Flower power blossoms for Back-to-School - Brief Article

Discount Store News, April 3, 2000

Six-year-old Hannah Shatinsky just had to have them: a peasant top, cool embellished jeans and the latest hot item--triple zip pants that she found at her local JCPenney store.

Her forty-something mom was having flashbacks to her own youth.

This scenario is being repeated in stores across the country as preteens and teens embrace hippie looks once donned by their moms, and even grandmothers, in the '60s and '70s. Just when many thought flower power had been laid to rest, young shoppers are bringing it back.

Brewing for several seasons in stores like Limited Too and The Gap, hippie-chick looks are set to explode from mass market doors for Back-to-School.

The fresh looks are stoking an already strong girls' apparel business. Buyers say the styles should help stimulate Back-to-School sales gains of 20 percent over 1999. "These styles spur sales because a kid might have denim pants, but they don't have one with taping on the bottom," says Sandy Sansavera, senior vice president and general merchandising manager at Ames.

The so-called "tween" certainly has the buying power. Jim Mitchell, general manager of Small Talk, a consulting group in Cincinnati, estimates kids ages 4 to 12 spend $24 billion of their own money per year and influence another $187.7 billion.

What they appear to want now are embellished bottoms, peasant tops and fringed accessories--all reminiscent of days before this generation was born.

"Hippie chick is definitely the look," says Cindy Quinn, divisional merchandise manager of children's at Bradlees. Stores such as Bradlees, Kmart, Ames, Sears, JCPenney and specialty retailer Limited Too are among those shifting more dollars into flower-power styles for fall.

Some marketers estimate that as much as half of the merchandise will have a retro look. And department stores are still backing the hippie-chick look. Neiman Marcus devoted an entire page of its latest catalog to hippie looks, complete with babydoll tops and handkerchief hem tops.

At Limited Too, the front racks are devoted to jeans with rag hems affixed to the bottom, as well as retro T-shirts. There are even groovy accessories, including flower-power makeup, fringe handbags and black lights.

"Kids want looks that are cool, like denim with embroidery details," says Lorna Nagler, vice president and general merchandise manager for Kmart. In bottoms, she's predicting three looks: cargo treatment, flare legs and embroidered detailing.

Although the embellishments are on a variety of materials, hippie chick is credited with igniting a major resurgence in denim. "Back-to-School will be heavily denim driven," says Quinn. This will include pants, capris and long and short skirts. There will also be funky looks in twills, polyesters, moleskin and suede-type fabrics, she says.

Denim suppliers are reacting in a big way. "We've just developed an embellished denim bottoms line for girls for Back-to-School," says Colleen Mendoza, product manager for VF's Ryder division. The line is called Folklore Group and includes taping, fringes and embroidery. There are three basic groups in the collection-- bright pinks and reds with daisies motif, an indigo story and a natural/neutral offering.

At French Toast, president of merchandising Randy Gindi agrees denim will rule. But he also thinks kids will be looking for one-color plaid skirts, mini florals, lettuce edges and kangaroo pockets. He predicts hot colors will be pink, cranberry and surplus green.

The news in tops will be peasant styles and keyhole necklines. Important materials include jersey/spandex combinations.

To emphasize that, mass merchants are in step with the Bohemian fashion, Quinn says Bradlees is using four-way displays, with the smaller sizes 4 to 6x adjacent to sizes 7 to 14. That way, little kids who want to look like big girls can find their sizes right next to their role models.

Manufacturers are expecting the demands for the hippie look from even the youngest shoppers. "We're doing the looks for 4 to 6x because there were so many younger girls interested in the 7 to 14 items," explains Wendy Silverman, sales executive for One Step Up. The company had discovered a similar trend in juniors and added more edgy fashions to sizes 7 to 14 last year.

In order to show off their fashions, mass merchants are using display vehicles to promote the look.

JCPenney, for example, features columns displaying embroidered denim skorts with matching tops. Kmart is using more display tables to highlight cutting-edge fashions. A new Kohl's store in Watchung, N.J., prominently coordinated pants, shorts and overalls with embroidery during the store's grand opening event.

How long the hippie look will live is up for debate. "It will definitely go through Back-to-School and holiday. I'm not wild about the Western looks being touted as the next fashion," says Quinn.

But Mendoza at Ryder believes the Western milieu will ride into the mass market. "Featured will be studded looks and patches. For holiday, we'll have shine denim and iridescent treatments."