Apparel and skincare industries keep evolving

By Rieva Lesonsky

Sometimes the key to successful trend-watching is not spotting the newest trends, but knowing what current ones are fading or morphing into something else. This seems to be the case with two trends that have been around for a while.

According to Marshal Cohen, chief industry adviser at the NPD Group, “The athleisure business is losing some steam and finally something else is replacing that growth.” That “something else” are boots and jeans, which are replacing ( or perhaps joining) leggings and sneakers as wardrobe must-haves.

From November 2017 to November 2018, sneaker sales increased 12%, NPD reports. While positive, that’s a third less growth than the previous year. Sales of fashion boots grew 9% last fall alone, compared to a 7% sales decrease in the fall of 2017. Sales of jeans were up 9% in the year ending July 2018 compared to 2017.

Skincare is another industry that’s pivoting. For the last several years, numerous products have proudly touted their “anti-aging” benefits. Now, reports The Goods, anti-aging claims  have been replaced with “terms like ‘regeneration’ and ‘renewal’ and ‘radiance’ all over skincare bottles. Positive words. Hopeful words.”

The big change began in 2016, says The Goods, when research showed millennials weren’t buying anti-aging products. By the following year, according to the NPD Group, sales of masks and facial exfoliators, which are designed to produce “quick, glowy results,” were up  44% and overall skincare sales were up 9%. Today, The Goods says skincare “is in an explosive growth phrase.”

Even though millennials are growing older (the oldest are in their mid- to late 30s), The Goods says they’re been “trained” to think about skincare products in a different way. As an example, it cites Drunk Elephant, “one of the buzziest skincare brands” and a perennial best-selling product line at Sephora, which doesn’t mention anti-aging in its product descriptions.

Company founder Tiffany Masterson told The Goods that Drunk Elephant is not an anti-aging brand. “I consider Drunk Elephant to be a pro-skin brand…There is no such thing as ‘anti-aging. Aging is inevitable.”

If you’re selling cosmetics or skincare products, you need to be mindful of how you market your goods.

 

Fashion stock photo by maestro15/Shutterstock