The fashion industry is panicking. They very much depend on being able to sell women entirely new wardrobes like clockwork and at the moment, they’re having trouble prying those damn skinny jeans from our hands.
No need to feel too bad for merchants, however, they are having some luck the Business of Fashion points out in a story originally run by Bloomberg. In the past 12 months ending in June, sales of women’s pants have grown thanks to all that new looser, normcore-inspired denim on the market. But even as women may be embracing this loser fit, they are still loving their skinny jeans.
Three years ago, clothing merchants tried to snuff out the trend with an innovation called flares. Women kept right on buying their skinnies. Now, chains from mass market Gap Inc. to luxury-leaning Bloomingdale’s are trying again with looser styles. Gap’s answer: dressy sweat pants.
By innovation, I assume they mean throwback.
With this pushing of the fancy sweatpants, they’re trying out another tactic for taking all your money by emphasizing comfort and versatility.
Busy women want clothes they can wear to yoga and work, said Nancy Green, Athleta’s general manager.
“Women don’t want to change five times a day,” she said.
Do we want to do that though? And in what scenario are you changing five times a day? You wear your work pants to work, change into your yoga pants for yoga and then go home and throw on some sweats and call it a day.
Another question: When did “skinny jeans” come to mean tight and uncomfortable? Sure, they can have a slim fit, but so did bootcut jeans, no? Can’t you just buy a pair of looser cut jeans with a skinny leg opening? Am I the only one thinks this? Am I overthinking this? (Probably.)
Since retailers were able to get women to buy $108 yoga pants, they’re hoping they can push both dressy sweatpants and looser jeans. In doing so, they’re banking on a multiplier effect where you end up buying all new clothing to go with your new jeans.
New fashion trends, when they catch on, have a multiplier effect because women are forced to buy new shoes, blouses, jackets and so on. That’s what happened with skinny jeans, when women began buying a lot of boots, including Uggs, because they could fit their jeans inside them.
I hear that over the knee boots are going to be big this fall, so we’ll see how well that look works out with our new, less skinny jeans.
Image via BeautyBlowFlow/Shutterstock