Growing up in the retail industry and having spent many a fashion season of being allowed to join retail buyers at the New York buyers market, was always fascinating to me as a young woman! Buyers representing multiple stores would decide on products and if they liked a product and felt it would sell well at their store, they would place an order.
I thought how exciting! After following a fine arts profession and later designing fashion products for my customers, did I really realize there is more to developing a product just because I like it, but rather it is about meeting the needs of the customer and producing something THEY TOO WILL LIKE and WANT TO BUY!
As a consumer myself, I feel it is very important to voice our “likes and dislikes” when it pertains to the latest in fashion. Just because someone somewhere has written an article stating “it is the trend” does not always hold true.
As a retailer, I always want to listen to the customer. Customer input is very important. As my father (a former retail store company president) always said to me, “Without the customer, we would not have a job!” Maybe that is why it is so important to me as a designer, to ensure that customers are happy, by designing something they will love! Most important……………I will listen. Customers have GREAT ideas too!