DALLAS — Buyers shopped with a multiseasonal approach at last month’s market at FashionCenterDallas, ordering spring immediates, summer fill-ins and early fall styles.
Stores shopped with budgets that were flat to about 10 percent higher than a year ago, picking up short black dresses, mother-of-the-bride ensembles, gaucho pants, shaped jackets, waterfall-front blouses and details such as embroidery, eyelet and metallicized fabrics. Colors spanned the spectrum from brights such as turquoise and orange to neutrals including champagne and nude.
Some stores were frustrated by the coinciding market dates for the Dallas and Atlanta shows: Dallas ran Jan. 26-29, while the Atlanta market at AmericasMart was staged Jan. 26-30. The calendar glitch also resulted in incomplete line presentations in some showrooms.
Cindy Morris, chief operating officer at Dallas Market Center, parent of FashionCenterDallas, said, “A positive January show attracted more buyers across all product categories and geographic regions compared with last year, demonstrating the strength of retail overall and of our marketplace.”
Lisa Miller, owner of Polly Adams, a specialty store in Laredo, Tex., shopped for summer fill-ins, specifically little black cocktail dresses and fall sportswear. Her open-to-buy was up 10 percent.
“I was really focused on summer eveningwear and special occasion,” Miller said. “My customers have busy social calendars and are always in need of short black dresses. I liked the fuller skirts and bubble shapes and bought from Badgley Mischka, Nicole Miller and Vivienne Tam, among others. I also liked the cool and trendy eyelet and embroidered looks for summer from Johnny Was. For fall, I bought Yansi Fugel’s pleated or full skirts. Yansi Fugel is a big favorite with my customers. She really understands women’s wardrobe needs.”
Barbara Kille, owner of Turtletique in Dallas, used a flat budget to shop for spring and summer novelty-print tops, romantic blouses, gaucho pants, woven shirts and jackets, along with chain belts.
“I really liked the woven-shaped shirts from Eye and Finley,” Kille said. “The waterfall-front blouses from Yansi Fugel shown with metallicized linen looked really beautiful, and I liked the fun jackets from Aura and Credibility made from textured fabrics and with interesting stitch details. Many of the jackets had three-quarter sleeves, which looks fresh and works well for my customers.”
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Patti Hoffpauir, owner of The Garden Room, a specialty store in Austin, Tex., sought spring and summer separates and dresses, and bought Marisa Baratelli’s Thai silk ensembles, black embellished dresses from Basix that retail for less than $500 and Yansi Fugel’s early fall sportswear in turquoise and orange.
Robert Forsythe, owner of Forsythe’s, a 39-year-old store in Little Rock, Ark., shopped summer and early fall with a budget that was up 10 percent.
“Gaucho pants are going to be stronger than ever for fall, and we bought Elliott Lauren’s camel and brown muted-plaid gauchos,” Forsythe said. “We also bought cropped denim jackets from Manning Trading Co., fatigues embellished with colored stones from Miss Me and belts in a range of styles and colors from Leatherock.”