THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 9, 1995 TAG: 9502090404
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEPHANIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
She scans the boutiques, hunting for bargains. And if she doesn't find any, she heads for the likes of T.J. Maxx and Marshall's.
For many in the designer-apparel industry, this woman is a nightmare come true: She boasts about snagging a pair of designer shoes for $20, she waits for half-price sales and, maybe unknowingly, she ruins companies' profit margins.
``That woman is the bane of our existence, the bane of the clothing industry,'' decried Larry Foster, one of dozens of designer-clothing sellers at Wednesday's Old Dominion Fashion Exhibitors convention in Virginia Beach.
But this finicky woman is also the '90s shopper, a wake-up signal for every boutique, mall store and department store chain that deals in clothing, said Margie Johnson, a Virginia Beach retail consultant.
Johnson helped organize the show, which continues today at the Virginia Beach Resort Hotel and Convention Center. The convention then heads to Roanoke on Sunday and Monday, and Myrtle Beach, S.C., on Feb. 20-21.
The shows normally attract hundreds of buyers and sellers from the Carolinas to Washington. It's strictly wholesale: from the vendors to the stores.
Something has been hurting the apparel industry for a long time. It's not just the top-of-the-line designers and boutiques that are feeling the pain. It's everyone from the small apparel shops in the mall to the giant department store chains.
Women are not buying.
``We don't know why,'' Johnson said. ``There's not one thing I can tell you that's wrong with the business. It's just all these individual spokes.''
The apparel industry is suffering one of its longest slumps in recent times, says Kenneth M. Gassman Jr., a retail analyst with the Richmond brokerage Davenport & Co.
The problem? He said that the industry has not been providing anything that's both exciting and affordable.
Even people in the industry concede that there's a ``sea of sameness'' out there. That's when a shopper can go to 10 different clothing stores in the mall, and everything looks similar.
One of the culprits may be a trend toward centralized buying. Large chains purchase in bulk so that they can save money, but they tend to take fewer ``risks.'' After all, who wants to get stuck with 5,000 silver sequin sweaters at the season's end?
Johnson has been warning retailers about the changing market for years. She says they need to adapt by making serious changes in the way they operate. Boutique sales staffs must court the woman wearing ragged jeans. They need to make their places exciting. And they need to understand that the female shopper dresses more casually and is getting bigger.
That's why Juanita Gardner and two other buyers from the Hilltop boutique Clothes Closet were shaking their heads even though the cropped black jacket shown at the convention screamed, ``Buy me!''
``It's the waistline,'' Gardner said. ``That's the problem.''
Even though the jacket looked good on the fashion models and the clothes rack, it might not look good on all of her customers. The cut emphasizes the stomach and the rear, and not everyone's a size 6.
Andy Webb, who sells Silky Line, says buyers already are beginning to make changes. He said the boutique people used to make appointments and see the entire new line of clothing. Now, he said, they simply run in, point to one or two things they want, and run out.
Also, they resemble their shoppers in that ``they're looking for things that are a little less expensive.''
Betsy Bristow, who was looking at clothing for her store, Cyndy's and Bynn of Urbanna, simply breaks all the rules.
``I do what you're not supposed to do: I buy what I like,'' said Bristow, wearing an orange suede skirt, a bright pink jacket and a multi-colored silk blouse.
Bristow and other hunt-and-peck buyers may be doing themselves and their customers a favor, said Jim Fields, owner of Norfolk's Lili's of Ghent.
By choosing one or two pieces from each designer, they get the sort of excitement and variety that makes their cash registers ring, Fields said.
``I shop like my customers,'' he said. ``It drives the manufacturers crazy.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Bill Tiernan, Staff
Judy Roche, left, and Pat Marshall of Silk Purse & Sow's Ear in
Great FFalls, Va., look over merchandise in the Northern Isles
showroom...
Jim Fields of Lili's of Ghent in Norfolk was among local buyers on
hand for the show. He looks over hats in the Carol & Company
showroom.
by CNB