Fall Fashion Forecast

By Gail Harlow

Doesn’t Everyone Already Have ‘the Blues’?

     Denim is predicted to be big this fall…good news for our wallets, since who doesn’t already have one or two pairs of well-broken-in blue (black, red, name your color) jeans in their closet? Check the fashion catalogues (Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Saks, etc.) for the latest designer tips on spiffing up your favorite pair with sequins, ribbon or embroidery. And if you want to get really creative, turn an old pair into a new purse. Denim is taking over everything from pocketbooks to footwear this year.

     If you feel the urge to break in a new pair of jeans, shop Target, TJ Maxx or  Wal-Mart instead of Saks. You won’t be alone: Retail sales figures for the four weeks ended August 4 have sales at Saks down 4.8%, compared with the same period last year, while at Target, sales are up 4.6%, at Kmart they’re up 3.4%, and at Wal-Mart they’ve risen 6%, according to the Goldman, Sachs retail composite index.

     Buying denim, most women would agree, is one time when paying less definitely makes more sense.

Closing the Gap?

      Speaking of plummeting sales (do they have anything to do with rising hemlines?), Gap stores open for at least one year (including Old Navy and Banana Republic stores) took a 12% hit last month compared with a 1% sales decline the year before, reports The New York Times. The fault may lie in the chain’s attempt to offer clothes more fashionable than khakis and, well, jeans….watch for Gap to try to close the fashion gap between itself and other high-end retailers by expanding selection in its stores this fall.  Consumers will be prepped for the change with a $40 million advertising campaign. Stay tuned….

 Sweater Weather

     Remember when September meant trips to the store to buy sweaters and skirts in all the new colors?  For many, the one redeeming thing about going back to school was buying new clothes. Now when the chill winds of autumn begin to ruffle our hair as we walk to the office, the urge to duck into a store at lunch time to pick up a something soft and new in cashmere can be hard to resist.

     This is one time of year when catalogues can come to our rescue. In late summer, watch for your favorite high-end retailers to issue sales catalogues, placing last fall’s sweaters—you know, the ones you valiantly resisted buying last December—at bargain prices.

Send Me In, Coach!

     I was a devout Coach handbag consumer for years. So steadfast was I in the belief that Coach made the sturdiest, roomiest, most fashionable handbags available that I actually felt guilty when I bought my first Dooney & Burke purse and “benched” my Coach on the sidelines of my closet.

     But this summer my status-conscious purse purchases came to an end, when a friend took me window-shopping in one of those charming town centers known for its accumulation of cute, creative, arts & crafts purveyors. There I was drawn to a store run by a Romanian refugee who specializes in leather crafts. His purses, all handmade and exuding that wonderful earthy new-leather-purse smell, were wildly imaginative, elegant, decorated with beading from authentic Romanian costumes, and as sturdy and stylish as any Coach or Dooney & Burke clone could be.

     Better yet, these handbags were priced at half what I had paid for those erstwhile status symbols—and for the price (about $90), I knew that I was buying an original. Something no other woman on the commuter train would have slung over her shoulder. (My friend, a former fashion designer who wouldn’t be caught dead with a Coach on her shoulder, by the way, keeps her spare change and lipstick in a silver Fish purse of her own creation. It never fails to spark conversations with strangers. Talk that’s cheap—and priceless.)

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Gail Harlow is the Founding Editor of MAKING BREAD magazine.  

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