As the weather warms up in New York and trees start to show early signs of beautiful pink, blue, green, white and other colors, the fashion world starts to get busy with their wardrobe changes. While the time of clothes has slowly changed from jeans to tights and from coats to jackets, the colors only begin to catch up when the temperature is constant, the birds starting chirping and flowers begin to bloom.
According to Elle, during Spring 2014 Fashion Week, Orange was the dominant color on the runway for next Spring's trends. Whether or not this was due to the popularity of a breakout original Netflix series or not, ready-to-wear was plush with this intense hue seen in everything from clothing to handbags to even woman's shoes. But does that mean Orange is the New Black and therefore the must wear color of Spring 2014 or should you play it safe and opt for florals.
There are a few companies that dominate the women's ready to wear market here in New York, so its fairly easy to see if these trends are holding up by looking at ecommerce sales from these top websites. While data is not publicly available, its fairly easy to see what the Best Sellers are on sites such as Forever 21, H&M, Zara, Express, Mango and American Apparel. Time to find out if Orange is really the New Black or it's time to bring your florals back.
FOREVER 21
Just looking at their Best Sellers for Woman's wear reveals that Orange is definitely trending at Forever 21. Seems like Elle got it right here. Looking at just the topo 100 styles, there were Orange Shorts, Orange Red Tops, an Orange Chiffon Dress, Orange Camis and more.
While off-white / nude / tan seemed to be the color of the order, the orange really pops. Floral seems to be quite a trend as well. Check it out yourself.
H&M
H&M didn't allow for filtering by Best Sellers, so it was hard to see what is really moving right now. Looking at all the styles for women's clothing without any fliters, H&M showed quite a few looks with Black, from black maxi dresses to black sweaters and cardigans. A lot of knitwear and quite a little too dark. Looking at their New Arrivals, things aren't much different ( at least on page one ), a few black blouses and sleeveless black tops. Darker shades of aqua blue, navy blue, green and patterns, but none of the brighter cheerful colors found on Forever 21. Maybe going for a higher end look. At H&M, Black is the New Black.
ZARA
Shoppers of Zara know their site has a very different look and feel. Looking at their Best Sellers is also not possible, but starting with their April / May LookBook is. Zara has a great deal of white, sprinkled with the occassional burst of navy blue as a light sweater ( nautical ), florals and yellow ( light knit sweaters and shorts ). Its hard to get an entire season from just the LookBook, but browsing through some top level categories for women revealed more. Dresses are ranging from tan to lighter shades of blue to green, yellow and definitely some florals. But Zara is carrying that bright orange and more orange red can be found in the Shirts and Skirts. If left to Zara, Tan is the New Black, but tan doesn't count. Let's just say Orange is the New Black here.
EXPRESS
Just a quick glance at Express's New Arrivals tell it all. Black is the New Black. But Express has a unique advantage in being the brand that young professionals go to for that stylish wardrobe in the office. So they do need a great amount of those staple colors. To confirm, I cheated and sorted by Colors. 65 Black Pieces were in the New Arrivals versus 6 Orange. At Express, Black will probably always be the New Black.
MANGO
Mango likes tan / nude a lot. This is very apparent. Nude is a neutral color so sells equally well throughout the year ( for certain items like blouses ), but gets a good bump during warmer months. Mango describes itself as the fashion brand for young women. Orange does not compete with black. Justing looking at All Clothing ( probably should have excluded jackets and jeans ), Black is probably the top color. Furthermore, when looking at clothing by color, their definition of Orange includes Light Pink, Bright Red and Brown. For Manago, Black is the New Black. Things are not looking good for Orange.
AMERICAN APPAREL
While there are probably about twenty other large ready to wear retailers in NYC, we are going to stop at American Apparel ( sorry Gap and Old Navy ), as its more in line with the quality of clothing of the brands above ( more or less ). American Apparel is also known to be a source of color, typically retailing hot pink, neon green and fiery orange with their ever popular leggings and tights. With that, American Apparel is definitely more of a question mark, as Orange is definitely more prominently seen throughout their site in Dresses and Tops, but non-existant in skirts, leggings and other clothing. Overall, there are a medley of colors, but not enough Orange to tilt the scale. For American Apparel, Rainbow is the New Black, but in this case, we have to stick with black.
So maybe Elle get it wrong and Orange isn't the new Black. Maybe Netflix wasn't actually able to predict the next season's It color. Regardless, springtime is here, so changes will happen. Florals are picking up and will be in peak season when the flowers bloom. Black will always be in vogue, but what else will you be pairing it with?
