Trend Report: What's Hot for Fall/Winter and What's Up Next in 2024

Let's talk about your business strategy and the juicy details of what actually works from mainstream fashion to fashion on Main street and the entire ecosystem behind it. How do we scale your company and do it with the balance and the happiness that we all seek? Let's hear from those insiders, experts and strategists that actually make it happen. I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and I can't wait to chat. Hey guys, it is you and me and we're going to talk about some trends today on the podcast. This is going to be a little bit different setup if you're catching this by video, because I want to share my screen and I want to give you a sneak peek into the holiday and winter trend report. That's kind of a look into what's coming by way of women's apparel, by accessories, by home decor trends. We're going to look at what we're seeing across Instagram and from high end fashion, but also just from our wholesale community. All of the trends that we're starting to see take place. I want to get you in front of them today on the podcast. All right, so bear with me. If you are catching the video, I hope you are, it's on YouTube and you can catch the real life version of this trend report. All right, so first things first, when it comes to what's coming for not just fall, winter and holiday, but what we're going to see carry out through 2024. Right. So depending on where you live, I'm going to just say from experience, I grew up in North Dakota. I currently live in Wisconsin. So if you're someone that's like, you know what, my community and my customer is really fast to trend, or my customer in my community is a little bit slow, slower to trend, I want to be able to highlight for you kind of both and how you can work those into your inventory right now. All right, so first things first, let's talk about a few colors and a few patterns that have become really popular with trend. If you're able to see my screen, you can obviously visualize some of these colors and some of these patterns, but I want to just call them out for you as well. One thing that we have started to notice a lot of is red and a lot of fig and then we're still seeing a carryover. Last year we saw a lot of greens and emerald greens. If you remember, I actually bought this puffy jacket last year. I'm going to call it my Kermit the Frog jacket because it is a huge, puffy green jacket. Being in Wisconsin, I felt like it was maybe a little bit too loud, but when I traveled, I really like to wear it. So I'm hoping that I'm going to find someone else rocking a green jacket like me. That's going to give me a little more confidence here in Wisconsin this winter to also rock this trend. So definitely some color trends that we're seeing, but as far as some pattern trends that we're seeing, pinstripes have become really huge, and we saw the striping trend coming all the way back in spring, but it's definitely not going anywhere. Tartan, which is kind of like a plaid trend, the blurred tie dye trend, and then some of the silk rouge trend are some textures and some patterns that we start to see. If you're inside the trend report, I just want to call some, like, attention to this. If you are a member of the Hub, you can download this trend report, by the way, anytime from your Hub membership dashboard. There's a couple of them in there for you, but they also link directly to brands that are carrying these trends on Hub and Tory. So if you want to see actual products associated, we've built boards for you, we have the brands highlighted for you, and we have some products linked up for you in there as well. All right, so let's get into a few more trends, and we're going to come back to some of those colors and some patterns in just a minute. All right, first trend I want to talk about is oversized totes. We have seen some big oversized totes become really popular for a while. It was like the micro bag, like not just a mini bag, but a micro bag became really trendy probably two years ago. We've kind of gone to the opposite end of the spectrum with oversized totes, especially in the winter time, becoming really, really popular. Heavy metal. So I don't know if you guys wear silver jewelry. If you wear gold jewelry, maybe you're turquoise, so you tend to lean silver. Well, I got on a hu gold trend for a really long time. In fact, I'm still rocking my treasure jewels. I love all the gold jewelry, but anything heavy metal, right? So we're seeing lots of big, blocky, chunky, bright metal tones, but both in gold and in silver. Silver is certainly making a comeback. So we're seeing that the wrap trend this year. So I'm going to say, I'll say like four to five years ago. Right. Every blogger I knew was doing how to tie a blanket scarf. Right. Raise your hand if you did that or you watched those, those videos, Right. That wrap trend of like having a big oversized, like blanket scarf or just a wrap that is definitely coming back for this winter also. All right, so again in the trend report, we've got some more products that you can link directly to. All right, let's go back to textures. So one of my favorite trends that we're seeing across, really across the industry right now, I personally love to wear this trend. I just bought an outfit in this trend the other day. I don't think it matters if you're from the coast or just north or the south or the east or the west. Like, I think this is a hot trend everywhere. And that is the good old fashioned Canadian tuxedo denim on denim. I personally love, like a little denim vest with kind of like a wide leg, baggier jeans. So you have like something a little bit more silhouette and fitted on top and a little bit looser on the bottom or vice versa. Right. If you have like a