By George Anderson
Oh those fickle kids.
According to Reuters, wide leg pants and midriff baring tops are out and tighter jeans with longer and looser tops are in.
"Fashion is usually a three-year cycle, but this is a major one -- it's a silhouette change that happens only every 10 years," said Christine Chen, an analyst with Pacific Growth Equities.
The sudden change in the way the fashion wind is blowing means that retailers are now in a race to get the new look in stores before their competitors.
Those who are slow to get the new fashions in stores may "miss the boat and be sunk," said Mark Montagna, an analyst with CL king & Associates.
Ms. Chen said kids will want to be wearing the latest and greatest when school starts in the fall. "Newness in fashion is always good and in the near term, it's really good for the teen retailers. It gets the teens to shop," she said.
Kurt Barnard of the Retail Forecasting Group, however, offered this caution to retailers. "Teen customers belong to a certain breed which is completely unpredictable," he said "Today you may find a company that is wallowing in sales and tomorrow those very same customers won't remember a store exists."
Moderator's Comment: Of the stores serving teen consumers, which ones do the best job of staying up with the shifts in the fashion and other retail markets? How do they accomplish this from an operational, as well as the standpoints of design and marketing? - George Anderson - Moderator