Back to School
Promotions kick-start back-to-school sales; denim and punk-inspired fashions reign as top sellers
With neither a mass trend–inducing movie in sight nor a must-see music video this summer, retailers are going head-to-head by using their own entertainment promotions to heat up back-to-school sales.
Columbus, Ohio-based Too Inc. is wrapping up its summer-long Passion for Fashion Fun Tour on Aug. 11, rewarding a contest winner with money, fashions and a trip to New York to see pop band O-Town.
Wet Seal Inc., the Foothill Ranch, Calif.-based teen specialty retailer, last week began a contest to find the owner of the best personalized jeans, who will be awarded a trip for two to Honolulu to see the band 3LW on MTV’s TRL (Total Request Live) tour on Sept. 21.
Even malls are getting into the act, including Southern California’s Glendale Galleria, which is promoting its Ultimate Summer Jam on Aug. 26 with a back-to-school fashion show and a performance by singer Joy Enriquez.
“These promotions are all in the name of generating foot traffic into stores,” said Tony Cherbak, a retail partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP. “[Retailers] want to strike first and proactively and drive the consumer into their venue.”
Also, retailers are scrambling to stay on the same page as their fickle consumers by wooing them in their own language and appealing to their lifestyle.
“We’re building loyalty,” said Steve Strickland, Wet Seal’s senior vice president of marketing. “We want to be different and reinstate Wet Seal as the cool brand. If you’re a cool brand, people pay for cool and wear cool.”
Strickland says that Wet Seal’s promotion is also a way to gain exposure for the company’s relaunch of Blue Asphalt, its six-year-old in-house denim line. The expanded collection includes T-shirts, suede jackets and sweater coats.
Overall, the back-to-school shopping mood is optimistic, according to a Deloitte & Touche survey of 400 Southern Californian families and teenagers. Seventy percent of the survey respondents said they expect the economy to stay the same or improve in the next 12 months. Some 59 percent said they plan to spend $200 or more per child on back-to-school clothing, an amount which most said is the same or more than they spent last year.
That survey contrasted with the one released by the National Retail Federation, which found that shoppers will spend about $457 per household, down 17 percent from last year’s average of $549.
Either way, Barbara Fields, whose Los Angeles-based buying office represents Nordstrom, Clothestime, Windsor Shops and others, advises retailers to look and analyze before they leap at every trend.
“You can’t take something from a different season and have it fit in another season,” Fields said. “Fruit prints may be selling now buthellip;they’re not back-to-school.”
Given that kids are on their own for inspiration, they’re also looking to bend the rules with fashion this season. “They’re little rebels,” Fields said.
Denim is still the number-one item on the youth shopping list, dominated by whisker jeans, frayed hems and all-over glitter bottoms. Low-rise jeans are still a major component in a junior’s closet.
“Denim started selling early for us,” said Rob Smith, Macy’s West juniors’ vice president/divisional merchandise manager. “Those fraying with detail are [selling] even better.”
Corduroy bottoms are a booming business as well, according to retailers, especially tattered, low-rise and dip-dyed corduroy.Another sizzling item is the duster sweater, introduced last season and gaining momentum, said Annette Bethers, marketing director at the Glendale Galleria.
A popular theme in juniors’ clothing is the global fusion of punk and preppy plaid influences.
“What’s really fresh is the tartan skirt with a tiger shirt, ripped with safety pins,” Strickland said. “That’s Asian punk. Then there’s British punk with plaid skirts, British flag shirts, black leather jackets and clunky shoes.”
Along with plaid looks, athletic hoodies and fitted, screened T-shirts by Bulldog by Urban Outfitters are top draws at Nordstrom, according to June Rau, the company’s southwest fashion director. What’s also driving sales is the menswear trend for women. Pinstriped boot-leg pants and kick-pleat skirts by Necessary Objects are being paired up with more feminine, flirty blouses.
“It’s opposites attract—[a girl will] mix it up with a romantic feeling on top,” Rau said.
Smocking, gathering and ruching are key styling touches in the dainty lace tops, wrap tops and flutter sleeve shirts by Ruby and Doki Geki, according to Rau.
While girls are embracing different fashion twists, boys are heading to the basics racks, buying Hurley long-sleeve T-shirts and Lucky Brand Dungarees polo and plaid shirts, said Rau.
At the Glendale Galleria, Anchor Blue’s cargo and tech pants are male-customer favorites. Boarders, a surf, skate and snow specialist, is reporting robust sales for its skatewear, including Vans skate shoes and T-shirts.
Those sales are fueling a strong mall performance this year, according to Bethers. “We’re up 8 percent year-to-date,” she said. “This is a great indicator for the holidays. We have no complaints.”