skinnier jean or a tighter jean, a flare jean on the bottom and then like an oversized vest or an oversized denim jacket on top. But double denim, definitely huge. All right, something interesting we learned about the red trend, as we call it out in the trend report. I learned this just a couple of weeks ago when we were visiting the headquarters for Chinese Laundry shoes. But the shoe designers are saying anytime red starts to trend, you're going to see leopard come close behind it. Those two trends, like historically, have gone very hand in hand. So I find it really interesting that we're calling out that red is becoming so hot. And I hate to tell you, but leopard kind of died for a minute. Right? Maybe we still love leopard. Personally, I still kind of love leopard, but kind of had too much leopard. Well, guess what? She's coming back around as well. So red is in. Leopard is going to be coming close behind. All right, the pins and stripes. Let's talk about the pins and stripes trend for just a minute. So lots and lots of striped sweaters this winter, whether they're colorful, like you're going to talk about colorful knits, we're going to look at that trend here in just a minute. But just all kinds of striped sweaters. But the other, like, more tailored version of this pins and stripes trend, we're seeing again in those little fitted tailored vests or more like in. Is it a bustier? Right. The trend of like wearing a tight vest over like a big oversized white button up shirt. So that is huge. And even like just beautiful tailored, like kind of More wide leg dress pants. Those in a pinstripe are also really making their way this winter. All right, we talked about plum and fig being a really huge color right now. Personally, it's my favorite nail color is plum and fig, but always just a really classy, elevated look in the winter time. The next trend is elevated basics. So we got past the jumpsuit trend, right? And the jogger trend of 2020, but we still want that little bit of like an elevated basic. So I know lots of you guys that are selling apparel are into the sets where you have kind of like a, I'll say like a crop leg, not even a jogger, but like a wide leg, kind of a sweatpant material, right? This is so not technical. This is so midwesty of me. And then like a matching, like kind of overs sweatshirt material top. What do you even call these things? You guys are so better, so much better at this than I am. But that type of elevated basic where it's really cute. I've seen these in all kinds of colors, right? From hot pinks to greens to more neutral colors, but just that more comfortable but elevated look. And you can wear them like with a sneaker or if you wanted to elevate them with a heel, you could do that. Okay, next trend for the winter, shimmer and shine. This is a constant winter trend where we're dressing for the holidays. We're looking for that little bit of sparkle or that little bit of metallic. Definitely still a hot look. Leather on leather. Okay, so this is like a take of the denim on denim trend, but leather on leather, also really hot right now. Yesterday I was going through several different boutiques websites. For once I was actually shopping for myself. I don't find that I get time to do that a lot. Like I'm doing a lot of E commerce reviews and website audits, but I don't always get time to actually shop. Well, yesterday I was shopping and the leather on leather trend is certainly alive and well from all of our like smaller boutiques all the way up to like a Nordstrom level, we're seeing leather on leather everywhere. So whether it is a tailored leather pant, whether it is a faux leather jogger, whether it is a midi length leather skirt with some kind of like leather on top. So I bought like a leather like bustier yesterday that could go over an oversized white button up like I was talking about with the tailored trend, but also just leather blazers as well. So all kinds of leather, like blouses are certainly huge right now. Okay, I'm going to Skip through a couple more of these and just kind of keep us up on these trends. So lace, lots of lace, lots of classic black and white. We're going to see that classic black and white trend not only in apparel, but we're going to see it come over to home and gift as well. This trend I do want to talk about and that is oversized outerwear. So I think those vests, those puffer vests that everyone is in love with right now, they're all entre. They have like, they're oversized, they're a puffer vest, but then they have like a little wing, like a cap sleeve, Like a little wing. I recently bought one, like kind of in a like dusty pink color, I would say. But that trend of oversized outerwear, whether it is in the puffer, whether it's in an actual like a cross cropped puffer jacket, we're seeing this oversized outerwear trend show up in lots of different places. And I will say for my Midwest friends, this is perhaps the best part of living in the Midwest, right? So if we lived in the south, you can only take so many clothes off if you're hot, but if you are in the Midwest and you're cold, you can wear a lot of cute jackets because you can only continue to put more clothes on. So for me personally, in the winter time, I love buying like one or two new jackets. And I have this closet full of really fun, like bright, bright colored and unique jackets because you're more interested in having a cute jacket than necessarily cute outfit. Because there's many days where people don't see your outfit, they just see your jacket. So that is certainly a cute trend. Have you ever wished they made a day planner just for boutique owners that came with checklists and inventory tracking, social media tracking, and all the reminders that you need to grow your business. Well, that's why we created the