As you know, we are mostly concerned about what looks great on real women's shapes. We are also concerned about clothing fitting the peronality of our members. With all of this in mind Donna and I visited the Dallas and Las Vegas apparel markets in search of just the right items. Armed with our chart of what we were looking for, tape measures, camera and American Express....off we went.
Dallas was our first market. The women's apparel show is located in the Dallas Market Center. Many of the showrooms are permanent and you can visit them once a month. Therefore, you get maps with showroom names and the brands they carry. Of coure, there are some temporary booths there for the show. But all in all this is a very organized and easy experience. We would visit a showroom, lay things out to measure them, ask the models to try things on, try things on ourselves and make decisions based first on fit and then on style. We came home feeling elated with our purchases. Once we filled in the spaces on our chart we discovered how little we really bought. But we were there for 3 whole days and spend 12 hours a day buying clothes! How could we have gotten so little?
We quickly made reservations for Las Vegas. When we got the information about the shows in Vegas, we found out that they were spread all over the city. If you wanted lower priced clothes you had to go to the Sand's, contemporary sportswear and accessories at the Convention Center, better sportswear at the Rio, and the designer show at the World Market Center. There were other shows, but they weren't related to women's apparel (thank God!). We sat down over a stiff drink and made a plan. We had four days to get everything we needed to fill the gaps from Dallas and to help our members dress their shape and style.
We hit the Off Price Market the first day looking for bargain accessories. We saw some of the same items at this show as we had seen in Dallas. But, it was kind of like sample sale shopping. People were grabbing up great deals and negotiating like it was the floor of the stock exchange. You had to be quick or lose your chance at the awesome deals available. We thought about a couple of pieces and they were sold out before we could make our minds up. Don't fret though....we got a lot of fabulous steals at this show. Then we were off to the MagicShow.
I don't mean that we were off to see David Copperfield (darn it). Magic is the big women's apparel show at the Convention Center. We changed direction at this show and decided to just make the purchases when we saw the items. We didn't want to risk losing the opportunity for great finds again. We made some big discoveries quickly...and ones that could impact the ability to show you how things would work together for your shape and style.
- You really have to watch the delivery dates or you will have things being delivered at way different times and they won't be available to make an outfit
- You have to ask if the piece you are looking at is just a sample or not. Some things will actually have big changes that cannot be anticipated. If the piece is a sample...we just walk away so that our members aren't disappointed.
- Finally, you have to make sure that what you are seeing comes in the same exact fabric. At market, the showrooms will often use one piece to show shape and several others to show fabric. It is imperative that you pay attention to these kinds of details when ordering.
This may sound like a lot goes into getting items into a store, but, it is even bigger than that. At each show there may be anywhere from 600-4000 showrooms. Each showroom may rep several designers. By the time market is over a buyer has seen thousands and thousands of items.
No matter how many items there may be, Donna and I are dedicated to bringing you clothes that work for your individual shape and personal style.
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