Beyond the shopping fix towards a healthier value system

Here’s an insightful if depressing snippet via WWD this week about the psychology of shopping:

“The irony is when times are tough, people often become more victims. They may take themselves deeper in a hole and keep spending. They rely on shopping is a quick, easy coping mechanism instead of doing the hard work to dig in and fix what’s really wrong.” Terrence Shulman, founder and director of the Shulman Center for Compulsive and Theft Spending.

Much has been written about our hyper-consumptive culture and its possible long-term, negative effects on both individual well-being and that of society at large…

Note: bulletin from David Report

I stumbled on a free white-paper today titled “I Shop therefore I am” from the folks at David Report. It’s worth sharing - here’s a snippet:

“Luxury brands are very good at selling us ‘parts’ of the luxury lifestyle: first class travel, bespoke fragrances, and atelier worthy chocolate creations. But by accumulating all the parts, we believe they’ll somehow fit into a perfect whole. But in reality, the whole is the beginning. It has to be the starting point. Otherwise you’re trapped in the vicious cycle of always needing the next ‘part’. You’re starting with incompleteness - so it always feels like there’s a piece missing. The whole must be - and is - the sense of self from whence the journey begins.”

Fast fashion comes up empty

In case you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to experience one of fast fashion’s much-hyped “capsule collections” up close, here’s your chance (via WWD):

“In New York, customers grabbed handfuls of dresses, trench coats, blouses and jackets. By 10:15 a.m., the racks were stripped. Sales associates tried to replenish displays but were accosted by shoppers grabbing the merchandise. A store security guard said associates were being escorted from the stock room to the sales floor by security personnel, who also guarded the mannequins to prevent shoppers from ripping off their clothes. At one point, store employees resorted to dropping clothing from the mezzanine into the scrum of shoppers.”

Such was the scene last week around the world as fast fashion’s king-pin, H&M, opened its doors to thousands of desperate shoppers craving for a piece of Cavalli.

WWD takes us a step closer:

“I’ve been looking forward to this for a couple months,” said [Shopper XXX], who arrived at 8:30 a.m. to find some 40 people already in line. With $2,500 to spend, [XXX] bought more than 40 items, including multiple dresses, tunics, long sweaters, a corset top and a trench. “I was hoping there would be more pieces,” she said. “I was looking for the riding pants from his show.”

[Shopper YYY] had to deal with some aggressive shoppers physically forcing their way through the racks. “A woman was pushing me saying ‘That’s mine!’” she said. “People were grabbing all the sizes, taking three or four pieces at a time.”

Fast fashion’s finest hour? Or a new low point for rampant consumerism? Both.

Photo credit.

One for the Planet

I stopped by Designers & Agents (D&A) trade show earlier this week and was encouraged to see a whole floor dedicated to green indie labels. That’s a first in fashion.

On my way out, I grabbed a copy of planet magazine (”global culture and lifestyle”). I used to read this magazine from time to time (I have a soft spot for small, scappy street mags), but it’s been a while.

There’s some fresh content in here… I especially like the colorful, short piece on Manu Chao. Here are some bits & pieces:

“I don’t believe in a single revolution anymore,” he explains, without a hint of resignation. “I have hopes for thousands of revolutions in the neighborhoods of the world. We must get along as neighbors first. If we wait for the powers that be to find a solution for us all to get along as neighbors, we’ll be waiting a very long time. We have to find the solutions at our own level.

… I have never been taken in by consumerism. You know, la dictadura de lo neuvo” (The Dictatorship of the New). He continues, in English: “Everybody must be new, new, new, original. If you don’t have the new, you’re nobody.” Then, in Spanish, “It’s terrible. If your son doesn’t have the new shoes when he gets to school, he’s not worth shit. I don’t change my shoes until they are completely worn out. Because they’re part of me; I cherish them…”

Damn straight!

Indiginous brands rise up

I’m snooping around looking for little brands that value social justice, the environment and/or indiginous cultures, right up there with making a buck.

For the entrepreneurs who run these companies, profit is often the means to a deeper purpose, not the prime motivator.

Alaffia Sustainable Skin Care seems to fit the model. I recently discovered their line of shea-butter-centric skin care in a tiny little shop in Vermont of all places (chalk one up for globalization).

Here’s an excerpt from Alaffia’s founder, Olowo-n’djo Tchala (gotta love that name) via the company’s “About” page:

“Because I grew up in poverty in Togo, I feel morally responsible to dedicate my life to empowering our communities in Africa. I have chosen to promote indigenous African natural resources that are culturally, spiritually, economically and ecologically sustainable.”

That sort of puts “beauty biz” in a new context, doesn’t it?

Olowo-n’djo Tchala (say it out aloud!) seems intent on making a difference by harnessing the vast Western consumption machine to cycle tangible benefits back to the communities from whence the raw goods came.

It’s a good thing Olowo chose high-margin cosmetics as the vehicle for his noble endeavors (versus mining nickel, let’s say): 10% of sales go towards “community enhancement projects” in Africa and other parts of the world.

I haven’t tried the products, but I like the web site and this fellow seems like a character.

