I think it’s fair to say that there isn’t a Personal Stylist out there that doesn’t use Zara as a trusted store for her Personal Shopping clients. Zara owned by the Spanish retailing mogul Inditex has been around since the 70’s and their following has grown exponentially amongst regular girls as well as fashions ‘it’ crowd. There’s nothing embarrassing saying: “This is from Zara” and then bragging about how little it cost you. Mixing designer items with Zara is what allfashionistas do and because the turn around of Zara’s stock is so quick you’re (hopefully) never going to bump into someone with the same outfit on as you. It’s reported that Zara needs just one week to develop a new product and get it to stores, compared to the six-month industry average, and launches around 12,000 new designs each year)!
Having done some Retail Training for the brand, Zara believe they’re successful because firstly they have remained faithful to its core values, expressed simply in these four key words: beauty, clarity, functionality and sustainabilityand secondly because they nurture an intimate relationship with its customers. Yes Zara’s designers respond instinctively to their customers changing needs, reacting to the latest trends and delivering new ideas in the right place and at the right moment so we’re never to get bored!
I love Zara but there’s one time I never go into Zara, and that’s during the sales! Especially if I’m with a Personal Shopping client, it’s my idea of Retail hell and I avoid it like the plague, so many clothes, all in the wrong sizes! I don’t get it; Zara is already so affordable why do people get so excited with even more discount!? So for around 4 weeks in the height of summer you’ll find me elsewhere JThere does come a time that I do get excited again though (probably the 2ndweek of August) that’s when new stock is starting to filter in. Zara are known not to advertise (so you won’t see any Zara is the September issue of Vogue), they apparently prefer to spend that budget on new store openings so you’ll have to pop into the store to get a preview.
This year I have to say you won’t be disappointed, already I can see the trends of AW18 that we’ll all be wearing and Zara are teasing us ever so slightly as to what they are: Animal printed long shirt dresses, 80’s party dresses, slouchy boots, plaid and the colour of the season: Brown!
Having said that with so many items, many of my non fashionista clients say they often feel intimidated by Zara, perhaps it’s the ultra thin staff or the sizes that don’t really fit anyone larger than a size 16 but once I’ve shown them exactly what to look for and what styles suit their body shape it doesn’t matter take them long before they love the brand and yes although the staff are not going to spark up a conversation they are great at finding your size back in the stockroom!
Nisha x