A Hard Lesson from 1987

Amanda Thomsen

Right before I started 7th grade, I bought my first Seventeen magazine with babysitting money. It was the September issue, thick as a Sears catalog, and it turned out plaid was going to be all the rage for back-to-school in 1987. I carefully manipulated my parents into buying me an all plaid wardrobe, making notes of brands and stores mentioned in the magazine. Some of the outfits I pulled together looked just like the magazine editorials, just not on my pudgy preteen bod. No matter though, once I got back to school in my head-to-toe, over-the-top, completely on-trend fashions (I looked like a predecessor to Cher Horowitz in “Clueless”), I learned that here in the real world of the Chicago suburbs, no one cares about Fashion.

Some people care about fads, things you can find cheaply at the mall or Big Boxes; they are WAY more fun than Fashion. Some people care about Style, but everyone I know just wants to leave the house with their flesh covered in a somewhat flattering manner and can’t name the black-clad editors of Fashion magazines that list off ticking-time-bomb Dos and Don’ts and fashion crimes.

If no one cares about Fashion, what’s in stores? Why is there a Fashion industry? Well, Fashion pushes things forward and creates a sense of urgency to buy. Is what you see in the pages of Vogue anything like what you find at Kohl’s? If turtlenecks and paper bag pants were always in Fashion, we would buy a few of each and wear them until they wore out and then we would return to the store, as needed, to buy replacements.

You know what that sounds like? The garden center industry.

How can we play by their rules? Well, part of it means putting aside the idea that some things are silly and impractical.

* Pull out the stops in featuring the Pantone color of the year. Yes, having a color of a year is silly (as far as I’m concerned, MY color of the year has been GREEN for going on 20 years) but it creates a sense of urgency. As in, “We have all this rose quartz stuff this year and we won’t have it next year.”

* Over the top displays. I feel like a broken record, but inspiration is the helium that makes this thing float!

* It’s okay to run out of stuff—you’re training customers that the early bird gets the worm, just like in every other aspect of life. Make sure salespeople are explaining that the sought after item was “very hot this year” and offer suggestions. Yes, people will be upset, but it’s the way the rest of the world works.

* Create features and events based on what’s happening in the world. Put an expiration date on it. “Come and see our Plants From Around The World display from August 1st-September 1st.” Urgency. Create it.

* Let employees be fashionable. Encourage individuality! Your argument that customers won’t know who works there if there’s individuality is invalid. I get asked if I work everywhere I have ever shopped for the last 10 years and I’ve never been wearing those uniforms. Make sure your people are available to help and let them dress like themselves.

By playing by our own rules and ignoring the ways of the Fashion world, we limit ourselves from making extra Benjamins and creating a sense of urgency. I understand, somewhat, the desire to keep away from an industry that creates disposable products and is often harmful in the way they betray beauty, but that doesn’t have to be us. Let’s skim the good off that industry and pipe it on top of ours, like whipped cream. GP

Amanda Thomsen is now a regular columnist in Green Profit magazine. You can find her funky, punky blog planted at KissMyAster.co and you can follow her on Facebook, Twitter AND Instagram @KissMyAster.