After launching private label clothing brands last year, Amazon is now reportedly aiming its sights on the lucrative world of exercise apparel with its own line of workout clothing. [More]
clothing
Would You Pay To Wash Your Clothes At Someone Else’s House?
By 11.29.16
Not that long ago, you might have bristled at the notion of paying a stranger to chauffeur you around town in the back of their car, or that you could easily rent out the extra room in your house like a hotel. Is turning your laundry room into a laundromat the next step? [More]
The Limited Starts To Explore Options, Maybe A Sale
By 11.18.16
Since all of its buddies in the mall are filing for bankruptcy, maybe it’s time for The Limited to do it, too. The mall clothing chain is currently exploring its options, including sale to a competitor, to a new large investor, or restructuring. [More]
Abercrombie & Fitch Having A Tough Time Luring Shoppers Despite Rebranding Efforts
By 11.18.16
Abercrombie & Fitch has been trying hard to shed its former image, one strengthened by “cool” executives who didn’t want to deal with any uncool customers, but it seems those turnaround efforts aren’t proving as fruitful as the retailer would like: profits for the company tumbled in the last quarter, and sales figures are far from promising. [More]
Is Sustainable The New Organic For Cotton?
By 10.20.16
Pick out any shirt from your closet and you’ll like find cotton listed as a material used in its production. While you generally find the words “organic” and “sustainable” littering the aisles of your local grocery store, those buzzwords are now finding their way to retailer shelves. [More]
Analyst Calls Fire At Gap Distribution Center “A Fortuitous Reduction In Inventory”
By 10.7.16
Ah, Gap: a company where a fire that destroys merchandise that the company would have a tough time selling due to its “unappealing” nature is seen as a good thing. [More]
Lands’ End CEO Steps Down, Won’t Have To Go To Lands’ End Anymore
By 9.26.16
When what your customers want are corduroys, sweaters, and the occasional work-appropriate dress, maybe trying to expand and attract more fashion-conscious customers was never going to work. Less than two years ago, Lands’ End, the retailer of preppy clothing and canvas tote bags that is not L.L. Bean, hired Federica Marchionni, the president of Dolce & Gabbana USA, to be its CEO with the goal of creating a “global lifestyle brand.” [More]
J. Crew & Nordstrom Enter Into Symbiotic Clothes-Selling Relationship
By 8.29.16 — Updated: 11.4.16
When you’re a clothing line that also has a retail store, you tend to keep your apparel to your own stores. But when you’re a clothing line that could use some new blood, you might make a deal with a retailer that is also in need of an image boost. [More]
Gap Can’t Seem To Stop Being Normal, And That’s Its Big Problem
By 8.19.16
A few years ago, Gap realized that telling its customers to “Dress Normal” wasn’t such a great idea: customers were turned off, and sales plummeted. That air of normalcy is still plaguing the company. [More]
Under Armour Will Be Available In Kohl’s Stores, Take Over Former FAO Schwarz Store
By 7.26.16
The news out of athletic apparel company Under Armour’s latest report to investors isn’t great, but it has also taught its leaders something very important: not to depend too much on any one retailer, even if that retailer is a nationwide sporting goods chain. The company shared two important and related pieces of news today: they’re creating a line of athletic wear for department store Kohl’s, and taking over what used to be the FAO Schwarz store on New York’s Fifth Avenue. [More]
Would You Buy A New Summer Outfit While Purchasing Eggs At The Local Supermarket?
By 6.21.16
While Target and Walmart have convinced millions of shoppers to buy groceries at the same store where you buy your furniture, towels, TVs, and just about anything else, traditional supermarket chains have not made much of a push to sell clothing to customers popping in to stock up on eggs, milk, and bread. But one Hy-Vee store in Minnesota is hoping to open shoppers’ eyes to a brave new world by including a clothing boutique alongside all the groceries.
[More]
Report: Amazon’s Strides In Apparel Could Be Serious Threat To Brick-And-Mortar Stores
By 6.10.16
As if retail chains aren’t already having a rough time of it lately, a new report says Amazon’s clothing business could prove to make things even worse in the future. [More]
Ralph Lauren Closing Stores, Cutting Jobs In Effort To Turn Around Sliding Sales
By 6.7.16
In an effort to compete with the likes of fast-fashion retailers like H&M, Ralph Lauren Corp. says the company will be shrinking its real estate footprint, closing stores, and cutting jobs as it tries to make a comeback under its new CEO. [More]
What Are Shoppers Buying Since They Aren’t Buying Clothes?
By 5.23.16
It’s bleak out there for a clothing retailer, with sales slumping at many chains, leading some — American Apparel, Aeropostale, Pacsun, among others — to declare bankruptcy. So if we aren’t shopping for items to clad our bodies, what are we shopping for? [More]
Stores Are Crammed With Unsold Merchandise, Especially Clothes
By 5.20.16
Here’s some great news for bargain-hunters, if not necessarily for retailers: dismal sales numbers from national retailers have experts worried about the future of American malls. Low sales numbers mean stores crammed with inventory that will have to be put on sale. That could boost total sales numbers, but hurt profits. [More]
Gap CEO Says He’s Open To Possibly Using Amazon To Reach More Customers
By 5.18.16
Although Amazon may be the big bad wolf at the door coming to blow the house down and eat up their business, some retailers are considering teaming up with the tech giant instead of fearing it. Like Gap, whose CEO said the company would consider working with Amazon if it means reaching shoppers. [More]
“This Is Underwear Time” — The Most Brilliant Catalog Cover You Will See Today
By 4.14.16
While we don’t often deal in absolutes, there are some things we are 100% certain about. The cover of a 1920s trade catalog with the title “This is Underwear Time” — complete with the illustration of a a man getting dressed while his dog looks on — is one of those times where we can unequivocally proclaim to have found a truly (possibly unintentionally) brilliant piece of marketing. [More]
American Apparel Laying Off Hundreds Of Workers, May Outsource Some Manufacturing
By 4.13.16
As part of its continuing efforts to streamline costs and transform into a newer, leaner company after emerging from bankruptcy, a new report says American Apparel has slashed hundreds of jobs in its Southern California home recently, and may make some clothing outside of Los Angeles as part of an overall redesign of the production process. [More]
