thought that vanity sizing is “designed to satisfy the buyer’s wish to appear thin“. This boosts self esteem and thereby ensures the sale of a garment. Designers and manufacturers were quick to realize that there was money to be made by satisfying perceived insecurities.

The increasing dimensions of garments have subsequently caused retailers to introduce additional size designations at the low end of their size ranges (0, 00, or subzero sizes). This is hilarious! Next thing you know, a healthy size 8 will be wearing  a size 0 and a tiny size 0 will be in a size marked “negative 8″.  At the end of the day, there is no getting away from the fact that we live in a fashion world in which smaller clothing sizes are an obsession.

If you’d like to learn more about vanity sizing, Wikipedia is a good place to find related articles. What are your thoughts on downsizing size tags as a way of fooling us into a false sense of security?