Weekend Retail Therapy

Shopping for new clothes on a weekend is a favorite pastime, even when it's not raining. Around the world, I see marketers adding new twists to what some call the "retail therapy" experience.

     In a mall in Kazakhstan, shoppers find an indoor river, and they can ride an indoor monorail, just like the one at Disneyland. At the Mall of America in Minneapolis, there are carnival rides and an assortment of LEGOs kids and adults can use to build whatever they want.

     Slip on a ZOZOSUIT from the Japanese retailer, ZOZO, and the stretchy black bodysuit, with the help of a mobile app, takes perfect measurements for a new outfit. In your own home, the 150 white dot sensors covering the suit enable a 3-D scan to make, for example, custom-fit jeans for online purchase at prices starting at $58. But It's only a matter of time before in store customers also might expect to use this innovation to insure a perfect fit that doesn't require additional tailoring.

     UK retailer, ASOS, already entices customers with photographs and augmented reality (AR) showing how the same outfit looks on different body types.

     Mall customers in Chinese In Time retail restrooms can use augmented reality mirrors to test makeup products before using a mobile code to purchase Lancome, Benefit, or Shu Uemura cosmetics from the vending machine next to them.

     Brands have begun to bundle products with services. Adidas sneakers serve as metro passes in Berlin. Nike's NBA Jerseys connect wearers to digital content about their favorite teams and players. A Tuxe bodysuit comes with an offer for free online business and life coaching sessions.

     At REI Co-op, customers know the clothing, footwear, and camping gear they purchase meet sustainable business practices.

     Combat Flip Flops (combatfllipflops.com) converts objects used in warfare into flip flops and accessories. Melted unexploded ordinance (UXO) become jewelry.

     Graphic T-shirts say a lot these days. Keep looking until you find the message that suits you to a "T."

   

Puzzle

People are not black boxes; they can explain how they arrived at their conclusions. And, even when they arrive at the same conclusion, they can explain the different approaches they took.

     On the Teaching Channel (teachingchannel.org), kindergarten teacher Donella Oleston showed how she positioned two green squares, two yellow squares, and six white squares in different locations on two boards that each had ten squares. Then, she asked students to tell:
     1. What do you see?
     2. What is the same?
     3. What is different?
In that way, her students learned to explain their answers and to show each other there were different ways to think about a problem.

     I just came across a real life puzzle that older students could discuss in a similar manner.

     When two teams are playing for a championship, in anticipation that either team could win, manufacturers print T-shirts celebrating the victory of both teams. What happens to the T-shirts boasting about the victory of what was the losing team? Often they are bundled up with used clothing and sent to Africa. Now, African countries are trying to develop their own clothing industries which cannot compete with cheap imports. When I began listing the following factors involved in this situation, I realized it would give students a wonderful opportunity to explain what they noticed and what solutions they would suggest, in other words, experience with critical thinking.

Situation

1. For African countries to achieve greater economic growth, they need to diversify beyond producing raw materials (agricultural commodities and minerals for domestic use and export).

2. Both clothing manufacturers and seamstresses offer Africa an avenue for economic diversification into the production of higher-priced goods. Enabling women to provide revenue from sewing also enhances their value to the family and, in cases where men have died from disease and in war, sewing can keep children from dying from starvation.

3. Prices for African-produced clothing are too high to compete with unwanted, used, and Chinese clothing imports.

4. African countries, such as Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, and South Sudan, plan to raise tariffs to make clothing imports more expensive than locally produced clothes.

5. Africans who sell clothing imports protest raising tariffs, because they would lose their livelihoods.

6. The United States, which now gives favorable terms to some African imports, is being urged to retaliate against Africa's higher tariffs on clothing imports by canceling these favorable trade terms.

The U.S. Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association of 40 used clothing exporters claim high African tariffs would put 40,000 sorters and packers out of work and send more clothes to U.S. landfills. Since the U.S. also uses favorable trade deals to pressure African countries to make democratic reforms, it would lose this leverage if African countries were more concerned about fostering local industry than exporting raw materials to the U.S.

7. African leaders see the dignity of their people undermined when their countries are used as a dumping ground, not only for clothing, but also for old cars, buses, airplanes, expired drugs, medical equipment, computers, and electronic equipment.

What solutions can students suggest?

Clothes: A Platform to Address Global Issues

Sure, clothes are a platform to advertise brands. Interlocking "C"s say Chanel, and red soles mark Louboutin stiletto heels.

     Angela Luna, a student at famed Parsons School of Design in New York, realized clothes were a platform that could do more. Like the peasant dresses and flowered hair wreathes that contrasted peace with war in the Vietnam era, she began designing the clothes today's war refugees need in order to carry their homes on their backs.

     Luna created a line of seven, unisex, one-size-fits-all ponchos and jackets that convert into tents, sleeping bags, flotation devices, and baby carriers. (You can see her designs at ecouterre.com.) Her clothes are versatile, durable, and waterproof. Reflective on one side, jackets and baby carriers provide visibility at night and turn inside out to blend in for daytime wear. Being a design student, Luna added contrasting tapes and as much styling as possible to her functional clothing.

