What Irish Women Want
Having spoken to several key buyers over the past few weeks the word from the Retail Fashion business is that Autumn has got off to a good start. Figures are down from last year but the Irish women are buying. The next question is what are they buying. Irish women are continuing to buy special occasion wear and this sector remains strong regardless of many pundits who talked about playing safe in a recession and expecting bigger sales in strong basics. We have never been fans of plain clothing and if you walk into any of the US stores you will see the marked contrast in the offer with basics taking centre stage. Walk into Arnotts in Dublin to be greeted with an eclectic mix in strong colours. Maybe it’s due to our pale skin colouring and as I chatted to the Arnotts buyers today we had a chat about this very fact. It was drilled into us from an early age that certain colours didn’t suit us and the colourful scarf when wearing black for instance is de rigeur! Irish women like to be different and love colour and regardless of recession this trend is here to stay. The 40′s trend is far more likely to be a hit with the 80′s a miss (except in the younger market)
If you are a mature woman, lets face it, you are much more likely to buy Ladylike Chic than huge shoulders and leather leggings!
Check out Arnotts new website which has just had a re-vamp. You can now shop online and search for all your fashion needs in a user friendly way. Arnotts will be featured strongly in the next Issue of The Gloss a beautiful and very welcome glossy which will now go out with The Irish Times once a month following the restructuring of the magazine.
