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BOSTON, Mar 5, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Except for "Desperate Housewives" most baby boomer U.S. women don't want to wear belly shirts and short shorts, and retailers promise more mature fashions.
"A lot of stores basically walked away from the older woman," said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst for NPD Group, a market research firm in Port Washington, N.Y. "But the teen market is being sliced so thinly that retailers need to regroup. And stores are finally beginning to recognize that this is a customer who can no longer be ignored."
Some 40 million women of the baby boomer generation are now in their 40s and 50s, and the group's sheer size will increase the overall spending in the $101 billion female apparel market, the Boston Globe reported Sunday.
However, since the peak cohort of the baby boom is now 50, retailers may have entered the mature fashion market a tad late.
Gap Inc.'s a new chain, Forth & Towne, is aimed at women over 35, while Children's clothier Gymboree Corp. started Janeville in 2004 and teen chain American Eagle says it will open the first four stores of its new Martin + Osa brand targeting older women this fall.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
