Hope I Buy Before I Get Old - The Baby Boomer Generation Has a New Cause: Swaying the Forces of Fashion
by STACI STURROCK, Palm Beach Post Fashion Editor
November 13, 2005
When Randi Evans opened her Palm Beach boutique two years ago, her target customer was not unlike herself, a 27-year-old who was fond of fashion-forward denim and designer tees.
But the times, they are a-changin'.
Now, Evans stocks Rapunzel's Closet with trendy items for two very different types of shoppers. One is a high-school freshman, she says, "and the other is a mother who has a daughter in college, and she's a typical Baby Boomer."
Luckily for Evans, Juicy Couture expanded its rainbow spectrum of velour track suits to include a range of practical browns, and Seven and other makers of premium jeans have introduced styles informally dubbed "mommy jeans" - "a bit higher in the back, about an inch higher in the front and roomier in the thighs," Evans says. But Baby Boomers "want the same brands and same products and same pockets on the jeans that their daughters are wearing or that they see on hot (42-year-olds) like Demi Moore."
After decades of retail neglect, women in their 40s and 50s are the belles of the mall, and Baby Boomers have no intention of dancing in midlife's traditional uniform of polyester pantsuits.
Chico's and Coldwater Creek have won diehard fans with forgiving but flattering embroidered jackets and elastic-waist pants, but a slew of new retailers, some long associated with Generation Y (the children of Baby Boomers), is now chasing a gargantuan demographic notable for both its discretionary income and a desire to remain youthful.
Women ages 41 to 59 are "the greatest market opportunity today," according to Mary Brown, founder of Imago Creative, the only marketing firm that specializes in reaching female Baby Boomers. There are almost 80 million Boomers in the United States, with women outnumbering men and influencing up to 80 percent of household purchases.
"In the next decade, these women will control two-thirds of the consumer wealth in the U.S.," says Brown, who's scheduled to speak in Miami Beach later this month at "Beyond the Numbers, the Fifth Annual Boomer Marketing Summit" - two days designed to help companies tap into "the most lucrative market of our time."
And, Brown says, it's a market that cares a good deal about keeping up appearances. "Now that they are confronting the reality of aging, they're hitting the gym and spa to stay healthy and youthful, at least in spirit. As they have with each life stage they've experienced so far, Boomers are not going to enter into midlife and beyond quietly."
No more 'dowdy years'
What do Boomer women want?
For one thing, the generation that warned "Don't trust anyone over 30" has no plans to go gentle into that good night.
"My only problem is owning up to the fact that I'm really not a kid anymore, although in my mind, I'm still young," says Judith Siller, a 55-year-old real-estate broker from West Palm Beach. "So you see me as one age, and inside, I see me as 21."
Now it's up to retailers to see Siller and her fellow Boomers as they see themselves.
"These used to be the dowdy years - beyond youth but not enjoying retirement yet," says James Chung of Reach Advisors, a marketing strategy and research firm focused on changes in the consumer landscape. "Now, these women are healthier and wealthier than in the past. And retailers have woken up and realized that these women are willing to spend on clothes if someone can serve them well."
On-trend clothes, slightly modified for the realities of a mature figure, are what 54-year-old Kay Branson has been waiting for.
"There are two styles," said the Lakeland resident, shopping recently at CityPlace, with Cha-Cha, her Chihuahua, in tow. "There is the young girl/hooker look and the frumpy, old Palm Beach lady look. How about some stuff that's trendy and young for the fiftysomething woman who still thinks she's sexy but doesn't want everything to show?"
As recently as a few years ago, the fashion industry would have simply laughed off Branson's question. They can't afford to laugh now.
With more shopping options than ever before, consumers wield considerable power. And last year, women born between 1946 and 1964 racked up 39 percent of all women's apparel purchases.
"In the olden days, it was the fashion designers who dictated what the fashions were going to be in the coming years," says Eugene Fram, a marketing professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. "But there has been a change, and the change has been the retailer who owns the customer will tell the manufacturer what they want."
Recent efforts to court female Boomers - an unwieldy demographic that includes midcareer professionals and early retirees, new moms and grandmothers many times over - include:
- Gap's launch of Forth & Towne, a new chain of stores aimed at shoppers 35 and older. While Gap and its siblings Old Navy and Banana Republic carry up to size 16, Forth & Towne stocks sizes 2 to 20, and its fit model is a size 10 (the industry standard is an 8).
