Published in Women’s Wear Daily on December 12, 2007.

New online shopping service Storeadore.com invites women to shop and share insights about the best fashion, beauty, accessories and furniture boutiques in the country.

Visitors can virtually browse specialty stores in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and Washington and offer tips and reviews to others.

Storeadore was founded last January by Meredith Barnett, who serves as the company’s chief executive officer, and Cristina Miller, who is president. Miller’s experience in management consulting, sales and marketing complements Barnett’s expertise in the fashion and editorial worlds.

Storeadore.com went live on Oct. 22 and the Web site covers 1,700 boutiques and specialty stores around the U.S. Barnett and Miller employ one full-time staff member and 20 freelance fashion writers who update Storeadore.com daily with new content and work to expand the online shopping community. Within the first two weeks of its launch, Storeadore received more than 80,000 hits, 72 percent of which explored the site beyond simply the home page.

When looking for shops to feature on Storeadore.com, Miller and Barnett scout stores that carry popular, contemporary brands, as well as smaller, undiscovered designers.

“Most importantly, a store has to be customer-friendly, innovative and charming — a place where you would want to spend time,” said Barnett.

Storeadore.com’s store profiles include a map of the shop along with directions, a picture and an informative editorial review that touches on everything from the store’s history and design aesthetic to the labels it carries and its vibe. Any fashion or beauty search can be further refined by location, product, price and special features of the store, such as celebrity favorite, green/environmentally friendly, a user-friendly Web site and hard-to-find sizes.

With that technology, Storeadore has created shopping experiences that are not only led by “fashion experts” but also by other shoppers’ insights. Storeadore members have their own home pages, dashboards and personal profiles, where they can highlight their favorite stores, products, style preferences and include notes about themselves. Members are encouraged to post reviews and create custom shopping guides, such as “Best Denim Stores in New York City” or “Thrifting the Best Vintage Stores,” to share with other members.

- Sarah Perpich

Featured on the Storeadore.com blog.

Which fashion show was it? Gucci or Yves Saint Laurent? Could it be Lanvin… or perhaps Chanel?

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Welcome to the world of New York City’s Pet Fashion Week.

Prepare yourself for the latest fashionista, the petinista! The latest arm candy is the pup. Has the “it bag” now been replaced by the “it dog?”

As long as it’s tiny and adorable, a pup has become the latest piece of any Fashionista’s ensemble. Whether it’s a Pug, Chihuahua, Yorkie, or Papillion, the bottom line is to carry these pint-sized companions and accessorize them daily. One is simply not complete until the pup is as fashionable as its owner. Sure, spring’s fashion has been dominated by animal prints for years, but now the craze has spread to the animal itself. As the limit of fashion’s luxury continues to strive towards infinity, today’s consumers are spending as much money on their pets as on clothing, cars, and houses. In the last ten years, the American pet industry has grown from $17 billion to $35.9 billion. It is expected to grow another 27% by 2007 (Dansk p.050). Every trend that hits the market for humans has an effect on the pet fashion world. All of the luxury designers are pounding out matching collections for people and their pets.

There are countless pet day cares, spas, grocery stores, bath and body products, along with pet accessories and pet blogs. There are “pooch parties” where dogs can socialize as if attending a soirée at a country club. The online boutiques for pets mimic human fashion boutiques perfectly, just look at Modern Tails Luxury Boutique, Funny Fur, Pawnique, Trixie and Peanut, and La La Doggy. But canine clothing is the rising star of the pet accessory scene. You name it, they make it: from $119 to jeans, evening gowns, rubber booties or uggs, cashmere sweaters, from bathrobes to wedding attire, and even a Swarovski crystal collars for $250,000.

I have often wondered if our pets have their own unique sense of fashion. Unfortunately, one has never confirmed as much to me. Generally, the caretaker is the pet’s primary style arbiter. Fashionistas have as much fun shopping the latest trends for their pooches as they do for themselves. If they are unsure about a trend for themselves, why not try it out on their pup instead?

