NEW YORK — The fashion business soon may be on the receiving end of a revitalizing shot in the arm from leading-edge Baby Boomers.
The majority of Americans ages 40 to 58 do not plan to retire before age 70, according to the Merrill Lynch New Retirement Survey. Many Baby Boomers, or 42 percent, intend to cycle between work and leisure in the next stage of their lives — from ages 50 through 70 — rather than entering a period of traditional retirement marked by leisure and the end of work.
More than three-quarters of the country’s largest generation ever, or 62 million people, plan to do some work, while only 17 percent intend to never work again for pay. About 36 percent aim to work on a regular basis, whether in full- or part-time roles, or starting businesses of their own.
The Merrill Lynch poll was based on responses from 3,488 adults, ages 40 to 58, and conducted by Harris Interactive and Ken Dychtwald, a psychologist and gerontologist who specializes in the effects of aging on about 80 million Baby Boomers. The study done online and by phone from Feb. 5 to March 1, yielded a representative sample of Boomers, including 1,100 who either have annual incomes of at least $100,000 or assets of at least $500,000.
The first-time finding of a generation’s desire to embark on a period of cyclical retirement will be a boon for the U.S. economy, said Dychtwald, who is president and chief executive officer of San Francisco-based consultant Age Wave.
“If Baby Boomers were to retire on the same day, it would be a dark day for the world’s financial markets,” said Dychtwald, whose firm’s name refers to the generation’s sizable impact on American life and the consultant’s efforts to promote a more positive concept of aging. “But Baby Boomers will retire like a lava flow: slow and gradual. And if Baby Boomers intend to keep earning, as the study shows, then the contribution to the economy could be quite robust.”
One such contribution is starting to take shape in the generation’s emerging role as a catalyst for rejuvenating products and services, including well-fitting yet comfortable fashions; beauty items; foods, and treatments that help Boomers feel and appear youthful, Dychtwald said.
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The apparel business appears poised to benefit from a significant lift because when a person retires their clothing consumption typically drops by 40 to 45 percent, said Britt Beemer, chairman of Charleston, S.C.-based America’s Research Group. By Beemer’s estimates, 70 percent of Baby Boomers, or 60 million people, will need to work until the age of 70 in order to maintain the standard of living to which they’ve grown accustomed.
Dychtwald said 56 percent of Boomers ages 40 to 60 indicate they will reinvent themselves for new jobs. “They are thinking about how to create the most youthful and current version of themselves to remain the most relevant and contemporary in the workforce,” he noted.
In fact, a worker shortage is anticipated over the next five to 20 years because of the relatively small size of Generation X (ages 28 to 39), which numbers roughly 42 million, could create demand for Boomer employees in their 60s and beyond, said Humphrey Taylor, chairman of the Harris Poll.
Paradoxically, these shifts are forecast as middle-aged Americans are generally less concerned than ever about how much wealth they accumulate. Instead, they are increasingly focusing on how they can use their wealth to fund hopes and dreams; how those experiences will feel, and how they spend their time versus their money, Dychtwald observed.
The decision of Boomers to cycle between periods of work and leisure may begin in their middle years, rather than north of age 60, the Merrill Lynch survey found. “Boomers sense they no longer have to prove themselves,” Dychtwald said. “They may pursue work that interests them instead of the high-pressure jobs they’ve held. Today, the highest achievers retire later — a flip from 20 years ago.”
Thus the stage has been set, Dychtwald and other experts said, for new opportunities in American business, including the apparel sector. Apparel players can cater to a 55-and-up population whose ranks are projected to expand nine times faster than those 34 and younger, in the next 15 years. During the Nineties, the number of Americans 50 and older surged by 12 million, while the number of 18- to 24-year-olds declined by nine million.
Consumers ages 50 and older purchased $22 billion worth of women’s apparel last year, nearly flat with sales of $21.5 billion in 2003, according to the NPD Group, a research firm in Port Washington, N.Y. Those purchases accounted for 23.3 percent of the spending on women’s apparel in 2004, which totaled $94.5 billion, and was off slightly from the 23.9 percent share it represented a year earlier, when spending on women’s apparel amounted to $90.1 billion.
Perhaps the biggest single opportunity for apparel marketers will fall in workwear, but those items are likely to be more comfortable, with a more leisure flavor and better-quality fabrications than before, experts said. Beemer predicted Boomer women ages 60 to 70 would probably spend as much on apparel as they did when they were in their 50s.
Sweet spots for apparel brands aiming at Boomers working later in life won’t be limited to job-related garb, however. As that cohort continues to expand its range of activities — from travel and education, to entertainment, exercise and work in their communities — demand will climb for a broader range of fashion items, said Marian Salzman, a consumer insights specialist at J. Walter Thompson.
“There will be more outputs in the closet as they work 40-hour rather than 60-hour weeks,” Salzman said. “Lives are becoming more social for people at this stage. There’s been a reinstitution of a cocktail hour at 6:30 or 7 p.m. This is a group that will be looking at clothes for cocktails, clothes for yoga and clothes for work.”
Brands already wading into these waters include Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan, Stella McCartney for Adidas, Yohji Yamamoto for Puma, Gap and Old Navy, marketing executives said. “I expect Calvin Klein to start doing the same soon,” predicted David Shah, publisher of Dutch-based, trend specialist View Publications. “This is a whole new opportunity for the leisure brands to trade up and for designers to offer a different activewear, worn more as sports leisurewear.”
In addition, marketers anticipate burgeoning demand by maturing Boomer women for more form-fitting apparel, rather than items marked by a looser fit that once characterized Boomer-targeted brands like Chico’s and Eileen Fisher.
“Older shoppers become aware their clothes can define their age,” pointed out Candace Corlett, a principal partner in WSL Strategic Retail and a specialist in the 40-plus consumer.
In their next life stage, leading-edge Boomers, now ages 50 and beyond, will be lured by fashion that marries form with function and is age appropriate without being dumb, said Jill Glover, president and executive creative director at ad and branding agency Glover Group.
Such styles will likely be competing for Boomers’ dollars with a range of other temptations, particularly high-end indulgences such as luxury vacations, second homes, automobiles and consumer electronics. If the generation’s consumption of high-ticket items continues into their retirement years, Beemer noted, “It may deter apparel from benefiting more.”
Indeed, in 2004, the average age of a Porsche purchaser was 49, and the average age of a person buying a Harley-Davidson was 51, Shah said, citing data from the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. As they approached age 60, Shah recounted, Boomers’ parents largely stopped thinking about being serious consumers and started saving.
“Boomers will be spending,” he said.
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