There is a lot I’d like to see changed in the retail world of clothing, footwear and accessories. The area I feel most passionately about is footwear and in a blog entry last week I dreamed about an online shoe store that would achieve style AND comfort by providing shoes that were tailored specifically to my needs.
This generated a lot of great discussion, so I thought it would be interesting to brainstorm other ways that we could change retail. Here are some wild ideas to get us started:
- A chain store that specializes in tops to wear with skirts. That way we’d eliminate the “orphan skirt phenomenon”. I see closets full of beautiful orphan skirts and when I try to match them up with tops in store, it’s always hard to do. A destination “tops for skirts” shop would fly.
- A line of trendy and tasteful tops, bottoms and frocks designed to camouflage a thickening mid-section (muffin top). After fussy feet, getting items to drape stylishly over the mid-section is my next most common challenge with clients. We can’t layer and hide ourselves with tailored jackets all the time because it gets hot and uncomfortable. There has got to be a better design and fabric solution. Raising pant rises is a good, girdling start.
- The distribution of free fliers at cash registers explaining the concept of perfect pant lengths. It’s easily achievable and makes the world of difference to your look. I’d also have fewer apoplexies each day.
I could go on and on listing missed retail opportunities for petites, talls and plus sizes. But the ideas above cover the majority of what I deal with daily so they get priority.
In the spirit of brainstorming, there are no bad ideas! If your fairy godmother could wave her magic wand and make your retail dreams come true, how would you change retail today?
