Consumer Crush

I read an article recently about store owners that became upset when shoppers visited their stores without buying anything. Although I can empathise about the consternation caused by the lack of purchase, I like to ponder the positive aspects of having browsers visit a store or other such location. These days, browsers research over the internet and are welcome there, but in a store location, impulsive buyers are more welcome.

Browsers should be sought - after, because they bring decision - making purchases. Furthermore, they also are more likely to tell others about their escapades in a given store over the net or in person by word of mouth. They also spend quality time with the merchandise and develop a relationship with the store. They can intimately connect with brands and exercise their options in a knowledgeable fashion.

Consumers learn to discern and discriminate in wise ways, and they know what to do the next time as well. It's a win - win if you engage well with a visiting buyer.

Shoppers and consumers crush on objects and either buy things impulsively, and that sometimes means a return to the store instead of a satisfied purchase. One would rather make a sale than expect returns made by misinformed consumers.

The more time a consumer spends at a store or with the brands they are investigating may mean a thriving business. Money is wielded and gaged and then stimulates the economy with the customer driving the purchase and following through with the decision. The fact that they selected a location is then verbally expressed to the store owner and to outsiders.

I have heard that people also criticise the consumer for choosing to use a credit card instead of cash. Most of the world now uses cards, and customers should be free to exercise the option of cash or credit without feeling as if someone is breathing down their necks.

The time an investor at a store spends is valuable to the store and the owner, if not to the purchaser. Constructive use of time involved in a purchase helps cover the bases and helps to gain ground in consumer relationships.

Why not articulate a word of thanks to visitors and browsers? A friendly attitude may bring them back and develop a valuable connection to the store itself in the near future.

Help, I Am So Not Trending!

This year is the one that people say they will banish the word, "trending." This is interesting in that the fashion world uses this term or others that identify with fashion use this word quite frequently. So, it will be interesting to see what transpires.

Imagine if you will, that you are sitting in a circle. Everyone seated is wearing the latest design or hot trends and possesses the latest gadget or appliance, and you do not. You stand out as a sore thumb. While everyone else is identifying with a look, a trend, or a fashion, you have elected not to join in with the selected materials.

You can either sit there wallowing in self - pity trying to justify what or why this makes you an outsider or you can weigh the reasons why you are an outsider. There are probably certain positive ones and negative ones. You can also choose to study the latest trends and note why you haven't chosen to fit in with the common likes, interests, or invented talents that everyone else has chosen.

You can embark on a personal journey that reflects your choices and how you tie into the society around you. For example, you may berate yourself for not getting into a certain look, such as "peplums" while everybody else is fitting into the fashion world because of their choices.

The other day, I stumbled across a program about a stylist that had to choose looks for several fashion shows in her stores. She choose looks that didn't have a particular theme, or look, but she said that as she placed them on stage, there was a unifying "vision" that she had internally, that would translate across to the public based on her selections. She would be successful, because she had organized the pieces and the models herself. Her shows would pull in people and the artifacts that were her choices added more to the viewing public's number of choices as well.

If you are currently not trending, study that. What part of the fitting into fashion isn't your cup of tea lately? What part is fitting in? Does this choice make you feel as an outsider or as someone that can handle the choices? You may be in now or later as a result.

Whatever you choose, your choice allows you to corroborate with others, whether you realize it or not at present. Find a path that when you steer through it, you land in the place where you fit in best, where you are trending with or without recognition. Fashion does enable you to fit in someplace, and you have to find that fit as the New Year continues.

The next time, something is trending, remember to place yourself next to it or compare it to your own experience. You may understand a lot about yourself and others in the whole process. So, if something isn't trending where you are, let it be. Find a fit in a certain portion of the project. Choose the part you understand, and note what you don't understand about it. At any rate, keep going. Don't stop when something else has.

If they do banish, the word, "trending" find out what words or word will replace that. Fashion has a great deal of magical places where people fit in and don't fit in as well. It is the place where you find yourself currently, where you deal with the "otherness" of something else that you aren't adopting as of yet.

