Power Dressing - The Baby Boomer Woman And The Executive Woman Have Unique Needs

Catalog companies, including J. Jill and Coldwater Creek, stock boomer-friendly clothes and are opening retail stores. At the higher end, Talbots and Eileen Fisher are focusing on this shopper, too.

Even discounter Target Corp. recently introduced two brands geared toward a more mature customer. And popular retailers Gap Inc., Gymboree Corp. and OshKosh B'Gosh Inc. all have plans to expand into the age 35-plus market with new specialty shops.

Although baby boomers technically include people born between 1946 and 1964, many of these retailers are targeting women age 35 and up to expand the possible customer base.

J. Jill, which has more than 150 stores has seen how this demographic can build a company - and how the company must continue to nurture that relationship.

Upbin said he's not surprised that women in this age group have flocked to specialty stores, because department stores were not offering the apparel and accessories or service they were seeking.

This deeper-pocketed female consumer's aspirations and taste have given rise to the new "mass luxury movement," where the mainstream public has become aware and acquisitive of designer and brand names previously solely in the domain of the affluent. Karl Lagerfeld, the doyen of haute couture, designed pieces for mass retailer H&M that sold out in hours, and discounter Target (TGT) has such names as Isaac Mizrahi, Cynthia Rowley, and Liz Lange in its stable of designers. Brands like Coach (COH) are making handbags and key chains at lower price points, and Mercedes (DCX) and BMW (BMW ) are putting out cars that middle-class consumers can afford.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch April 24, 2005

By Mary Jo Feldstein
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

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