Judy Murray: Yes, I can be pushy but I’m no tiger mother. Oh, and I do smile every now and again
... and the tricks they’re using to lure you into their stores
If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun. KATHARINE HEPBURN
There’s nothing like a glass of bubbly and a plate of fresh strawberries to get you in the mood to splash out on a new spring wardrobe. I take a sip from my champagne flute — will it be the exquisitely embroidered ‘Tulip Border’ coat (£299, a favourite for Ascot, apparently) or the butter-soft, stone-coloured ‘Jules’ leather jacket, also £299? Decisions, decisions. My personal stylist Libby doesn’t want to rush me. Why don’t we try on some workwear, she suggests, then we can come back to the great coat conundrum. I turn to the piles of discarded clothes I’ve already strewn across the plush, velvet armchair — there was definitely a pencil skirt I liked in there somewhere.
Libby, meanwhile, busies herself conjuring up shoes from tissue-lined boxes. Courts or high heels? Wedges or flats? This is the life.
You would be forgiven for assuming I’m ensconced in some exclusive Mayfair boutique. Chanel maybe? Yves saint Laurent? Not quite — I’m at hobbs. As in the high
Street store found in just about every British town. This personal shopping service is free, by the way, and should I choose to walk out of the store having purchased nothing but the Anemone-print scarf draped around my neck, then no problem.
This year, you see, fashion retailers have set their sights on impressing a new breed of VIP shopper.
She’s smart, stylish, immune to the vagaries of trends and, most importantly, has disposable income to spend on clothes. No, she’s not a waifish supermodel nor a rarefied fashion editor. She’s Britain’s savvy, stylish, fifty-plus woman.
Personal stylist Libby (herself 54) agrees wholeheartedly that grownup shoppers are where it’s at in terms of spending power.
‘Their children have left home and they might well be mortgage-free. These are the women with the time
and the disposable income to really engage with fashion.’
And time, it seems, really is money. The shops’ latest obsession is what they’re calling ‘dwell time’. In other words, how long shoppers are happy to spend in store.
And retail analysts have realised that we have more of it than our daughter’s or grandaughter’s generations. That we’ll stay the longest and spend the most money if the shops court us hard enough — and that means offering more than just clothes.
Add to this the fact that there are simply more of us than of any other group of shoppers (the youngest of the ‘Baby Boomer’ generation turned 50 last year) and you begin to see why we’re a buying force to be reckoned with.
To put some hard stats to this spending spree, the nation’s age profile is shifting rapidly. By 2020, half of us will be over 50. That’s 13 million women. By anyone’s calculation it’s a whole lot of mature spending power.
So why, you may reasonably ask, didn’t anyone notice the grown-ups before now? Good question.
The general consensus seems to be that so wrapped up was the business world in worrying about which apps, websites and social media platforms the youth market were adopting that they just didn’t notice it was the older generations holding the purse strings. Well, they’ve certainly noticed now.
Unsurprisingly then, it isn’t just Hobbs who are laying on the extras to convince us to stop and shop. Over at Jigsaw they’re offering three in-store cafes — two in London and one in Guildford — all with free wi-fi for customers. Keen not to be beaten in the added-extras stakes, John Lewis has opened an entire spa (called &Beauty) at its Birmingham store. Deliberately positioned next to the personal styling department, the idea is that the spa will get us in the mood to spend some serious cash on clothes. Free fizz here as well, by the way.
At Marks & Spencer — bastion of the grown-up shopper — they’re also hoping that offering beauty treatments will make us feel fabulous enough to buy that extra pair of shoes and, to this end, are trying out Shavata nail and brow bars at their Camberley, Westfield White City and Marble Arch branches.
Meanwhile, if you can’t wait for Boden to start opening stores (coming in the next year, they promise), then what about hosting a Boden party?
The stylish catalogue giant provides the clothes in addition to scented candles, pretty biscuits and fresh coffee. You provide the friends (and get the commission, too).
So strong is this new love for the mature shopper that even the designer labels have realised they need to get in on the act, falling over themselves to sign up ‘mature faces’ for their glossy ad campaigns.
We’ve seen Cindy Crawford (50) for Balmain and Yasmin Le Bon (51) for Giorgio Armani. Meanwhile Celine snaffled author Joan Didion (81) while Yves Saint Laurent bagged singer Joni Mitchell (72). After all, goes their logic, which grown-up wants to see her clothes advertised on teenagers?
Back in the changing room at Hobbs, the velvet armchair and the beautiful palm-print changing screen are now festooned with clothes. Libby remains unfazed as she demonstrates how a quick alteration at the waist of some capri pants (yes, Hobbs do tailoring, too) will make them super-flattering on my curvy frame. It’s a far cry from what we’ve become used to on a trip to the shops. Like
me you’ve no doubt occasionally longed for a pair of flip flops when forced to navigate the dirt, dust (and worse) on many changing room floors.
And good luck with persuading the bored teenage assistant to find you another size or a different colour if what you’ve picked up doesn’t work. You might just as well nip out in your knickers and do it yourself.
Of course, no amount of spa treatments, free fizz or fast-connection wi-fi is going to make you shop somewhere if the clothes are hideous. And no effort is being spared to make sure you want to wear what’s on the rails.
The heads of all the most powerful High Street brands are starting to talk about a new era of ‘ageless’ fashion — designs that might appeal to a 50-year-old woman but equally to her 20-something daughter (if she can afford them). Luxurious fabrics are key and grown-up women are prepared to spend a bit more on jersey, for example, if it feels heavy and longlasting. Fashion over 50 is all about having one or two great, timeless pieces per season rather than ten cheaper, fast fashion ones it seems.
Similarly, they concur, slavish devotion to seasonal trends isn’t what this customer wants.
She might entertain a nod to a trend here and there but she’s been buying clothes for long enough to know what does and doesn’t suit her and she’s not about to pay good money for something just because a version of it appeared in Vogue.
So what better time than now to head out to the High Street and buy your summer wardrobe? You’ll find everyone very, very pleased to see you.