Trends in Clothing and Accessories at Apparel Shops

For this article, SGN interviewed store owners in Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine to discuss apparel and accessory trends.

According to Owner Jessica Franzen , bralettes are a top selling item at Sparrow Collective in Milwaukee, Wis. They come in a wide variety of styles from lacey designs to fun straps and cuts.

“They're a fun item to layer your outfit with and they are so comfortable,” she commented.

It’s difficult to nail down top selling accessories since there are many different kinds of accessories and uses, explained Franzen. That said, jewelry is always a top seller across all departments.

There's never a shortage of new designers and products and many styles and designs to choose from.

“Jewelry is such an easy way to dress an outfit up or down and everyone wants a new piece of jewelry once in a while,” Franzen expressed.

They currently do a good deal of buying through a few online wholesale platforms, mainly Faire, said Franzen.

Pre-Covid Franzen travelled twice a year to New York Now and Magic in Las Vegas to shop the trade shows. She finds attending trade shows to be useful because you can browse and discover hundreds of new brands you may never have come across otherwise.

“You also get the opportunity to see, feel, and touch products in real life and I often find items I may not have chosen based on a picture on a website,” said Franzen. “You can spend a few days at a trade show and write tons of orders, plan out their ship dates and have a steady stream of new inventory coming in through a season which otherwise can be pretty time consuming doing online.”

Over the years, Franzen has learned a few techniques for displaying merchandise that impact shopping and sales.

First off, having a decent collection of items from a brand and keeping products displayed together as part of that collection on the shelves is important. This is helpful to a customer who likes the style of a brand or certain item and can see a complementary and concise selection of goods and how they might be styled rather than seeing items placed here and there throughout the shop.

As well, when a new shipment comes in, they typically re-arrange shelves and have a fresh open space to display the collection together.

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