In that private circle, where you sit, be yourself, and carry your vision through the cycle and throughout the year. Maintain your stance, and you should flourish.

The Language of Fashion

This month's blog will visit a quandary that hits all bloggers and readers at some point or another.

In order to present your views on fashion, are you going to choose a digital platform, a print platform, or will you concentrate on visuals, images, cams, videos, or instagram messages?

This blogger, although excited, about the various ways we experience or encounter fashion can't keep from thinking that the language of fashion is poetic.

Every time I come away from reading or perusing an article on fashion, I find that the semantics, phrases, words, all have to do with the poetic, visual imagery in the form of words. Every dress is detailed or described concretely and suggestively. One steps away with a picture and with concrete information about the concept, subject, article of clothing, a fashion venue, or a show.

I also think of people that view fashion as more science or in the realm of technology or tech education. They are fascinated by the digital arena, and are split between the world of print and the world of digital, which I will term the digital divide.

To a person that views fashion as poetry, all these arenas strike me as poetry. The very nonverbal inspires one to be verbal. One has to sort through words mentally to describe what one has just discovered. If someone sends you an instagram, of course, you are going to have words to describe or revel in the transmission. For example, a photo of a young child with a trench on made me think of words like "new beginnings" or "spring." I can then choose to articulate that after the first view or whenever it strikes or suits me.

Fashion writers and bloggers all have to dilly - dally with the poetic, whether they realise it or not. Most all will succumb to words that the media is using currently, or they will choose common words that describe likes, dislikes, or identify with a local group or an audience.

If you are a writer, don't forget to pause and focus on just what is poetic in the language of fashion. It holds onto one and grabs one from the outset. Then, one has to determine what form or format one will communicate that concept.

If you are straining to determine which media you prefer, digital or print, remember there is that common fusion of the poetic that rules or bonds the two together. Obviously, a writer or photographer may choose their own strengths when it comes down to it, but the question of the poetic is answered in the blogosphere by the simple act of transmission of the message(s) itself.

It is all poetic!

That state of being is what remains long after one is done reading or viewing the piece.

The World of September Fashion

If you are sitting at your seat's edge wondering about fashion in September, you are not alone. The magazines, bloggers, fashionistas, designers, and all major fashion companies are all in the midst of a thriving boom of creativity.

Fashion's Night Out, too, as an event is going to be teeming with visitors and consumers. Are you ready? If not, you may want to get your date book and pencil things in, or start to talk to friends about your plans to go or stay. It will help you bring a finality to your plans.

This exciting time is to be shared by everyone and in various ways. People who have an aversion to travel and crowds may tend to visit sites or catalogs online as well. So there is an opportunity for everyone!

Start to visit different sites and look to see what is to be your cup of tea.

An example is http://www.fashionsnightout.com

Start somewhere! Don't be left out during this important season.

We encourage our readers of fashion to read about the events and stay in the know! You never know where or when you will need to collaborate with an exciting venture during Fashion Week.

Happy September, bloggers and others! This time is especially just for you.

Bloom!

Wade in -

Gathering reams and reams
of softly - woven verse
lying next to me in a
heap of papers...
(someone once wanted you!)
ready to be bound
in manuals or hard
cover on shelves

I stretch pages
the cloth that clings
to my covetous arms
the print that rails
at me, jarring me
at a moment's notice

attention, silk,
brocade, upholstery,
slivers of spin - offs and
glossy, and porous pages of shiny
faces and metaphors
that dangle willingly
on my tongue and leap as
if off a diving board
into the quiver
of my rosy - white fingers

Fashion hails me
in books and in soft cloth
and I view my apartment
as a silent studio that
never belonged to anyone
other than me

although in jest,
it would have been traversed
with soiled shoes of strangers,
needing things they said I supplied
to no one in particular

Was it a word, then?
Instead of a page?
A yard of fabric
instead of tattered rags
of newspaper print
and silky, slippery ribbons
and many, many more decorative pieces
all fusing

gathering and yearning
to be enfolded
by my arms

I stand as a silent creator.