Designers such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Hermes, Prada, Sean Jean, and all include pet couture collections under their magical industry umbrellas. Hardline fashionistas can now wear the same outfit as their adorable canine friend. Department stores are famous for allowing pooches to scamper, sometimes dragging their owners to items that they might not have been otherwise considered. This is retail at its best. Why not shop for yourself and your pet at the same time? Harrods in London has outdone the rest of the luxury pet industry with their “prêt a Porter” cat show. The pets model the designer clothing as they walk down the carpet, strutting just like the fashion models in Milan, Paris, London and New York. If a woman is going to spend $56,000 on the latest Burberry dress, why not buy her precious puppy a $500 tartan sweater to match?

Fashion world, make way for the invasion of the petinista! Fashion and fun isn’t just for humans anymore!

- Sarah Perpich

Celebritiitis is spreading like the plague.

Since the late nineteenth century, the fashion industry and celebrity influence have gone hand-in-hand. By the mid-1960′s, fashion models and actresses like Twiggy and Audrey Hepburn had stolen the spotlight and become more important than the clothing and accessories themselves. The equilibrium of the fashion conglomerate had completely changed, and the celebrities were the de facto arbiters of style. Now, anyone in the limelight (singers, actors, models, artists, athletes, you name it) can dictate what is fashionable.

“Everyone wants to look like Kate Moss. It’s the way women felt about Jackie Kennedy in the early 60’s.” Valerie Steele (AZcentral.com)

The cult of celebrity is now so fiercely powerful that it is the deciding factor in consumers’ decisions, or at least a close second. If a celebrity is spotted with a $4,000 Hermes handbag in a magazine, waitlists become never-ending as phonecalls pour into the store from across the globe.

As Barneys’ Fashion Director Julie Gilhart told the New York Times, “It’s the People magazine – Us Weekly syndrome…”

Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Monitor ™ ran a study on this dichotomy of celebrity and consumer consumption. Women between the age of 16 and 70 reported that celebrities are their major fashion influences. What’s more, thirty-two percent of the women fessed up to taking their fashion ideas directly from magazines.

A follow-up study in 2004 confirmed these findings: “One in every two women between the ages of 16 and 24 credit celebrities as a fashion force in their lives.” To seal the deal, celebrities “served as their personal fashion innovator” for one in four women between the ages of 25 and 55. (www.cottoninc.com)

In today’s Paparazzi-crazed society, celebrities’ exposure has reached epic proportions. It has infiltrated the homes and minds of the consumer culture. The Red Carpet has become the planter’s pot: these seeds of fashion are first seen on celebrities, but bloom and spread rapidly as they are duplicated by the masses. Designers fully realize the scope of celebrity power, so creating relationship with celebrity stylists is crucial. If a designer can get her gown on Angelina Jolie at the Oscars, her work is already done.

The “knock-off” has become an industry in itself. Magazines and fashion blogs cater to it more than ever. Consumers can not only see what celebrities are wearing, but where to find it online. Websites such as SeenOn.com provide a fix for these celebrity-crazed consumers. After watching a television show or movie, a consumer can log on and purchase everything that was featured in the show. They can get not only the outfit and handbag they spotted in a certain scene, but also the furniture.

Star Style is another site created to meet this demand to share the same product as a celebrity. William Helmrich, a professor of Sociology of Consumer Behavior at the City of New York Graduate Center provides some insight:

“It is called the game of realizing your fantasies to a minimum extent. They are not only getting satisfaction from wearing the item, they are also sending a message to other people about who they are, that they are like a star.” (IHT 2/25/07)

Not only are celebrities setting the standard for style, they are also doing their own design. Kate Moss, Gwen Stephani, Sean Combs, Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, Jessica Simpson… the list of celebrity designers is quickly approaching infinity. Celebrities are clearly aware of their influence and popularity. By creating a fashion line, they are simply expanding their name into another arena. Fashion designers also create ready-to-wear collections, and even diffusion lines (such as Marc Jacobs and Marc by Marc Jacobs). It allows them reach a greater audience on the mass merchandising level, increasing their exposure and fattening their bank account. In her article “Celebrity Branding,” Angela Phipps Towle extrapolates the intertwined relationship between celebrity, fashion, and consumers: “During recent years, the line between person and brand has blurred, and celebrities begun applying techniques from the corporate world to their careers: marketing and protecting a brand identity, have trade marking and licensing their names, and launching their own product lines and embracing product endorsements to boost their perceived value to consumers.” (factio-magazine.com)

The state of consumer fashion awareness and what dictates style continues to evolve. The idea of what a fashion brand really means has left the celebrity wearing (or carrying) the item as the consumer’s sole exposure and identity.

