#Blogmas- High End or Fast Fashion: Which is on YOUR Christmas List?

A recent Wall Street Journal article called I'm A Teen, Watch Me Shop analyzed the shopping behaviors and patterns of teens as a target demographic for stores. They found that teens want the trendiest clothes for the cheapest amount of money that they could find it for- leading them to fast fashion stores like Forever 21 and H&M.

While I agree with this "discovery" I think it does more in depth than the idea that we want more for our money. Especially in the case of trendier items, teens as a group are more aware that since it will only be worn for a season or two, it shouldn't be worth as much. That's why, at least in my case, I'm willing to spend more money on sweaters and jeans- they last longer.

Google Trends, which is an analysis of the most googled items, shows that the top 10 most googled stores or brands at the moment are:

1. Forever 21

2. H&M

3. American Eagle Outfitters

4. Hollister Co.

5. Tiffany & Co.

6. Abercrombie & Fitch

7. Gucci

8. Zara

9. Rolex

10. Tom Ford

While fast fashion chains top the chart, there are higher end brands making an appearance in the top 10 as well. Google doesn't provide this data (an invasion of privacy or the like), but I would be interested to see what age groups are most likely to google each store on the list. I think we would find that an middle aged to older market, probably between 30s and 60s are searching the more high end stores, while the fast fashion chains are being looked at by the ages of 10-25. The reason for this is simple: the older you are, the more money you have saved. With a career, and good financial planning, we all could be buying Gucci in 20 years too.

So what I want to know is this: are items from the more high-end brands, or items from the fast fashion stores on your Christmas list?

Emma