Oliver + S News—
February, 2009, Vol. 8
Happy February! Everyone’s favorite groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow on Groundhog Day this year which means we’re in for six more weeks of winter. I don’t know about you, but I take that as good news. It gives me six more weeks to plan and sew for spring.
Speaking of which, we’re in a frenzy of stitching right now as we await the arrival of our new spring patterns. With photo shoots, trunk shows, and samples to prepare, it’s a very busy month at the studio. I hope it’s equally as busy in your shop this month—with customers starting their spring sewing projects.
In this month’s newsletter, we highlight our two new spring styles, announce some exciting news about our website, and recap a blog post which can serve as a good conversation starter with your customers.
Cheers,
Liesl
Spring 2009 Patterns on Their Way
Our Spring patterns are now at the printer, and we’re expecting delivery of them around the middle of next month.
We always take customer feedback seriously, and we heard two themes in all the comments we received on our fall line: our customers want more cute patterns for boys, and they want more tailored dresses with interesting details for girls. We combined this input with a vintage, French nautical theme (also inspired by the films of Jean-Luc Godard) to develop our two new Spring 2009 styles.
The Spring patterns are available in two size ranges: 6m to 3T and sizes 4 through 8. Here is a quick introduction to the two outfits.
Birthday Party Dress
This A-line dress, featuring three box pleats at the center front, can be dressed up for formal occasions by using silk dupioni or dressed down for more informal play dates by sewing in printed cotton. The little asymmetrical button tab in the front can also be sewn as a big bow, which offers lots of design opportunity for a contrast fabric or a favorite ribbon. We included our signature hem facing detail as well, which offers the option to include a splash of color or a contrast print at the inside of the hem.
Sailboat Top, Skirt, and Pants
This pattern provides a unisex pull-on, button-shoulder shirt with top-stitched details and curved shirt-tail hem with an option for either an A-line skirt or sailor-style cropped pants—both button-front. Perfect for both girls and boys, this pattern is sure to be a hit for upcoming summer days at the lake. Despite all the interesting detail included, this pattern rates as one of our easiest—a one of four scissors in difficulty. Novice sewers will surprise themselves by the detail they are able to achieve with this pattern—thanks to our clear construction techniques and detailed instructions.
Delivery of the Patterns
We are anticipating a late-March delivery of the new patterns. Be sure to place a pre-order using our Spring 2009 pre-order form for immediate shipping when the patterns arrive back from the printer.
New Wholesale Website
If you’re a wholesale customer of Oliver + S, you should have received an email from us announcing our new wholesale website. We’re really excited about this, since it makes ordering even easier for you.
Your user name and password will give you access to a secure, wholesale-only section of our website where we provide you with wholesale pricing and immediate order confirmation. Ordering via the website is the most secure method of providing your information to us, and we hope that all of our customers will start using this tool. We think you’ll also find that it’s very convenient. You can view and order from the entire line of patterns on a single page, making it simple to customize your assortment of patterns and check that you have the entire line in stock.
We plan to build out the services and sales tools available on our wholesale site in upcoming months, so stay tuned for further developments.
Helping Your Shop Confront a Difficult Economy: No Minimum on Website Orders
Times are tough for retailers. There’s no question about that. And Oliver + S wants to help.
Did you see the January 2009 issue of American Quilt Retailer? If not, try to get your hands on a copy because it contains a must-read article by Ann C. Logue titled, “Facing the Recession Head-On: The Outlook for 2009.”
Undoubtedly, you’ve seen impacts of the economic downturn in your shop. In this piece, Logue lays out creative strategies that shop owners and managers can use to keep their business stable during this difficult period when customers are spending less.
The industry experts interviewed for the article agree on a few key points for shop owners:
- Keep stocking new, interesting product
- Attract new and younger customers
- Manage inventory levels intelligently; continue to stock fresh, innovative products so that the shop is exciting for customers, but don’t tie up too much valuable capital in inventory
After reading this piece, we realized that Oliver + S is in a unique position to help shop owners and managers implement these strategies.
Our products are designed especially for the new, younger generation of sewers who are just returning to the craft, and we provide a fresh, innovative take on a product category (children’s clothing patterns) that has become somewhat moribund in the last two decades. Our packaging and styling are hip, contemporary, and fresh—giving our retailers something new and innovative to showcase in their shops. (For more information on the background of the brand, download the presentation we gave at the Fall 2008 International Quilt Market in Houston.)
We want to help you continue to offer exciting products to your customers and to keep your stock fresh without tying up your financial resources in too much inventory. So we’ve lifted the minimum quantity on all wholesale orders placed through our new wholesale website. (This offer only holds for orders placed via the website. Orders that come in through other means are still subject to our 15 pattern minimum.)
If you’re interested in taking advantage of this offer—and keeping your store stocked with fresh, new Oliver + S product without having to hold a good deal of inventory—establish a wholesale account with us and begin using the website to place your orders. Visit our wholesale page for more information.
Why We Sew
Why do we sew? It’s not necessarily about saving money in a time when we can purchase ready-made clothing for less than the cost of the materials themselves.
We spent some time this month discussing this question with our blog readers. You can review the discussion in Parts 1, 2 (and 3 ) of the post on the Oliver + S blog. We would love to hear your reasons, as well.
Blogroll
As always, we love to see what people are doing with our patterns. This month’s selection of posts is all about multiples.
- Six little girls in six little skirts. The result of a small sewing class using our free Lazy Days Skirt pattern. (Are you giving copies of this pattern to your customers?)
- Adorable twins from Australia wearing matching Tea Party playsuits.
- Bedtime Story Pajamas for a sister and brother samurai in training in a great combination of fabrics.
- Short-sleeved 2+2 blouses (and blouses and blouses) getting ready for spring. Oh, wait! There’s one more.
for more information
email us: information@oliverands.com
website: www.oliverands.com
phone: (866) 231-9639