Celebrities now influence on both ends of the fashion spectrum, from design to marketing. And there is no better poster-boy than an “in” celebrity. Nowadays, fashion reporters write about the celebrities in the audience as much as they discuss the designer’s collections.

The celebrity influence on consumers can be subconscious, like when one totes a designer handbag while out to lunch at a trendy restaurant. But there is also conscious influence when appearing in a designer ad campaign or hosting parties for their favorite designers.

A cure for Celebritiitis is nowhere in sight, and this begs the question of style lifespan. If you have your fifteen minutes of fame, do you become unfashionable when that fifteen minute timer dings? The only common thread between being famous and being “stylish” is the idea of change. Fashion and fame are fast, furious, and ferocious. With this permanent state of flux, will any style stand the test of time?

Of course, we know that fashion can be fashionable for more than fifteen minutes… it lasts for precisely six months: one season. But don’t confuse fashion with style! As Coco Chanel foretold, “Fashion fades, but style is eternal.”

-Sarah Perpich

Yes, this is a fashion blog.. and yes, this is a report on one of the countless shows from New York Fashion Week. Could the author be a newspaper or magazine reporter? Or perhaps one of the infamous fashion bloggers from their VIP seat (for the second year in a row)?

The answer is no: this is an excerpt from the blog of Ken Downing, fashion director at Neiman Marcus. The company is the first major department store to have its own fashion blog. When he posted his fashion report on their website on 2/7/07, he left a monumental mark on fashion history. Not only has he prophesied what’s in store for Fall 2007, but he has also introduced a brilliant new marketing tool. His formula? Favorable and attractive reports on designers in his store, which lead to greater consumer confidence, which in turn leads to greater sales.

A quick survey of his blog’s vocabulary makes the purpose undeniably clear. Words like “stunning,” “amazing,” “divine,” and phrases like “mega star” and, of course, “the ultimate chic” are all over the place. Some question his bias, but I would say there is no question. He wants his customers to be excited about these amazing new trends and the hottest of the new designers. He needs them to crave that “standout navy jacket and skirt,” which he conveniently has on order. Any time he applauds a look, he makes sure to increase his buys for the upcoming shipments… a perfect plan! Absolute genius.

“But,” you ask, “isn’t that a tad biased?” Well, of course it is. He wants to sell; this is not a fashion journalist’s blog. It would be like apples and oranges to compare it to Cathy Horyn’s blog for the New York Times, or to the work of compulsive bloggers at websites like bagtrends.com and fashiontribes.com. Downing praises a designer’s show only if his store carries them. He is neither a reviewer nor a critic, he is a marketing guy. And it seems to work just fine for Neiman Marcus: a spokeswoman for the company says that the resulting “sales bump has exceeded our expectations.” What’s more, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Neiman Marcus website “generated more sales than any of the chain’s 37 stores.”

The company had best keep watch to maintain their edge. Bergdorf Goodman, Intermix, and Nordstrom are all said to have the same idea in the works. All of their customers crave information, up-to-the-minute and in quantity. A fashion blog is perfectly suited to satiate this hunger for current trends. Downing explains:

“The luxury customer is thinking about fashion very far in advance. I want to make people excited, and that’s why I tell people about the trends and give them tidbits on how to make it work.” (The Wall Street Journal)

Granted, this idea is familiar to certain online stores and fashion boutiques across the country. The fashion blog Flypaper is maintained by bluefly.com, a very successful discount seller of designer merchandise. These retailers share the goal of increasing customer spending, as well as making the investment into something greater than a mere report. They are filling in the crucial missing piece of the buyer-customer relationship. The blog engages the customer on a human level, deepening their connection to the company by creating a personality behind the name. It increases store loyalty and consumer confidence even while creating a more intimate relationship with the consumer.

Need further proof? According to online magazine Practical E-Commerce, Bluefly CEO Melissa reported that “Flypaper visitors who visit the main Bluefly website from the blog are more likely to make a purchase than those who visit Bluefly directly.” Statistics illustrating this trend are by no means uncommon. The magazine also noted that market research form Comcore found that “shoppers who visit blogs spend 6% more than an average online shopper.” And Intelliseek, which researches word-of-mouth marketing trends, concluded that “consumers are 50% more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio or TV ads.”

