FASHION : Finding a Prom Dress in Specialized World
Susan Hennessy, a 16-year-old San Clemente High School student, could not find a prom dress at her favorite store, Contempo Casuals. She couldn’t find evening wear at The Limited or The Gap either.
And she’s not alone.
A major restructuring within the junior clothing market has bewildered many aspiring prom queens.
Stores that previously offered a range of the junior clothing in youthful styles now specialize in one aspect, such as casual wear or working clothes.
Some department stores that used to feature one-stop shopping for junior customers have assimilated the junior department into “lifestyle” areas: contemporary casuals, leisure, bridge sportswear.
Junior sizes are becoming a thing of the past as well. (The sizes--5, 7, 9, 11 and 13--are cut slimmer through the bust and hips than the corresponding misses sizes: 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14.) Today, a junior Size 7 is likely to be tagged a 7/8 or simply Size 8.
The change is because of the aging of the baby boomers, who are powerful in terms of numbers and pocketbooks.
Savvy retailers want to appeal to customers in their 30s and 40s as well as the smaller teen-age crowd. That means, in many instances, skimpy prom dresses are out and basic blazers are in.
It also means stores are specializing so that busy working women know exactly where to find leisure wear, office clothes or evening wear.
Some stores that used to cater to a teen-age customer have narrowed their focus--and broadened their customer profile--and are showing healthy profits as a result.
The Limited now specializes in career clothing, Contempo Casuals in trend-of-the-moment styles. The Gap has carved a profitable niche serving up casual basics: T-shirts, jeans, flannel shirts, and cotton knit sweaters.
Windsor Fashions, a chain of 20 Southern California stores, went after dressy clothing and evening wear. Wet Seal, another West Coast chain, specializes in surfer-inspired sportswear.
“There isn’t a store that is more focused than The Limited,” says retail analyst Harry Bernard, adding that the Columbus, Ohio-based chain is a successful example of redirection in the junior market.
“They attract working women, no matter how old,” Bernard says. “They are dressing her for what she plays in, sleeps in and goes to work in. She knows she can spend $300 or less and put together a dynamite outfit that she can wear for a variety of occasions.”
Ed Razek, executive vice president of The Limited, says the company could not target clothing to a specific age group if it wanted to grow with the baby boomers and attract new teen-age customers at the same time.
“We opened our first store in 1963,” Razek says. “In the ‘70s we went national. We were selling Villager dresses, Nik-Nik shirts, sequined jeans and big fake furs. Our customers were high school- and college-age girls. Now our primary customer is a 35-year-old working woman, but we have some customers as young as 12 and some as old as 62.”
With such age diversity within the junior market the only remaining common denominator is a relatively low price.
“The junior market is fashion at a price, not a size or an age,” says Mona Danford, a junior market specialist at Directives West, a Los Angeles fashion forecasting service.
Junior-size separates rarely top $100, and those prices attract a broad segment of the population.
Although teen-agers and older customers want low prices, teens put a greater emphasis on trendiness.
Teen-agers “are buyers, not shoppers,” explains Alan Millstein, publisher of the Fashion Network Report. “They want their clothing fast, cheap and disposable. They want to buy it on Thursday to wear on Saturday night.”
The junior market is further splintered by demand based on cultural and economic backgrounds. Says Bernard, “Lifestyle will dictate the taste level, color preference and sophistication.”
The dress buyer for Windsor Fashions, Robi Welch, selects different prom dress styles for her stores depending on their location. She stocks her Cerritos and San Gabriel stores with sophisticated and body-revealing shapes in bright reds and purple. The Bakersfield store sells more traditional, frilly prom dresses with full skirts in peach and pink.
The store at the Westside Pavilion draws an adventurous contemporary customer. Says Welch, “That is where I test new styles I am considering for the other stores.”
After much searching, Susan Hennessy found her prom dress at Nordstrom in the Brass Plum department, where junior clothes, often by young local designers, are relatively inexpensive and cutting-edge.
Millstein considers this type of “lifestyle area” to be the wave of the future for department stores. Those stores that do not convert their junior departments into a series of departments that emphasize function rather than size will be “out of the junior business in five years,” he said. “They can’t compete with the specialty stores.”
The retail analysts predict specialty stores will continue to narrow their focus.
“That way they create their own retail matrix,” Bernard says. “They figure out their customer and what they want and they only deal with that. So they have better control.”