The Luxury of Space

     Everyone knows fashion carries time and a verified timeline.  Do they, however, know that fashion steps into space and is very space - conscious?

     We take trips to stores, malls, boutiques, hotels, or any place where fashion draws one to a place, a space where you spend moments of time with the merchandise in question.  Fashion may loom into the atmosphere, but it does not crash a space. 

      It is your time to be with the material, and it is thinking time.  Instead, it gently takes one by the arm and nudges one to think about the science, the fit, the decor, or the very design of a thing or entity.  Have you ever stopped to think, "Why here, why now?" 

     "Why does this grab me?"

     Once on a very dreary winter's night, and I felt as if my friends and I were headed for some subterranean tundra where icicles or glaciers had wrapped themselves around our hands and fingers, and finally, onto our toes, we found a window that glowed with artifacts and luxuries that seemed to remind us there was still warmth in the world, somewhere, someplace, and actually, "right there."  The visitors were from Texas, and I found that that moment, browsing by Macy's surged new blood into our veins.  We stopped hypnotically by every window, and stopped feeling the firm grip of the hazardous winter.  My friends took photos, and didn't seem to mind being out anymore.  I stopped dreading that they would mind the time they spent. 

     Space is a place where fashion resounds.  It stays in place and leaves a resonant echo within the hollows of an alcove or a niche.  A space takes time. 

     Have you ever stopped in the middle of a room, where fashion takes up the majority of the space, and yet is centered to fit in just there, only in that tethered area, where you stop to take a look?  The specimen that wears the beguiling outfit either looms over one, or it shies away from your perspective.  That is the work of artisans that work with space in time.  Which customers are going to notice this? That?

     I am a true fan of that which stops me while I am on an errand or a browsing activity.  As a child, I remember one mannequin that wore an adorable dress, and the style eventually attached itself to the Seventies.  My family, too, stopped, and soon that dress that was featured, became part of my wardrobe.  Visitors, especially, love stopping, staring, feeling as if a masterpiece in a particular space is reason enough to stop.

     One can get tied up thinking about prices, the hectic activity that is involved, but what happens when a space beckons curiosity about an artifact, an item, or anything that holds you captive?  It is your time that you invest there in that nook, window, or other such space.  A shopper's time is a revered thing! 

     Do you feel satisfied after purchasing a product?  Do you recall why you were even motivated to shop there?  Was it your eyes? Or a referral? An ad?  A fortunate stop?  This all matters in time.

     If your stop and purchase translated into a transaction within a space of time, or an investment, then you will find that it will add to your new locale, a new space for that item or fashion artifact.

     Revere space. 

     It is the breathing room one needs to make connections out there in the world.

     If you invest and choose wisely, it is as if a breath of fresh air wafted in and escorted you back to your original haunts.  The new item begins to lend itself and becomes your new space, suggesting a passion for spaces and the allure that they hold for a seasonal or pro - shopper.  A consumer...

     Wield your economy.

     As is customary of anything that holds time within space.

Fashion people!

Fashionistas, fashion - forward people, do not forget to walk! Repeat. Do not forget to walk. If you haven't been a commuter for a great while, or have been sitting at work, figure out a good time and quality time at that to go venture about and see sites. Driving there is fine, but have you wondered why your own two feet aren't taking you places lately?

I don't mean jogging or running, either. I mean just taking a casual walk and being one with the ground and the Earth. Do you think the Earth misses you?

Fashion people are walkers, if you haven't noticed yet. You have get up and go. You inspire people just by being there, by toting that one outfit or that one accessory that is eye - catching.

Most people are stuck watching texts or computer screens. They don't have time to go places anymore. If they do, it is through the use of wheels or other transport. If you aren't there to inspire others or the Earth, where are you?

Waiting for a stranger to text you?

Email you?

What you can do is balance your life out with travel by car or by feet.

I mean it! Walk more. Tread ground more.

Choose great weather first or nice locales.

A good security system for your apartment too! Sigh!

Get out there! Meet some nice folk.

And!

You did it all with YOUR OWN TWO FEET!

Put your best foot forward.

Enjoy your walk!