Boutique Boss Planner. Built by retailers, for retailers and for your staff and managers too. Inside of the Boutique Boss Planner, not only do you have a traditional day planner, but again, all of the checklists, reminders, and a look back and forward at what you need to know to maximize your business this year. Plus, inside of the planner, you're going to access content planning pages so you can map out each day of the week and each social media channel what you've got planned. So all of your planning can take place in one simple notebook. Check out BoutiqueBossPlanner.com for more information and to grab your 2024 Boutique Boss Planner. Okay, all the fuzzy details this has been a look, not just in jackets, something that is actually really warm, but we're seeing this in just some of the cute little Sherpa cardigans. Anything that is, like, bright and fuzzy and has, like, a really embodied texture. We're seeing this in children's clothing. We're seeing this in women's clothing. Uh, this is crossing over into home. When we think about blankets. Right. And how we're laying out our living rooms and our homes, uh, this trend is certainly lots of different places. All right, and then finally, colorful knitwear. So bright, colorful sweaters. Um, in years past, we've seen much more, like, muted tones, earthy tones, like darker winter tones and sweaters. Um, we've allowed for, like, the colorful sweater to be kind of a transition piece from fall to winter or from winter to spring. Spring. But I would say right now, we're seeing this trend all throughout the winter time, no matter where you live. This bright, beautiful coloring in our sweaters. Okay, I'm going to scroll down this trend report again. So many examples in here. If you're like, okay, I want to find what does that look like? Leather on leather and lace and classic black and white and some cute, oversized outerwear examples. Again, they're all linked up in this trend report for you. Okay, let's talk shoes again. I was so fortunate a couple weeks ago to get to spend some time at Chinese Laundry's headquarters and hear directly from their shoe designers what is happening with shoes right now. So a couple of trends that we're seeing. Knee high heels, right? We are back to the knee high booties for the winter time. And then also, like the chunky heeled booty still definitely on point. The next trend is literally called on point. It is coming back to the pointy toed heels or wedges, but that pointy is certainly coming back in a dressier shoe as well. Bows. Put a bow on it is the next trend. And we're seeing bows on everything from like a throwback Mary Jane to a ballet flat to a heel, but a little bow. And that type of embellishment is still really popular right now in shoes. All right, the next two. No doubt you have seen this at market or in your boutique. These trends were here last winter, and they are here this winter. Again, the first, again, is that modern Mary Jane. So whether that is in a flat, whether it's in a wedge, whether it's in a platform heel, whether it's in a bright color, or whether you are traditional black Mary Jane. Right. There's all kinds of ways to elevate the Mary Jane. And it's a great winter closed toed shoe. If you're like us and you live in the Midwest and you have to walk through rain or snow or whatever, it's nice to have this option. And they look really cute with tights as well. And then finally, that last footwear trend that is here to stay is the wild West. It is all the bright and colorful and fun cowboy boots. This, hands down, you guys, is my favorite trend because you know me, I am a cowgirl in real life. So I have always had a closet full of really cool boots, but I've always had really expensive boots, right, like the old gringos and some of the liberty blacks and corral from back in the day. But it's so fun to see so many footwear brands take a trend and like, make it their own, but also make it more affordable and more attainable for so many people. So whether this is like a calf high, really colorful, bright with like a beautiful top cowboy boot, or I love these little, like, shorties that are in bright metallic colors. I just love all the different takes I've seen people take on cowboy boots. Currently such an awesome way just to elevate your outfit and to wear with denim. And the denim on denim trend, I think that's a really cool trend to layer together. All right, let's move into some home and gift trends that we're starting to see. The first is curves and arches. So whether this is in like, furnitures, vases, mirrors, or any kind of, like tabletop decor, curves and arches versus just such hard lines have become really, really popular. And you've probably seen this across anthropology and with some of the bloggers that you follow, it just really has that boho vibe. The second is bringing back all the silver accents. So this, you know, in our home decor, I think we've seen all the different colors when it's been gold and it's been a brass. And now we're coming back to silver accents across the home. And then finally, the last one is bright, more saturated colors. So again, the home often has been very muted. Something where you can like bring in and out pieces to be statements for you. But we're starting to see many more bright colors in the home throughout the year. Throughout the seasons of the year. So whether it's in, like full on furniture, like, I have this beautiful, it's like a chip and Joanna Gaines chair. It's like a beautiful, like bright indigo color with gold accents. It's my chair. I don't allow the dog to sit in it. I don't allow the kids to sit in it. It is mom's chair. It is like the statement of our living room. But I love that, like big, velvety, bright color in our living room. But again, you could accomplish this with