Look Inside the Atlanta Apparel Market
Literally LOLing whilst writing this blog post. I’m suuuuch an amateur when it comes to being a buyer at an apparel market. In the first year of owning this little biz I’ve attended six markets in three different states and done more deer-in-the-headlights wandering than actual “buying.” Needless to say, this resume does not an expert make. Surprise!
But I have found from many of my friends that most women are crazy curious about what it is like inside an apparel market. Shall we peruse together, ladies?
Let’s start with the fact that apparel markets are held in massive buildings. I mean m a s s i v e. The market in Atlanta, for instance, is made up of three different buildings. Although the apparel portion is only in one of these buildings, according to Wikipedia, the three buildings have a combined total of 7 million square feet. I mean. What. the. mess.
Once we’re in, there’s nothing to do but shop til we drop. For us, this begins by hitting up our favorite manufacturers (located throughout the building) and taking all of the pictures. Hundreds, even. I’m the most indecisive person on the planet but this job magnifies my indecisiveness 1,000 fold. It’s scary, really. Bless the sweet sister-friends that shop with me. Their reward is in heaven.
I’ve found that by taking pictures of everything I like first, I’m able to go back through all of the photos, pick the pieces I think you ladies will love most, and then only purchase what we can’t live without! I mean, imagine walking through store after store after store and looking through every single piece. It’s sliiiiightly overwhelming. So pics help us remember what we’ve seen, where we saw it, how much it was, and when it is available. It might be a strange system, but it’s our strange system and it works:)
At some point we sit down for an hour (or two) and plan the next several months of releases. We consider price, color (because we have to limit the number of grey tops we buy), style (not everyone loves the same things), what our catalog is lacking, season changes, and the manufacturer's ship date for each style. Once we have a game plan...off we go to spend a little money, honey.
Once we’ve snagged our favorite things we call it a day, and we head home hoping and praying that the pieces we’ve picked are just what you need to make your life sweet, simple, and stylish. We may have to order some fill-in pieces as needed if we weren’t able to find just what we needed at market, but for the most part, we’re ready to begin planning a photo shoot and getting these pieces into your closets!
You’re a joy to shop for ladies. Thank you for believing in August Cloth and shopping with us. You are so loved!
