Primary Color - Fashion

part of the Primary Color package

A weekly feature transmitted each Tuesday, REALSTYLE by Patricia McLaughlin is a column on the social implications of fashions. 700 - 800 words, one color photograph.

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NEED HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT

Not when you can get the coat you'll want next fall at this winter's radical markdown.

One of the last century's biggest tectonic shifts in the way we shop for clothes -- and one of the least noticed, because it's as obvious and inescapable as the air we breathe -- was the move from shopping for clothes we desperately needed to shopping for clothes we desperately want (even though we don't really need them). It's a safe bet that 100 years ago most Americans bought new winter coats because their old ones were showing wear at the cuffs and pockets and buttonholes, or had holes that couldn't be patched, or had plain fallen apart: They really needed new ones.

People whose old coats have been worn out, lost, stolen, outgrown or consumed by moths must still account for some small percentage of coat sales, but they're exceptions. The apparel industry operates on a want-based model now. They need you to buy a coat -- or sweater, dress, skirt, shoes or pair of pants -- and they know you already have one (or five or 10 or 20). Their best hope of persuading you to buy a new one anyway is to come up with a garment so compelling -- whether because it's beautiful, comfortable, practical, likely to be admired and envied by all who see it, or just makes you look really thin -- that you'll drop a few hundred bucks for it even though you have a perfectly serviceable near-equivalent at home.

Far from seeing this new paradigm as a desperate fallback, fashion people love it.

It elevates the rag trade from a business that sells boring old commodities -- what's less fun than the necessities of life? -- to one that's all about delectable intangibles: ideas, perceptions, appearances, emotions, connotations, excitement, etc. Keeping people warm is so basic. Where's the scope for genius and artistry? Selling clothes on the basis of their perceived sizzle -- how hot they are, or how ultra-cool -- requires so much more creativity, and rewards it, too.

The loopy behavior of this year's winter weather in the Northeast put that model to an unforgiving test. It turns out that, when the temperature is still skittering around in the 70s in January, it just doesn't occur to a lot of people to buy a new winter coat, no matter how creatively designed, executed, marketed and merchandised it may be. You might think the fierce winter storms out West would've made up for the balmy winter elsewhere, but Roseanne Cumella says no. For instance, people in Colorado might've wanted new coats, but there was so much snow they couldn't get to stores.

But don't feel too sorry for retailers. According to Cumella, senior VP for merchandising at retail analysts Henry Doneger Associates, the plan-ahead customer, who shops for coats the minute they hit the sales racks, liked what she saw last fall. Good outerwear business in August, September and October balanced out some of the effects of the crazy weather in November, December and January.

Now, of course, it's February and it's freezing, so you could use a coat, but do you want to invest in one now? It could be spring in a couple of weeks. Daylight-saving time starts March 11, for heaven's sake.

On the other hand, when I checked out the coat department at the local Macy's last week, there were rows upon rows of racks bulging with coats marked down 50 percent to 60 percent. Cumella says coats are selling again: These are the same styles the plan-ahead customer loved in October, at less than half the price -- plus now it's cold.

If you're in the market, you want (obviously) to buy next fall's coat at this winter's marked-down price. Cumella, just back from a meeting on fall 2007 outerwear trends, had this advice: Buy a coat with deep armholes -- loose raglan sleeves or dolman sleeves or bishop sleeves or kimono sleeves -- to accommodate layers of sweaters and vests and "layering pieces" because we're "in a layering cycle for fall 2007." Buy it in black or gray -- good, useful, versatile outerwear colors anytime, but especially good now because "we're in an aggressive gray-black cycle." Look for detail, like bigger buttons, big collars, wide cuffs, hoods; they're all in the pipeline for 2007.

If you're looking for a jacket, consider a pea coat, this year's No. 1 silhouette. Or look at a knee-length coat, this year's No. 1 length: You can wear it over anything but a long skirt, and it still won't get in your way when you get behind a steering wheel. Or, if you're more into how it looks than how it works, try something really long. Maxi coats have been scarce lately, but Cumella says they're poised for a comeback next winter.

(Write to Patricia McLaughlin c/o Universal Press Syndicate, 4520 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111 or patsy.mcl@verizon.net.)

COPYRIGHT 2007 PATRICIA MCLAUGHLIN

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