Happy Birthday America!!
Tina as News & Trends
Jul|3|2009
Independence Day celebrates the birthday of the United States of America which was founded on July 4, 1776 with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Did you know that it was not declared a legal holiday until 1941 and it wasn’t until 1961 that Uncle Sam was adopted as our national symbol?
This year, America turns the ripe old age of 233!
The 4th of July is a time for fireworks and celebration. What better reason to dress the kids in red, white and blue? I love to see little girls in their patriotic hair bows* and boys in their flag t-shirts as they watch the parade!
Independence day is a time for summer barbeques, pool parties and trips to the beach. It’s fun on the boat, chilling at the cottage and hanging out in the backyard.
It’s a time to be thankful to our soldiers who have fought for the freedom we enjoy today. It’s the perfect occasion to teach our kids what it means to be an American.
Whatever your Independence day looks like this weekend, we hope it’s filled with lots of laughter, relaxation and family fun!
Have a safe and enjoyable 4th of July!
* Get free shipping on the hair bow at beebopsandlollipops.com by using web code: WeAreMoving
Pre-Order Inaugural Coats from crewcuts
Loobalee as News & Trends
May|5|2009
Like their website says… “At Last” the famous inaugural coats will be offered in crewcuts line-up — coming this Fall. These are replicas of the coats worn by Sasha and Malia Obama on Inauguration day (Jan. 20, 2009).
The coats are currently available for pre-order, and all pre-orders will be fulfilled before the coats will be available for order on-line. They are not expected to be in stores.
I called the pre-order number to get the details. Note: the coats are only available in the colors shown:
Sasha’s Coat (shown on left):
- Name: Wool Pique Coat
- Color: Sweet Guava
- Sizes: 2 – 12
- Price: $168
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Malia’s Coat (shown on right):
- Name: Double Cloth Coat
- Color: Bright Cobalt
- Sizes: 2 – 12
- Price: $235
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The prices were lower than I expected. The representative I spoke with said that many orders are currently being placed daily for the coats.
I predict they may sell out (at least the most popular sizes) in advance, and they will be hot items on the resale market.
Here’s a memorable slideshow of Sasha and Malia from the Huffington Post wearing the coats (among other ensembles) at the Inauguration events.
Get on the list to join our upcoming LoobaLee Private Beta! Buy and sell your children’s clothing on-line and outfit your kids for virtually free.
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Johnnie Boden Interview
Loobalee as News & Trends
Apr|15|2009
I thought this was a great interview. It’s posted on the Boden Website.
I learned that 1/3 of the Boden’s total market is U.S.-based, and is the portion of the business that is most hit by the recession. But, although Boden recognizes the recession as a factor, he places a higher emphasis on the Company’s continued efforts to serve the U.S. market – indicating they don’t feel like they’ve hit on quite the right formula yet.
By visiting the Boden USA website now, you may be selected to participate in survey. Complete the survey and your name will be entered in a drawing for a $500 Boden gift certificate.
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If you have an opportunity to watch the video, let us know what you think? Curious how close or far away you think Boden is from fully satisfying the U.S. market for kids clothing, specifically.
Suzanne Rielle – Loobalee.com
Get on the list to join our upcoming LoobaLee Private Beta! Buy and sell your children’s clothing on-line and outfit your kids for virtually free.
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Gymboree Outlet – Allowed Member to Keep Gymbucks after a Return ?!
Loobalee as News & Trends
Apr|13|2009
Yes, it’s true. One of our LoobaLee members was allowed to keep Gymbucks she earned via an outlet purchase after she returned some of her items. She even inquired about it, and the store manager told her she would not lose her Gymbucks. Hmmm… is the outlet policy different? You can be sure we’ll research this one!
We want to know… was this a unique situation? Or, did anyone have a similar experience?
If you returned items you purchased during this last Gymbucks earning period either at an Outlet, in a store, or on-line, let us know whether or not you had to forfeit your Gymbucks. Just “Leave a Comment” below – Thanks!
J. Crew crewcuts Expands Size Range
Loobalee as News & Trends
Apr|11|2009
Happy Day! Did you notice J.Crew recently added size 12 to their crewcuts range? It’s awesome. They really had a size and style gap between crewcuts size 10 and J.Crew’s size 2 for Women and X-small for Men.
On my few visits into the stores, I expressed this feedback and I assume many other parents did as well. I thought they were really missing the mark on the growing “tween” market.
I just checked the website, and not everything is offered in size 12 yet. They are transitioning both on-line and in “select” stores. Hopefully by the time Back-To-School styles are out for Fall, size 12 will be available across the board.
Suzanne Rielle – Loobalee.com
Get on the list to join our upcoming LoobaLee Private Beta! Buy and sell your children’s clothing on-line and outfit your kids for virtually free.
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10 Hot Trends in Childrenswear for Fall ‘09 to Note Now
Loobalee as News & Trends
Mar|24|2009
Seriously! I know — it’s barely spring!
As you may know, I attended the Chicago Children’s Collective Fall ‘09 Childrenwear show in Farmington Hills on Sunday. Attending with me was Melissa, LoobaLee’s most discerning Mom, Tester, and Researcher of anything and everything to do with shopping for childrenswear.
We intend to open a retail boutique filled with carefully selected items that LoobaLee loves and that we believe will retain their resale value over time. Everyone at the show was helpful to us as we researched the feasibility of opening a store by this Fall. To be honest, the buying process and selection was so overwhelming that I think this expansion of LoobaLee may just have wait another season.
In the mean time, though, we liked what we saw. There is value in knowing what’s coming and what will be style next season to help you gain insight on:
a) What to buy (at deep, deep discounts) from last season;
b) What to watch for on-sale in the current season that will comfortably transition into Fall;
c) What to keep and what to sell or donate, and
d) What will be hot sellers on the resale market this the Fall.