     Citing the TOMS shoe program that lets everyone know that, if you are wearing a pair of TOMS shoes, you have helped give a pair of new shoes to a needy child, Luna sees clothes as an unexpected platform to start a discussion about global issues. Seeing a little girl wearing a stylish jacket made out of white faux fur can remind others lots of bunnies have been saved. How can more clothes start a discussion?

Let's Talk Fashion

Rules provide fashion guidance according to the new book, Ametora (the Japanese slang abbreviation for American style tradition). With that in mind, I put together the following guidance for boys and girls with an aptitude and interest in fashion.

     Fashion is one of the easiest industries to enter.
The winner of the new "Fashion Runway Jr." TV program in the US is 14 years old. Even younger kids sell their beaded jewelry at craft fairs. Whip up a bow tie on a sewing machine or print a graphic T-shirt and take it to the investors on "Shark Tank," to the etsy.com website, or to your own yard sale.

     Customers look for both the new and the old, when it comes to fashion.
Wearable watches, health wristbands, and other electronics all have created demand for the devices that Sangtae Kim at MIT is designing to convert energy from walking and running into power for new wearables. At the same time other consumers are creating a demand for the designers making clothes and accessories made from recycled materials and for the designers modifying styles from the past: Ivy league/preppy, hippie, military, Hawaiian, hip hop/rapper, heavy-duty-rugged-outdoor-lifestyle, health-conscious-surfer-skateboarding-outdoor-lifestyle, gangster/rebel/delinquent, vintage, and, of course, the standard uniform for men (dark suit, white dress shirt, black plain toe shoes).

     Customers look for both luxury and mass market brands.
Globalization has made it possible to carve out a niche for expensive, limited-edition goods among the superwealthy in countries throughout the world. It helps to keep an eye on markets in the shifting countries that have the strongest currencies. Or, you can create the new hoodie or infinity scarf to sell everywhere: in department and discount stores, on TV, over the internet, in direct mail catalogs, or in open air markets.

     Customers demand authentic fashion and imitations.
While some customers want items only from the country that originated them, like jeans from the USA, others are satisfied wearing mandarin collars, Nehru jackets, Indonesian shirts, or hijab head scarves that are made anywhere.

     Girls and boys with an interest in fashion are not limited to being designers.
They can become fashion illustrators and photographers or write the background stories some customers want along with their purchases. New styles can originate in the cartoons kids draw, what they wear in their garage bands, the costumes they design for school plays, and in how they express themselves in streetwear, that is, what they put together to wear when they walk down the street.

     Fashion is a field that thrives on what's new.
Even the color that's in today can be out tomorrow. Anywhere in the world, a youngster could be thinking up the next new fashion trend.





   

Good Works Multiply Fast

Ebola and terrorism can spread from country to country, but good works can, too.

We've seen people pouring buckets of ice water over their heads or those of others to raise awareness for the ALS condition, or Lou Gehrig's disese, suffered by a graduate of Boston College. Initially spread by 60,000 email messages, the Ice Bucket Challenge has reached 1.9 million donors and raised $94 million for ALS.

That's not all. Responding to the Ice Bucket Challenge by Ben Affleck and Jimmy Kimmel, Matt Damon dumped water from the toilet over his head. Why? As an advocate for clean water (See Water.org), he wanted to highlight the fact that water in the toilets of Western nations often is cleaner than drinking water in less developed countries, where 2.4 billion people lack adequate sanitation. Damon, a supporter of the nonprofit, Water Is Life, challenged other celebrities to follow his lead. Incidentally, Water Is Life is distributing a "Drinkable Book" in Africa, China, and India. The pages not only provide basic health information, but they also act as water filters. Coated with silver nanoparticles, the pages remove 99% of harmful bacteria, when water passes through them.

Seamstresses (and men) in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Mexico, and Australia have followed the lead of Rachel O'Neill, who founded the not-for-profit organization, Little Dresses for Africa. She came up with a way to turn pillowcases into sundresses for African girls in orphanages, churches, and schools. Mission trips began carrying these dresses not only to African countries but also to Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico, Thailand, the Philippines, and Cambodia.

When publicity by ecouterre.com and other media outlets told how a 99-year-old Iowa woman, Lillian Weber, makes a dress a day for Little Dresses for Africa, donations were sought to pay for shipping what has become an outpouring of 2.5 million dresses.

Free downloadable instructions for making pillowcase dresses and mailing information are available at littledressesforafrica.org.

Boys couldn't be ignored. A Lutheran quilting group in Wisconsin developed a pattern for turning T-shirts into shorts for boys. A pattern for making these Britiches for Boys, a 60 minute per pair project, is available at nancyzieman.com/blog/nancys-corner/britches-for-boys-in-africa/ Nancy Zieman also can furnish a kit with all the supplies for making three pairs of shorts.

Other ideas for doing good around the world are in earlier posts: "Help Wanted" and "Hope for the Future."