The Recessionista’s Crystal Ball, 2009 Bestsellers Offer Insight into 2010

Pictured: The John William Waterhouse painting, The Crystal Ball, circa 1902

Good morning readers! I feel like Maya Angelou greeting the New Year over here at The Recessionista by looking at 2010 and greeting it with an optimistic “Good Morning” just as Ms. Angelou did in her poem at President Clinton’s inauguration. Here I am pictured above in my Renaissance Recessionista garb gazing into my crystal ball and trying to forecast the fashion trends for 2010. Of course this is a famous painting by John William Waterhouse and has nothing to do with moi, save for my extreme admiration of it.

As the clock ticks, it’s almost time for me to return to the working week. One more day of vacation. Clearly it is time to think over the trends on 2009 and think about what lies ahead. Fortunately, there is some good empirical data to help me make my forecasts. I’ve been looking at the Top Sellers from Amazon.com and Overstock.com to help me understand what consumers ordered most frequently for fashion/apparel, beauty products and perfumes. Here are my findings.

Comfort is King: The top selling items on Amazon.com in 2009 included Levi’s 501 jeans, sandals, American Apparel T-s and for women lingerie. Women’s slim cutLevi’s 512 jeans were also top sellers. From Amazon’s press release, here are the two top sellers by units sold:

• Clothing & Accessories: Levi’s Men’s 550 Relaxed Fit Jean
• Shoes and Handbags: (Amazon.com and Endless.com): Crocs Cayman Sandal

Pictured: Top selling shoe the Croc is all about comfort, rather than style.

Over at Overstock.com, best sellers included short coats (pea coats), knit jersey dresses and leather jackets.

In 2010, look for more designers to design for comfort as well as style. Norma Kamali’s all in one pieces are good examples of this trend. Rachel Pally is another designer who has made comfort a necessity with her soft jersey dresses. Ditto Diane Von Furstenberg with her classic wrap dress. A classic in the 1970s when it launched, it’s still selling well today.

Jewelry, a statement piece is a necessity not just an accessory. One of my top picks this year was the Yummi Glass murano glass heart pendant with gold trim. I find the heart pendant to be a great year round piece. Apparently I am not alone in loving this look. In 2009, the top selling jewelry piece on Amazon was a heart pendant. For men, the top seller was a good watch. Here are the specifics.

• Jewelry: Sterling Silver Marcasite & Garnet Glass Heart Pendant
• Watches: Casio Men’s Sea Analog Illuminator Dual LED Dive Watch

At Overstock.com, jewelry top sellers also included heart pendants, lock and key pendants, big bling rings and timeless Claddagh rings.

In 2010, look for more simple statement pieces of jewelry to be popular. My top picks would be a heart pendant or the trend of Tiffany or “Tiffany inspired” silver key pendants. Pearls will also be a necessity as witnessed by the best selling reproductions of Jackie Kennedy’s 3 strand pearls on QVC.com One of my best holiday shopping discoveries was the key pendants at the TJ Maxx jewelry counter. The prices ranged from $14.99 to $19.99. A great savings on a simple classic.

Pictured: One of the sterling silver key pendants sold at TJ Maxx. This one was $19.99

Makeup, the more subtle the better. The days of the $20.00 designer lipstick in a striking color seem to be waning. The top seller on Amazon.com for Beauty was Bare Escentuals bareMinerals SPF 15 Foundation. Another top seller was NARS blush. Both products received four and five star reviews from customers. These seem to be two essential beauty products that could take you from morning to night, and also protect your skin. Eye shadows and eyeliners were much lower rated and purchased less often.

Pictured: Bare Escentuals bareMinerals SPF 15 Foundation was Amazon’s top selling beauty product.

In 2010, look for more versatile beauty products in softer colors. Some cosmetics that I like for this very reason are Trish McEvoy and Bobbie Brown. I also like the new Avon Unargo line. The Avon Unargo lipsticks even taste good!

Fragrance, light floral and citrus scents will be the most popular. Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker was the Most Popular Gift Product of 2009 in the beauty category on Amazon.com. Other top selling fragrances include: Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue, Acqua Di Gio for Men and Armani Code for Men Eau de Toilette Spray by Armani. At Overstock.com, Romance by Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacob’s Daisy Perfume and Burberry Brit scents for men & women were top sellers.

Pictured: Amazon’s top selling holiday gift beauty product was Lovely by Sarah Jessica Parker

In 2010, look for more romantic type scents with floral and citrus overtones. BCBG’s new Within fragrance with hints of pear and bergamot is a good example. I’m also a fan of Ferragamo’s new Tuscan Soul , Annick Goutal’s Petite Cherie and Jo Malone. For cost savings, look for your favorite scents on Amazon. They are even selling Jo Malone now and I’m pleasantly surprised by the savings!

That’s all folks. These are my 2010 predictions based on what consumers are telling me via the power of the purse.

For more predictions, check out what my fellow blogger The Budget Babe is saying. We all think more designers are coming to Target, but The Budget Babe thinks Diane Von Furstenberg (DVF) might do a Tar-jay collection in 2010. Interesting pick on that one! Wishful thinking or the way of the future? DVF is so fabulous. I don’t know if I see her going the way of McQ for Target. DVF, please don’t start making see-through sweaters and 80s disco wear for a big box retailer. Stay strong! 🙂 Based upon some past legal filings, I don’t know if DVF would want to go to Target. She seemed to feel that Target had knocked off her ” frog-spotted” wrap dress. Of course, maybe they offered to hire her so they could offer customers the real DVF look.

Pictured: DVF’s Wrapped Dress, would she ever bring these to Target as part of a collection?

BB’s other prediction is that Sarah Jessica Parker maybe relaunching Bitten, I’d love to see it go to Kohl’s or even Amazon.com. However, in my opinion the quality of the pieces needs to be upgraded, and sadly the prices too, before this line can make a comeback. In its last go round at the defunct Steve and Barry’s it was woefully cheap looking. Maybe if it was sold online instead of in-store, they could take some of the costs of selling it (store retails, displays) out of the products and concentrate on the quality? 🙂 Just a thought.