bright rugs or bright throw pillows or again, accent chairs or accent pieces that you can quickly like take in and out of your home. All right. It is winter time, so of course warm scents are huge right now. And I know candles are such huge sellers for not just home and gift stores, but brick and mortar apparel stores. But I see a lot of online stores selling candles, believe it or not. You can sell candles through a live sale. You can relay the scent of a candle and the feeling of a candle through video. So I encourage you to test that out. They're such a great add on and they're a replenishable good. So when you think about if you're in the apparel business, someone's only going to buy so many statement necklaces or so many pairs of denim. Right. They're going to wear them and then, you know, eventually they'll get sick of them and they'll replace them. But they're going to be in their closet for a while where with a candle as a replenishable good. You're going to burn the candle until it's gone and then you're going to want to replace it right away with another candle. So it's a great way to build repeat business whether again, you're online or your brick and mortar. All right, couple more trends. We have monochromatic moments and we have earth tones that are big in home and gift. But I want to skip forward and I really want to get into these two trends. Number one, sustainable styles. Everything eco friendly and ethical, like vintage. I would even say folk art, tactile pieces, really unique wall hangings. Right. These are definitely here to stay, not just in home and gift, but we are seeing that big time come over into apparel as well. You're going to start to notice. We heard Kelly Helfman from Magic share with us at our Mastermind the other day. You're going to start to notice like ratings from brands in how sustainable they have become and what type of sustainability practices they're using because frankly, it's going to become legislated very soon because fast fashion is one of the top two polluters of our planet. So this trend is here to stay. It's certainly something to think about and how you're going to start to put this into place in your business. And then finally, I want to hit on the country cottage trend. I love this trend. This, to me, is like, a little bit more eclectic. It's. I think the. The modern farmhouse has, like, come and gone. I think we're past that. I think the modern farmhouse trend has now turned into this country cottage trend where it's a little bit more floral, a little bit more like, dark and earthy florals versus, like, bright spring fun florals. But again, a nod to kind of that anthropology moment that's still continuing to happen. All right, guys, those are the majority of the trends I wanted to hit with you today. Whether it's in apparel or it's in home and gift. We also in the trend guide, if you're checking this out on your dashboard, have a bunch of children's brands that are also listed on here that are carrying some of these trends. So you can look into how these trends are transferring. Transferring into children's apparel and gift as well. So I'm curious to know you guys, which of these trends resonated with you? Again, I always love to hear because I grew up in the Midwest and I feel like trends always took a little bit longer to find us. I think social media has changed that today. I think, you know, the average consumer follows so many people on Instagram and they know a trend when they like it. Um, if that's not your customer, I think it's up to you to figure out, okay, how can I, like, break this trend down and pair it with something that's a little bit more basic to help my customer feel comfortable trying this trend? Like, you are the style educator when you're a boutique owner. Again, whether you're home and gift or your apparel, like, that's your knack. That is a gift that you have, and that's why your customers are coming to you, is because you can make a trend seem like, oh, it's not so intimidating. I could actually try that. Here's how I would pair it with what I already have in my closet. So lean into that gift that you have. Your customers certainly don't have that gift. They're looking for you to lead them down that road. So I would love to know, again, which of these trends were your favorite? What other trends are you seeing? We have multiple trend reports for you guys on the dashboard. This was the fall and winter trend report. We also have a complete holiday specific trend report. And then soon we'll be launching our spring 2024 trend report. And when I a trend report to me, this is not like high fashion. This is not unattainable. This is what are wholesalers selling right now that is in accordance with what we're seeing across bloggers and some of high fashion. What is attainable that you could start bringing in products for right now and sell to your customers and they would understand and want to take hold. That's the type of trend report that I want to offer you guys. So hopefully this was helpful. Again, find this on your member dashboard if you're a member. Otherwise you just got some awesome free, valuable tips that you can start to use in your business right away. So that's it, you guys. I hope you have an awesome rest of your day. Thanks for joining me on today's podcast. I will see you back here next week. Take care guys. Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope that you love it. Don't forget to hit subscribe and leave a rating and review down below for a chance to be one of our featured listeners each and every week. For more information on our spirit of community over competition and how to access complete show notes and bonus downloads from our guests, head on over to theboutiquehub.com and join the community. We'll see you next week. Sam.