Reader Question: How Do You Spot Trends?
23 Aug
Q: Hi Kim! It’s pretty easy to find what’s hot currently even two-three months from now isn’t hard, but with the trade shows six months in advance… How do we know what’s going to be “it” fashion in 6 months? You always seem to know!
A: Very good question! Trend forecasting isn’t always that easy, but it’s not necessarily as hard to do as you think — all you have to do is keep your eyes and ears open. You really do need to immerse yourself in fashion, which shouldn’t be hard to do if you love fashion enough to open your own boutique. Pay attention to the runway shows — this is key. It’s pretty convenient since fashion happens before most of the markets. If you watch closely you’ll start to notice repitition. If you don’t notice anything, just log on to thefashionspot.com and visit their trends forum. You’ll see threads starting (and some bumped) about all the new trends people are spotting at fashion weeks.
Also, a lot of trends carry over from the year before or earlier in the year. For example — how long have booties been hot? Since I was in COLLEGE (I graduated 3 years ago, people). How long have open toed booties been hot? Eh, about 2 years or so? And what about cut-out booties? Since, say, last year. Trust me, they aren’t going anywhere come fall/winter.
So to sum it all up — watch fashoin shows, read TFS, shop a lot, read lots of fashion magazines and celebrity gossip blogs too. The last tip seems weird but honestly I’ve found at least half of the designers I carry through celebrities. And all trends cycle, so if you can think of a trend that was popular, say, 10 years ago, and a lot of other trends from that time have already come back into style, you can bet that one is about to step up to the plate again (I mean, hello leather pants and one shoudler tops that were all the rage when I was a Freshmen in high school).
Hi Kim
I am a follower of your blog. I just wonder why someone would buy from online boutique or any small boutique in town. Can not people buy the same products from Macy’s or Bloomingdales? In other word, the products you have from showrooms in the west coast are not they available in stores like Lord and Taylor, Nordstrom, etc.
In addiction, it seems that the price of some of these products would be higher if carried by small boutique than by big department store. What’s your input on this matter?
Thanks
David
^Hey David! They can’t necessarily buy from the department stores — I mean there are an infinite number of labels out there and obviously dept. stores can only carry so many. Usually boutique shoppers want something unique, possibly from an emerging designer or a smaller label, and those usually cant be found at department stores. Dept. stores tend to only carry bigger labels.
Also, where I live we dont have any of the stores you mentioned except Macys, and it’s a B store so they don’t carry higher end items. Boutiques are the only places one can go for high end labels.
Another reason why people like boutiques is the personalized service, intimate environment, and supporting local businesses.
Price wise we usually use the same markup, x2.2, so they tend to be priced the same.
Hope that explains things!