I first got a taste of Zara in 2008 while living in Kuwait. The Spanish retailer is BY FAR one of my absolute favorites and once I got back to the U.S. I of course came to a Zara-less state. Sadness. So, it's all good, I'm used to having to shop online to get most of my favorite brands. I'm just happy to have access to the goods!
Zara NYC
I was a little put off, however, when I read a recent article in my Yahoo! news feed.
Here's a quote from the article regarding the retailer's possible expansion into the U.S.:
"The U.S. is really complex because it's about putting stores in shopping malls in the middle of nowhere. Fashionistas live on the East and West coasts. Then everyone else dresses in the Gap and Walmart and T. J. Maxx. If you really wanted to cover the U.S., you would have to open 300 stores, and they would have to focus all their energy to make it work." -Professor José Luis Nueno
To be clear, this is not an official statement put out by Zara - this is the opinion of one professor. An impressively credentialed professor in the areas of marketing, globalization, and the marketing of consumer goods and luxury goods, albeit, but still not a winner in my book.
I am an east coaster. Love, love, love the east coast. *kisses* But I grew up in N.C. in the rural Piedmont. And I've also been a fashionista since I could put on my own clothes. There may not have been a slew of girls like me but hello! We exist! While Nueno has a point to his statement, there's no way you can condemn a whole market to "Gap and Walmart and T. J. Maxx''.
I'm a first-generation American born to a Peruvian mother and Israeli father. I've been places and I've seen things. I know the sterotype of American "style" or lack thereof. But Mr. Nueno, no you didn't!
Style is something you have or you don't. Fashion is not confined to whatever region of the country you happen to live in.
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