NEW YORK — When times were good, retailers sold sundresses in February and heavy wool sweaters in August.
Now, consumers worried about the recession are buying only what they need today. This new frugality has merchants and suppliers overhauling every aspect of their businesses, from window displays to the fabrics they choose. It's changing some of the rules of retail.
Joan Danehy, a 63-year-old retired teacher from Cazenovia, N.Y., would always get a head start on spring, buying summer clothes for her grandchildren when it was still chilly in March. She would put her purchases aside and give out the items a few months later when the weather turned warm. This year, she passed by a colourful assortment at Lord & Taylor without buying.
"A year ago, I knew I was going to have money, but now there is this feeling that you are going to need it for something else - paying a bill or buying tires," said Danehy, whose retirement funds have lost half their value.
"Not that we were rich, but I didn't worry about tomorrow. Now, the stock market affects every decision I make. I am really sticking to essentials."
Consumers have long griped about merchandise that was out of sync with the weather - lots of corduroy in the summer, for example. But the industry didn't have much incentive to make big changes because shoppers kept buying. Retailers also liked getting items into stores early because the preseason sales helped them gauge how much to reorder.
The recession is forcing merchants to rewrite the rules.
"This was a big problem for a long time, and it took a disaster for people to reassess what was wrong," said David Wolfe, creative director of the Doneger Group, which advises stores on apparel buying.
A new Saks Fifth Avenue section called WEAR focuses on what the industry refers to as "wear-now" clothing under brands such as DKNY and Elie Tahari. August deliveries will offer lightweight fabrics, but in fall colours.
The biggest push is in Saks' trendiest fashions and for the labels that fall right below designer level. But the company is also working with designers such as Oscar de La Renta to offer lighter-weight fabrics for clothes arriving in stores from June to August.
Department stores, which have been the worst offenders of jumping ahead of the season, are taking some cues from fast-fashion rivals, said Michael Londrigan, head of the fashion merchandising department at the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising in Manhattan. Stores such as H&M and Zara are known for constant deliveries of styles that can be worn right away.
The strategy requires a big balancing act for stores: keeping the selling floor new and fresh while selling fashions in keeping with the weather.
A recent window display at Bloomingdale's flagship store in Manhattan featured clothing that can be worn immediately but that also reflected trends seen in fashion shows for the fall collections: 1980s dance-club looks such as short, beaded dresses, paired with cardigans or motorcycle jackets.
K&G Fashion Superstore, a 100-plus-location division of Men's Wearhouse Inc., plans to stock short-sleeve cotton shirts into September. Last August, its stores were filled with long-sleeve rugby shirts in dark colours.
The "wear now" strategy also involves fabric innovations. Liz Claiborne Inc. plans to ship a shirtwaist dress this August in cotton that looks like tweed, suited to last through at least two seasons.
"There were lots of baby steps, but now people are jumping" into in-season clothing, said Dave McTague, a Claiborne executive vice-president.
"Shoppers are very smart about how they spend, and this is making us more attentive."
Retailers have also had to slash prices at an unprecedented rate to move merchandise, and that has destroyed profits. For the fourth quarter of 2008, retailer earnings dropped 26.6 per cent compared with a year earlier, according to Ken Perkins of research company RetailMetrics LLC. First-quarter profits are forecast to be down almost 22 per cent.
Aylan Dawkins, a 49-year-old executive assistant from Brooklyn, N.Y., used to scour the clothing racks at designer discounter Daffy's every week for bargains on fashionable preseason merchandise. In the past she found deals such as suits discounted to $10 and gowns for $40, reduced from $400. But now she has stopped buying clothing.
"I am not sure if I am going to have a job," she said.
Even loyal designer customers who bought ahead of time to keep up with the couture shows are buying later. Store owners say that given massive layoffs on Wall Street, their best clients are now buying spur-of-the-moment - even for glitzy events.
Usually the mother of a bride buys her dress months before a wedding. But Sara Albrecht, the owner of Ultimo, a boutique in Chicago, said one mother bought a dress at the end of April for her daughter's May 31 wedding. Another shopper who usually buys her entire spring wardrobe in January put it off until just recently.
Said Albrecht: "I just think it's a permanent lifestyle shift."
