Just back from a short trip to NYC. The recession is in the air there, and it shows in the fashions.
The fashion colours in all the stores for this fall are black, grey and purple. In the women's departments, there are rows and rows of conservative suits, classic styles with skirt lengths falling just below the knee. This is investment dressing. The clothes on the racks are the types of clothes people wear to work and to look for work.
They are the type of clothes people actually buy and not the stuff in Vogue.
For too long I have often wondered who wears the colourful and trendy clothes I see in many store windows and magazines. Most of the places I go, formally and informally, I see people wearing pretty ordinary clothing, and it's mostly black.
I also visited an outlet mall on my trip. There were hundreds of stores selling beautiful clothes. The people shopping there, however, wore slopping sweats, shorts, jeans and t-shirts. They all needed a visit from the dymanic duo from What Not to Wear. So what were people buying?
This just in from CIL Paints: The economic recession is affecting more than people’s choice of fashions. That’s the finding of CIL Paints, following a detailed study of colour trends by its international team of colour experts.
Research found in good economic times, people tend to favour brighter colours, while in difficult economies, more safer hues like white, beige and grey are the preferred choice.
CIL’s top-selling colours this year are neutral tones, from off-whites like Swiss Coffee to sandy shades such as Brazil Nut and muted greys.
Rising hemlines: History suggests as skirt lengths rise, so does the stock market. American economist George Taylor coined the term "hemline theory" in the 1920s to illustrate the relationship between hemlines and stock market performance.
Hemlines rose in the Roaring 20s with rising stock prices. The 1930s market crash fashion featured long skirts. And miniskirts flooded the runways during the economic boom in the 1960. Yet when the 1970s rolled in with high inflation, billowing long hippie-style skirts became a wardrobe must.
Confident and successful women lead the way through the prosperous 1980s and 1990s in power skirts, with a brief period when hemlines lengthened during the 1987 market crash.
Designers reintroduced the bohemian-style skirt for summer 2008. Did that trigger a recession?
But for the most part, women are no longer slaves to fashion. They wear what looks good on them. The largest proportion of women shoppers are 45 and older. They are bucking trends and wearing shirt lengths at the knee and mid-calf, lengths that flatter them.
