Thursday, July 3, 2014
FASHION WATCH: Boutique truck culture
Mobile is the American way of life — mobile phones, mobile computers, mobile food and even mobile fashion trucks are sweeping the nation. As we talked about in our article last July, McCall Stover kicked off the Spokane fashion truck trend with a vintage flair. Today, the mobile fashion truck trend is expanding and creating a new dynamic in the constantly evolving fashion world.
The fashion truck trend first budded in the vintage clothing community in 2010 in bigger cities like New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Houston and Washington, D.C. Since then many independent boutique owners made the decision to swap out their permanent stores for a more freeing and flexible mobile shop.
These fashion forward hot wheel owners can choose their daily location and connect with a more diverse demographic of customers. They also can host shopping parties, or provide a dose of fashion to festivalgoers and college students.
In the last year, the Houston fashion truck culture has expanded so much it's culminated in a bi-monthly fashion truck fest where all local fashion trucks gather and host a night of food, music and fashion.
Because these boutique owners are always on the go, they have to think outside of the box — literally — to display their merchandise and store brand. Although this trend is blazing America, major designers and retailers are slower to catch onto this trend than independent boutique owners. Cynthia Rowley was the first major designer to craft a fashion truck in 2010.
Even though this trend is primarily nestled in big cities, Spokane is developing a fashion truck culture of its own. The Northside boutique, Swank, launched its fashion truck, Swank a-go-go, in April 2013 by owner Jody Mallonee. The idea formulated after Swank employees moved to college and discovered the lack of accessible fashion. Swank a-go-go is available to shop at private homes, public events, office parties and sorority and college events.
As for Stover, Spokane’s first fashion truck creator, she is still carting around her 1967 travel trailer filled with clothing, jewelry and assorted décor items. Vintage Side Show can be spotted at local street fairs, festivals and concerts. This vintage street boutique started the Spokane fashion truck trend, which will hopefully continue to expand.
If you want to learn about fashion trucks in your area, an ingenious website was created for this purpose— fashiontruckfinder.com.
Tags: fashion , Fashion Watch , Culture , Arts & Culture , Image
