Accessories Generating Majority of Revenue in Women's Fashion
Photo by Tommy Ton
Women and their love for accessories has been around forever. Cinderella would never have found her happily-ever-after if it weren't for her glass slipper, Hermès practically defines itself around the eponymous Birkin bag, and the Marc Jacobs empire would hardly exist if it weren't for his endless amounts of shoes, handbags, and sunglasses.
In a recent study done by The New York Times, fashion brands with a strong accessories collection have been significantly more successful than those with a focus on just clothing. In fact, according to a spokeswoman at Michael Kors, accessories accounted for 75% of the brand's revenue in 2012.
Furthermore, in the past 18 months women's fashion has been pulling in negative numbers whereas accessories are up by 2% which, according to NPD's chief retail analyst Marshal Cohen, is a lot in the fashion world.
If you think about the brands that are currently booming — Rebecca Minkoff, Coach, Proenza Schouler, Alexander Wang — each of them has a strong, if not complete, focus in accessories.
So what does this mean for the future of fashion? Essentially it means we can expect to see an influx of shoes, sunglasses, handbags, and more from designers who may have never even thought to expand into accessories. Loeffler Randall just launched it's first line of handbags, Victoria Beckham recently announced her expansion into eyewear, who's next?
