When one style doesn't fit all

The Sunday Age

Sunday January 31, 2010

Rachel Wells

Looking for something to wear other than gladiator sandals or skinny jeans this summer? Your chances of finding it are slimmer than ever, writes Rachel Wells.Have you tried buying a jacket lately that doesn��t have shoulders wider than the wingspan of an Airbus A380? What about jeans you don��t have to paint on? Or trousers without a crotch that hangs around your knee caps?If you have, you will know it��s almost impossible because right now, power shoulders, jeggings and harem pants are among the season��s hottest looks. They are the items that have been singled out by trend forecasters as the garments that will sell faster than any other. Not surprisingly then, shops are cluttered with these must-have items, leaving little room for anything else. But for consumers who prefer to wear their jeans straight rather than skinny, and their shoulders narrow enough to fit through doorways, searching for alternatives can prove frustrating and, more often than not, fruitless.But it hasn��t always been this way. In the past five years or so, Australia��s clothing retailers have become more slavish to the whims of fashion than ever. The fashion industry has always been fashionable, of course. But in the early noughties, the fashion retail landscape changed dramatically. Courtesy of the internet, consumers now had access to catwalk and celebrity images within hours of them being taken.If Kate Moss was spotted wearing denim hotpants on Sunday then they wanted tohave them by Friday. The chain stores �� led by Sweden��s H&M and Topshop in London �� responded. They sped up production cycles, found cheap labour, mostly in China, and rushed copies of clothes spied on the catwalks and celebrities into stores within weeks, and for a fraction of the price. Fast fashion was born. And it quickly became a global phenomenon. Here in Australia, retailers who had made their bread and butter �� some for decades �� selling timeless classics and wardrobe staples wanted a piece of the booming fast-fashion market.Country Road, Portmans, Sussan and Cue were among the local labels that ditched their pant-suits and polo tops for the kind of gear Victoria Beckham and Sienna Miller might wear. Meanwhile, Target �� the budget basics specialists �� enlisted some of the world��s hottest designers, including Stella McCartney and Zac Posen, to give it a Trinny and Susannah-style makeover. But in the process, Australia was left with a scarcity of retailers selling meatand-two-veg-style wardrobe staples. ��It��s definitely a lot harder to find non-trend-driven garments in Australia these days because there really has been a big shift towards this very trend-driven fast-fashion environment,�� says Tony Bannister, director of fashion forecasting company Scout.Karen Brickell, from fast-fashion chain Forever New, which launched in Australia in 2006, says the shift has been driven by an increasingly fashion-savvy consumer.��Retailers like ourselves are simply responding to what the consumer wants,�� says the buying and design manager, for woven and apparel. ��Our customer is so fashion savvy nowadays, they have so much information at their fingertips, that they��re demanding the latest look � And it��s competitive. If she��s out there looking for a great leather biker jacket and we don��t have one, she��ll go somewhere else for it.��Brickell adds that older consumers are also more trend-conscious these days. As a result, labels aimed at mature customers are also becoming increasingly voguish.��It might have been that once upon a time you got to a certain age and retailersassumed you didn��t care about fashion any more and so that segment of the market was predominantly your classics and core basics. But that��s not the case now � We are very fashion aware now, so it��s unlikely that we��re going to reach a certain age and suddenly stop caring about fashion.��While Brickell maintains they still do a small run of core items each season, like most chainstores, there is no question they are becoming much harder to find amongthe harem pants and power jackets. Not surprisingly, the handful of designers still offering wardrobe staples are reaping the profits. Teresa Liano, from T.L. Wood has been making classic knits and wearable separates for more than a decade. She says her business is in demand from women who want a more timeless alternative to the mass-produced high street looks.��I keep an eye on catwalk trends and celebrities but I��m not obsessed withthem because if a celebrity is wearing something, then it means Target is goingto do it, Sportsgirl is going to do it. Everyone��s going to do it. I��d rather do something that��s a bit different and a bit more timeless,�� she says.��Not everyone wants to wear the latest trends. And that��s why I think op shopping has become so popular. People want something that��s different or classic. And you often can��t find that in the shops.�� Penelope Cohen, from Skin and Threads, says it was the glaring gap in the market for good quality basics that inspired her and co-founder Emma Gathercole to launch their label, which specialises in staples including organic cotton T-shirts, Merino wool cardigans and leggings, back in 2003. ��We found it really hard to find those basic garments that you could wear season in and season out. So we��re about providing something that is stylish and still fashionable but a little bit more wearable and comfortable and timeless than say a padded shoulder jacket or a slouch front pant.��Bannister says there is ��plenty of room�� in the local market for more labels like Skin and Threads. She lists H&M��s sister chain, COS (Collection of Style) as a prime example of a back-to-basics label that is booming. When it launched in London in 2007 it was pitched specifically at ��people who want to look stylish without being slaves to fashion��.Other examples include Swedish label Acne, which specialises in stylish, no-fuss basics, and Jil Sander��s collaboration with Uniqlo, +J �� think cashmere crewnecks and cotton sweaters for men, and cardigans, trench coats and blazers for women. This new back-to-basics trend is one trend many consumers �� who don��t care for jeggings and jumpsuits �� will undoubtedly hope will catch on here too. WHERE TO FIND STYLISH STAPLESSkin and Threads 9576 1000T.L. Wood 9671 4792Metalicus 8415 9888Body by dainy sawatzky 9510 6150Feathers 9519 6777Mesop 9419 2299

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