For many women, style is something that they are born with. For Paige Adams- Geller, style is in her jeans, as it were. The denim fit model turned founder of Paige Premium Denim says her fashion savvy definitely came naturally. "When I was in high school, people would tease me about my disposable wardrobe, since I rarely wore the same outfit twice. I used to mix and match, borrow from my parents' closets, try and reinvent everything I had, and I was definitely considered one of the best dressed," she recalls. "I use that same sense today in building my own line of clean jeans and knits."
Cheryl Finnegan, a longtime consultant to Levi Strauss and now the founder of Virgins, Angels and Saints, a line of accessories, also admits to a sixth sense about fashion. "I have always been able to pick up on the undercurrents in fashion and to evolve with them to predict and interpret a trend," she says, but quickly adds that does not make her a slave to trends. "If I think tha t my out f i t looks l ike something other women will be wearing, I'll change. I am dressing to stand out."
These denim consultants turned entrepreneurs would clearly be considered Fashion Innovators by the Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Monitor™, explains Melissa Bastos, Manager, Market Research in Supply Chain Planning at Cotton Incorporated. "Fashion Innovators are consumers who have an instinct for style, like to shop for apparel and are more likely to pay full price at the beginning of the season to ensure that they are among the first to secure the latest styles."
According to the Monitor, two out of three Fashion Innovators named clothing as their preferred item of choice when they shop, compared with one in two of total female respondents making the same claim. When asked if they are one of the first to try new styles, 83% of Fashion Innovators said they were, compared to 27% of total female respondents. When asked when they bought the latest styles, two out of three female Fashion Innovators stated at the beginning of the season; only three in ten female respondents in the general population claimed to do so.
Cheryl Finnegan, a longtime consultant to Levi Strauss and now the founder of Virgins, Angels and Saints, a line of accessories, also admits to a sixth sense about fashion. "I have always been able to pick up on the undercurrents in fashion and to evolve with them to predict and interpret a trend," she says, but quickly adds that does not make her a slave to trends. "If I think tha t my out f i t looks l ike something other women will be wearing, I'll change. I am dressing to stand out."
These denim consultants turned entrepreneurs would clearly be considered Fashion Innovators by the Cotton Incorporated Lifestyle Monitor™, explains Melissa Bastos, Manager, Market Research in Supply Chain Planning at Cotton Incorporated. "Fashion Innovators are consumers who have an instinct for style, like to shop for apparel and are more likely to pay full price at the beginning of the season to ensure that they are among the first to secure the latest styles."
| One of First to Try New Styles | ||||||
| Fashion | ||||||
| Total | Innovators | |||||
| Agree | 27% | 83% | ||||
| Disagree | 72% | 14% | ||||
According to the Monitor, two out of three Fashion Innovators named clothing as their preferred item of choice when they shop, compared with one in two of total female respondents making the same claim. When asked if they are one of the first to try new styles, 83% of Fashion Innovators said they were, compared to 27% of total female respondents. When asked when they bought the latest styles, two out of three female Fashion Innovators stated at the beginning of the season; only three in ten female respondents in the general population claimed to do so.