The fashion blog is the spirit of the times in the fashion industry, mastering each department and facet of this fabulous, fascinating world of fashion. The once-lowly blog has metamorphosed from a simple diary to a brilliantly biased buyer’s paradise. Ken Downing has put his stamp on fashion. As for me, I predict that it won’t be long before every major department store has its own fashion blog. And ten years from now I wouldn’t be surprised if every retail store, be it an online fashion site, an exclusive designer boutique, or a mass-market fashion chain joins in the game. Soon, blogs like Ken Downing’s will no longer be the exception. They will be the rule.

Sarah Perpich

The nightmare goes as follows:

Yes, this is truly a celebrity and socialite’s nightmare. What can be worse than showing on the red carpet, society gala or A-list party wearing the same dress as someone else!

In December, this nightmare’s location was the White House. For the Kennedy Center Honors party, Laura Bush donned a beautiful $8,500 red Oscar de la Renta, embroidered tulle jacket and floor-length trumpet skirt – and smiled for the cameras with pride until she realized that she was not alone. Two other women were wearing the exact same gown. After she posed for the annual holiday picture, she hurried upstairs immediately to change her dress. She quickly composed herself and came down the White House staircase, this time in a black sequined dress that fortunately no one else was wearing.

According to a party guest Letitia Baldridge, Jacqueline Kennedy’s Chief of Staff and White House social secretary, instead of feeling embarrassed about showing up in identical gowns, “they all should have congratulated one another on their good taste and the fact that they could afford the dress.” (CBS)

This problem unfortunately occurs on the Red Carpet as well. Last year the gossip was about Reese Witherspoon wearing the same dress to the Golden Globes as Kirsten Dunst had worn three years before. This year at the Golden Globes, the nightmare repeated. Actress Jessica Biel arrived up in a stunning Valentino gown that Hillary Swank had worn two years before. Biel irritably reported to USA Today that “It is unfortunate that I was not told by Valentino no one had worn the gown before.”

The nightmare also lurks throughout the socialite’s party arena and fundraising galas. Lori Stoll, a Palm Beach socialite recounts her that she too has fallen prey to this ultimate fashion faux pas. At a charity event for Donald trump’s Mar-A-Lago Club, she arrived wearing the same sparkly dress another partygoer.

“My heart dropped for a second…and it made me think of those celebrity magazines where they have two stars wearing the same things and they ask, ‘Who wore it Best?’ It was potentially embarrassing.” (The Wall Street Journal; January 26, 2007).

Her solution was to “just stick to high end couture.” Letitia Bladridge sung similar advice: keep a closet like Jackie “O”. While she was first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy had her couturiers make sure that no one else wore her dress that season. According to Jackie Style, she “got an awful lot of dresses, but I think they went back. I don’t think she held on to too many, because her closets were never full.” (p.165)

Is this the solution? Only buy an $86,000 haute couture dress? Wear an outfit once and then retires it? What’s next – disposable designer clothing?

Thankfully, the answer is no. There is another option, a brilliant and quite successful option.

The solution lies in the hand of the designers and the fashion retail hoppers and store owners. The latest innovation that has taken over the fashion retail industry is a technological and complex system of recording and tracking exactly which client is buying what and matching it to the exact event that she plans to wear it for. This way, the boutique owner can be rest assured that she did not sell the same dress to another client who is also expected at that function.

This is customer service as its best. To diminish the fashion faux pas nightmare and one day even completely demolish it, designer boutiques across the country are beginning to record every customer’s information, including which dress she buys and which functions she will attend wearing the it, and then will call sister stores to ensure that the information is passed along to their branches as well.

Another boutique, Alpark in Palm Beach, makes daily updates to an excel spreadsheet that lists the customer’s purchase. The boutique even has a full-time client service manager whose sole purpose is to update and cross-check all the clients’ garment plans. The owner, Sami Alpark, exclaims, “I could never let my client suffer that embarrassment of being seen in the same gown or even the same designer as someone else… It’s a matter of principle.” (The Wall Street Journal).

This is clearly as luxurious, caring, and even clever as customer service can get. No longer do the fashion savvy socialites, celebrities, politicians, and stylists have to fret about this fashion faux pas. Thanks to the collaboration of the designer and the retail buyers and managers, this ultimate nightmare will cause its last sleepless night.