When Gap announced the Forth & Towne concept, it noted the "meaningful growth opportunities in customer segments not currently served by the company's existing brands."
To meet that need, Forth & Towne carries four brands: Allegory is classic suiting and clothes for work; Gap Edition interprets Gap favorites for more mature bodies; Vocabulary is the fun, colorful line; and Prize contains trendier items.
So far, there are five Forth & Towne locations in Illinois and New York, with more stores expected to open over the next year.
- Gymboree's creation of Janeville, also aimed at women over 35. Town Center at Boca Raton has a Janeville store, one of 16 nationwide.
When announcing the new concept 18 months ago, Gymboree executives pointed out that they were paying "careful attention to fit - particularly for bottoms - and (providing) many silhouette options in each collection to flatter many body types."
Gymboree CEO Lisa Harper told a reporter, "We found that there was a specific target within the women's market that was being underserved and zeroed in on the opportunity to create a new lifestyle brand to meet this need. . . . Women in their mid-30s and older comprise two-thirds of the women's apparel market, yet most retailers base fit, cut and styling on either a much younger contemporary or older conservative model."
Harper has described the Janeville look as a hybrid of Ann Taylor and Anthropologie, with an emphasis on mixing and matching.
- Coldwater Creek's rapid expansion of retail stores, the third prong of its catalog and e-commerce triad. Last November, the retailer announced a 20-percent increase in the number of shops it would open in 2005. The first South Florida door recently opened at the Mall at Wellington Green, and the company says it eventually plans to have up to 500 stores nationwide..
Coldwater Creek woos women ages 35 to 60 with the promise of comfort. Like Chico's with its popular Traveler's Knits, Coldwater Creek offers non-wrinkle Travel Knits. And, like Chico's, patterned novelty jackets are a staple.
- JCPenney's introduction of the Nicole by Nicole Miller line, aimed at women over 35 who gravitate toward a classic style somewhere between casual and career, and Target's debut of Linden Hill, clothes for so-called "Zoomers," active 40- to 60-year-olds.
The Linden Hill line consists of longer tops, unstructured jackets and pants with a looser cut.
Expect this list to grow, says Matt McRoberts, managing partner for iris, a marketing firm. "Apparel retailers are a 'me, too' category, so others will follow the leaders."
Plus, he says, the best-performing apparel retailers typically are the ones tightly focused on a niche, such as Hot Topic (for teens into punk and goth) and Quiksilver (for young people attracted to the surfing lifestyle).
Targeting a specific customer "allows larger brands to create more intimate relevance," McRoberts says. "Consumers have such choices today based on fragmentation of just about everything, why would retail apparel be any different?"
A defined style
Baby Boomers are a savvier-than-average group of consumers, McRoberts says. "They've experienced the evolution of mass communication and understand they are a desirable target."
Smart retailers will find ways to provide new looks for that age group, he says, without switching out their merchandise as often as they might for younger shoppers.
"Baby Boomers have defined their style a bit more," he says. "They are less about chasing the latest and greatest in fashion and more of adding to their already defined style and sophistication."
Retailers also must contend with changing figures, says Imago Creative's Brown. "The real challenge apparel companies face is hitting the right balance between aspiration and reality with this demographic - how to deliver the fresh, fun, fashionable looks she wants, yet styled for a more mature body shape."
Janet Graf, a 54-year-old hairstylist who lives in Tamarac but shops at CityPlace, says it's hard to find "clothes that look good that aren't hip-huggers. The market is all for 20-year-olds. We need some cool Baby Boomer clothes that aren't frumpy."
They're on the way, promises Lois Joy Johnson, fashion and beauty director of More magazine, who points to the fashions suitable for Boomers that she saw on the notoriously youth-obsessed runways of Paris, Milan and New York.
Spring 2006 collections contained "loads of beautiful dresses, softened pencil skirts, lots of white and beautiful shades of blue and very, very wearable looks that no matter what your lifestyle is, you can wear," she says.
Adds Chung, "Clothing for women of this age will no longer mean boring, or limited to the bright colors and flowing fabric found at Chico's.
"There's actually more reason to replenish the closet, finally."
Copyright 2005, Palm Beach Post.
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