Stephens Susie: Dallas Market

Dallas Market

This week I traveled to Dallas, Texas for apparel market with the owner of the boutique I work in. For those of you that have never been to market it’s basically where stores pick out the clothes for the store. Not anyone can attend market…To get to go to market their is a process involving sending in your license, tax id form, picture of your store, and a few other official things. To get to go to market with a store owner you have to work in the store. I was fortunate enough to get to go with Paula who owns June and Beyond Boutique, and also happens to be a really good friend of mine. As much work as it is, it is also a lot of fun. By the end of the day we are exhausted, but I really love getting to go. The market center is fifteen floors of show rooms to shop in; however, apparel is only on about five go those floors. We pretty much have every show room we want to visit picked out before we get there because a lot of them do not fit our store or customer. It is really important to think about your customer and where our store is located while we are shopping. We can’t just buy something because we like it. We have to be sure that it will sell in the store. This is especially hard because of the fact that we are in such a small town and we try to cater to many different types of customers from 13 year olds to 75 year olds. Also being in a small town we try to keep the prices low, but we do like to have more expensive pieces for those customers we know will buy it and we also like to spend more on quality classic items that can be worn season after season. We try to mix fast fashion with classic items to appeal to the different ages/styles. On our way to Dallas I also did some research on the spring trends that will be prominent. The big ones are going to be: Big floral, suede, white, yellow, gingham, scalloped hem, black and white, fringe, ruffles, and crop tops.

Here are some pictures I took while in Dallas…Enjoy!

One of my favorite show rooms... Buddylove Showroom! More fast fashion.

Picture from the fifteenth floor. Doesn't really look as big in this picture.

Loved seeing how the trends from the spring were translated at market.. Big floral.

These mannequins cover the black and white, yellow, scalloped hem, and midriff showing trends.

This is another one of my favorite showroom called Karlie. This showroom didn't have their spring line to show yet, but isn't their holiday collection gorgeous?! This showroom is more expensive, but still fast fashion.