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Here’s 10 hot trends for Fall:
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- Don’t Give up those Leggings & Tunics! They are in most every 7-14 line, done Cotton/Spandex and Jersey fabrics. Watch for stripes and large patterns this fall.
- Organic & Natural Fibers, such as bamboo, are in and being mainstreamed by several clothing designers.
- Tutu the Max! (I think this could be a blog article in and of itself). The tutu-style petticoat skirt, popularized by Kaiya Eve and Belle Ame, is leading to all sorts of layered and poofed styles from several major designers, such as tops, panties, dresses, and bell-bottomed pants. Read the rest of this entry »
Gap Inc. Quietly Changes Return Policy (No More Free Returns)
Loobalee as News & Trends
Mar|12|2009
Just 10 months ago, in May of 2008, Gap Inc. Brands implemented an umbrella website and checkout process across all four of their stores: Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Piperlime. With it, they implemented a new flat rate shipping service of $7 and free returns on all orders.
“Halleluia!”, we said, when LoobaLee posted about the awesome policy last May. Apparently, the investment made in combined, 4-in-1 policy plus free returns hasn’t panned out for Gap Inc. as expected. Perhaps due to the sluggish economy?
If you recall the new policy introduced last May was highly publicized. But, a significant change to the policy that went into effect just 2 days ago, March 10, 2009, and was only quietly updated on their website. In fact, we had to call them to clarify & verify. *
Interesting they would roll this change out immediately before the big “Friends & Family”, 30% off sale.
Free Returns has been eliminated on Gap, Banana Republic & Old Navy – you’ll now pay $6.00 for a Gap Return label. A couple notes:
o The policy also affects Banana Republic Luxe and Gap Silver card holders, and
o Piperlime continues to offer free returns.
Additionally, the number of the days allowed for returns (across all 4 sites) has been reduced from 90 days to 45 days for on-line purchases and to 30 days for in-store purchases.
While I’m sad about the policy change (we at LoobaLee seriously loved the old policy), I’m even more disappointed that the Gap did not proactively announce the changes to at least their customer database, or at a minimum, their cardholders.
I suspect that many customers purchasing today and this weekend during the Friends & Family will be surprised and disappointed to find out, after the fact, about the changes.
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– Suzanne Rielle, Co-Founder, Loobalee.com*
Club Libby Lu – Gone in a Poof
Loobalee as News & Trends
Feb|3|2009
Well, the Club Libby Lu stores have officially now closed. The website is down, and without even a banner or “thank you for your business”. It’s just plain unavailable – must be for sale (with an Compete page rank today of 23,811, someone is probably interested).
It seems we hear about one international chain after another closing these days (or at least cutting back), but so far the children’s apparel industry has faired quite well. In trade research, we find many more new brands and new stores opening than we find closing. The overall children’s clothing & accessory market, in fact, is anticipated to continue to experience growth in 2009.
Was Club Libby Lu too far on the fringes of this growth market? We think so. We believe they tried to get in on this growth by masquerading as an apparel store, which was an inauthentic and significant departure from their core business.
We posted an article on August 16, 2008: “Back to School with Club Libby Lu – Not so Fabulous“. Just 4 short months before the stores announced closure on Nov. 2, 2008, they launched a major (and to us, unimpressive) TV advertising campaign that attempted to promote Club Libby Lu apparel as appropriate and desirable back-to-school wear for young girls. Our aghast at the commercials charged us to research the company a bit — and we found the commercial advertising to be inconsistent with the company’s stated mission and vision in an over-the-top, exploitive way.
Is it this exploitive character that eventually drove the closure, possibly coupled with the current economy? It’s uncertain. In our research we found this statement in a press release from Saks Inc. (owner of Club Libby Lu) which makes sense, but seems to cover-up Read the rest of this entry »
J. Crew’s crewcuts – “First Inspiration”
Loobalee as News & Trends
Jan|24|2009
We found this briefly posted on J. Crew’s website home page offering their sentiments on being part of this historical inauguration week.
It appears the Malia and Sasha’s Inaugural Day coats were specially designed for them by J. Crew and were not available in this seasons catalog. You can still get parts of their “look”, however, on crewcuts final sale. See the selections we found.
We’d like to get a confirmation on that — if you have any info, please leave us a note and let us know .
Per J. Crew, they plan to incorporate designs from the various Inauguration outfits worn by Michelle, Malia, and Sasha Obama in their upcoming lines (which we anticipate will sell very well!).
Malia & Sasha – In Crewcuts at Inaugural
Loobalee as News & Trends
Jan|20|2009
The girls and Michelle Obama all looked fantastic today, don’t you think? So cheerful, so classy, and so normal!
As we speculated on the event in our short article Sunday, there appeared to be no secrets out of the bag as to what they would wear. Our hope that would look great but not be over-the-top came true! The girls wore outfits available and attainable by everyday families (especially when on sale!) from J. Crew.
Both last night and at today’s inauguration Malia and Sasha Obama wore crewcuts outfits and coats by J.Crew. Michelle Obama has repeatedly chose J. Crew throughout the campaign and events leading up to today.
The J. Crew website was down temporarily earlier today, perhaps due to a heavy load of traffic.
Can you still get the Sasha Malia style? Maybe in some stores. We found the Periwinkle and Peach/Pink-colored coats unavailable on-line. But, the silk sashes are still available, and we found a skirt in “cerise” orange, similar to what Sasha wore under her coat (we think though, she was wearing a dress that is likely sold out now). Any of these selections are great buys at current prices and will sell well on LoobaLee in the future (or you may be inclined to save them for posterity-sake).
