Buyers Left Fashion Week Happy, Excited About Pants

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It's been a tough couple years for department stores, but the Wall Street Journal reports that buyers from major retailers feel good about their prospects for spring. Stores have finally figured out a strategy for selling luxury during a recession, and last week's shows suggested that designers are playing to that strategy. As Linda Fargo of Bergdorf Goodman explains, it's all about focusing on "versatile pieces that aspirational customers can afford," like Rag & Bone's $475 wear-every-day camo jacket.

Designers like Ralph Lauren, Isaac Mizrahi, and Calvin Klein focused on versatility and wearability, with an emphasis on pants that seems to have struck joy into the hearts of buyers all over Lincoln Center. "I feel that pants are very important for the fall season," Neiman Marcus fashion director Ken Downing tells the WSJ. About four paragraphs later, Calvin Klein designer Francisco Costa appears with his own take: "For the modern woman, pants are very important."
· Stores Cheer Versatile Designs [WSJ]