Anthropologie still selling wrong clothes

For troubled women’s clothier Anthropologie, the first warning flags went up back in 2015. Sales were lackluster in the first quarter of the year, a slip that executives chalked up to a weak selection of dresses: Some of the silhouettes were wrong, and so were the fabric choices and price points.

Simply put: It made an unforced fashion error. And now, Anthropologie seems locked in a pattern of making the same mistake over and over again. The retailer’s parent company, Urban Outfitters, reported on Tuesday that it saw a 2.9 percent decrease in comparable sales — a measure of sales online and at stores open more than year — at the corporate division that is anchored by Anthropologie. That’s the sixth consecutive quarter that sales have fallen or have been flat on this metric.

Richard Hayne, the chief executive of Urban Outfitters, was blunt in his assessment of Anthropologie’s problem during a conference call with investors.

“The customer is also telling us in no uncertain terms the apparel and accessory offerings are currently off-pitch,” Hayne said.

Executives didn’t drill into detail about what, exactly, was wrong with the merchandise assortment during the holiday season, except to say that dress sales were lower than expected. That suggests that, once again, the goods weren’t catching customers’ eye.

So, why are the clothes not cutting it? In a research note, Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, may have hit on it: “Anthropologie,” he wrote, “is still a brand in search of a clear identity.”

Indeed, a trip to the retailer’s website is whiplash-inducing. Plenty of the kinds of pieces have earned the brand its loyal following: A denim T-shirt dress with a novelty detail, a whimsically printed fit-and-flare, both in the $100 to $200 price range. Feminine and a tad whimsical, you can easily imagine them being worn to brunch or a bridal shower.

But there are other garments that don’t seem to fit that mold: There’s a shapeless pink-andwhite midi dress that costs $578. There’s a vertically-striped cotton-rayon number with gargantuan pockets that start above the belly button and end below the hip.