My guess is we’ll be seeing more indigenous brands like this. Alaffia for one can teach us a lot about “marketing” and the new role - or responsibility - of small business.

Here’s a link to the Alaffia web site - it’s good.

Fiddling with the merch ain’t enough

Sorry folks, I’ve been slacking on the blog for the past few weeks.

But with good reason: I’m working on an exciting new project, playing around with my new Ricoh Caplio GX100 camera and snooping along old foot-trails in Vermont… basically, enjoying what’s left of summer.

Anyway, I did get around to reading the Times last week and noticed an article titled ‘Retailers Report Disappointing Sales Figures for July’. The opening paragraph caught my eye:

“The sluggish sales that have dogged the nation’s retailers this year are a result of two quite different sets of problems. Consumers are cautious: they are paying more for gasoline and watching their home values fall. And the stores just do not seem to have the merchandise that people want to buy.” [my italics]

US females consider trimming back the excess

Here are some juicy stats to ponder… (and colorful too - I just discovered a new format bar). They show the relative sensitivity of spending by the voracious American female on various consumer categories “as a result of current economic conditions” (which seem tenuous, stock market rallies aside, although you wouldn’t know it walking the streets of NYC):

Where Women Are Cutting Back
As a result of current economic conditions, I am cutting back on … (%)
Fashion accessories (watches, jewelry, bags) - 73
Home decor - 69
Magazines - 63
Clothing - 62
Cosmetics - 55
Perfume/cologne/fragranced lotions/creams - 54
Salon services (hair care, manicure, etc.) - 54
Greeting cards - 35
Skin care products - 35
Hair care products - 32
Premium cable TV service - 32
Cell phone service - 32
OTC medication - 21
Prescription medication - 11

What insights, if any, can we glean from this?

I guess it’s no secret that American closets are busting at the seams with heaps of fashion accessories after a five-year buying binge fueled by savvy marketers, lenient credit companies and very keen consumers.

Enlisting activist consumers to change the world

Cultural Creatives (basically, Apple customers) are an interesting bunch because they are leading indicators of where things are headed.

This group is driving the move towards values-based purchasing (Steve Jobs recently took action to keep them happy by vocally going green).

Cultural Creatives and values-based purchasing are a big deal.

Gary Hirshberg, President & founder of Stonyfield Farm, knows this (”the notion that consumers check in their values when they visit a store is ludicrous” - from Lohas 13).

To Mr. Hirshberg, “marketing is education, not selling; it’s a chance to share your values”.

He’s walking the talk by launching ClimateCounts, a handy way to educate consumers and give them a quick read on how companies score on the “green meter”.

Movements like this - if they take off - can be powerful and affect real change.

This is the new marketing/way of doing business. Check it out.

The devil in fashion

For some reason, I find this interesting (from today’s Journal):

“Many younger women today have no compunction about “wearing inner-wear as outerwear,” NPD’s Mr. Cohen notes, for instance allowing colorful bra straps to show without embarrassment. That creates a market for lingerie to change with the seasons instead of just being bought as “replenishment,” he says.” [my italics]

Ah, the controversial role of fashion in our lives…

On the one hand, fashion helps transform dull categories into fun, exciting (and lucrative) ones.

On the other hand, it creates demand for extraneous stuff (do we really need seasonal bras?).

The post-modern dilemna…

Consciousness: our greatest untapped resource (paraphrasing Peter Russell)

As promised in a recent post summarizing key takeaways from Lohas 11, I’m going to try to paraphrase a talk by author, philosopher and futurist Peter Russell called “Consciousness: The Next Frontier”. The talk was a good primer for consciousness Neanderthals like me.

Mr. Russell defines consciousness as “the essence of the mind” and calls it “our greatest untapped resource”, as important as “space, robotics, nano and biotech” for “everything we do springs from the mind.”

His central point is that humans ultimately care most about how we actually feel, and he uses a quote from the Dalai Lama to illustrate: “In the final analysis, the hope of every person is peace of mind”.

De-luxe it

Back in April when I launched the blog I had a category called “de-luxing” or “de-stuffing”, I forget which.

This goes back to last summer when I read a series of articles on positive psychology, or ways to achieve happiness.

The articles seemed to suggest that achieving happiness had something to do with letting go of our manic fixation with getting ahead and acquiring “stuff”.

After all, how fulfilling is another pair of Manolos or the latest Marc Jacobs bag, if the essentials are in place?

Bring on the postmaterialist world

One walk through the Meatpacking District these days and you’ll be craving the kind of world Ronald Inglehart envisions. Here’s a quote from today’s WSJ (Brink Lindsey):

Political scientist Ronald Inglehart has exhaustively documented a world-wide shift toward “postmaterialist” values, in which, as he puts it, the “emphasis on economic achievement as the top priority is now giving way to an increasing emphasis on the quality of life.” The more stuff we have, the less interested we become in simply accumulating more and the more we seek out instead the intangible satisfactions of memorable experiences, meaningful work and self-realization. [my italics]

Bring it on. The faster the better. Mr. Lindsey’s upcoming book from HarperCollins, “The Age of Abundance: How Prosperity Transformed Americ’s Politics and Culture” sounds like it might be a good read.