Boomer Chic

Barbara Deneen, a 58-year-old public defender from St. Paul, Minn., gets downright intimidated when she goes to department stores looking for clothes. "They're all so teenybopperish," she says. "I end up buying a size 14 or a 16, and I'm not that big. It's embarrassing."

Like many women in her age group--whom fashion marketers refer to as the baby-boomer generation of women, 35 and up--Deneen has money to spend on clothing but doesn't feel there are many options on the retail horizon. Department stores such as Macy's and Dillard's, where Deneen and her contemporaries have traditionally shopped, fall short. The common complaints are that the merchandise is not compelling (who needs another beige pantsuit?) and the service levels have declined so much that shopping is no longer enjoyable.

But all that is changing. Suddenly, specialty retailers from Gap to Gymboree are tapping into the spending power and fashion savvy of boomer women--the 77 million female Americans born between 1946 and 1964 who have long set the pace for marketers and advertisers. Last year the Gymboree Corp. launched Janeville, a Juicy Couture-style line for boomers. In August Gap Inc. introduced Forth & Towne, aimed at mature women, its first new brand since Old Navy debuted in 1994. And in September Liz Claiborne Canada launched a new chain called Yzza for the same age group. Even the denim market is growing up, with brands like Vitamina and Sergio Valente targeting hip moms who want to look trendy but don't want to squeeze into jeans cut for 20-year-olds. (Sales of jeans to the 35-to-44 age bracket are up 8% this year already.)

Marketers are doing what comes naturally: following the money. Boomers spent $42.7 billion on apparel last year, compared with teenagers, who spent $20 billion, according to the NPD Group Inc., a market-research firm. The over-50 cohort has $750 billion in spending power and controls 50% of all discretionary income. Fashion executives, struggling with a stagnant apparel market in recent years, have been eager to find a new niche. "All you have to do is look at the numbers of population and spending power of the boomers," says Wendy Liebmann, president of WSL Strategic Retail. "You just have to say to yourself, Oh, my heavens, how can we not address this audience?"

Selling to the over-35 group is less complicated than selling to fickle teens, but boomers are hard to categorize. The generation is unwieldy, comprising two distinct groups--the leading-edge boomers, who are older, and the younger, 40-something group, who are closer to Gen-Xers in taste. Those women lead multifaceted lives; they include career women, stay-at-home moms and retirees. They want trendy jeans, elastic waistbands and clothes that are both casual and career oriented. At their age, they don't want to show too much skin; they want to be fashionable without looking ridiculous.