That’s a tricky challenge for Intermix: It doesn’t control the manufacturing of the dozens of brands it carries. This has stepped up pressure on Intermix and other trend-focused retailers to speed their design and buying processes.
Yet that’s not to say the process hasn’t changed: H&M, Zara and Forever 21 have built souped-up supply chains that get hot trends into stores within weeks. Gap, which is struggling mightily to boost sales at its flagship brand and Banana Republic, has said that it hopes to tap into Intermix’s knowledge of high fashion and trends as it tries to get those brands out of their ruts.)Įven as the retail sector has come to rely heavily on data science to shape everything from marketing to merchandising, Ghezzi and Magid say that, at Intermix, the process of identifying trends and must-have pieces remains something of an art. (Gap doesn’t disclose revenue or same-store sales figures for Intermix, so it’s difficult to know whether they’re hitting the mark. Intermix’s bottom line depends on getting the answers right. (Stan Godlewski/For the Washington Post)Īs they buy and design the merchandise that will hit their 43 stores this fall, the Intermix team bats around some not-at-all frivolous questions: Has the fringe trend peaked? How do we work more color into our night-out looks when our go-to designers have so much black in their collections? Can we create a budget-friendly version of that $5,000 embellished top we saw on the runway? Ghezzi is the chain’s creative force, and with chief merchant Denise Magid, she leads Intermix through a perennial challenge in the apparel business: translating the outlandish and wildly expensive clothes seen on the runways of Paris and Milan into looks that women want to wear on a date, at Sunday brunch or when presenting in the boardroom.ĭenise Magid, Intermix’s chief merchant, and Gia Ghezzi, fashion director, in front of the “buying boards” at the retailer’s headquarters. Intermix targets affluent women - from college students to moms of grown kids - who seek out unique, of-the-moment pieces and for whom fashion is a means of expression, not an afterthought. Ghezzi is fashion director at Intermix, a Gap-owned chain of stores known for its trendy mix of upscale clothes, some of which are designed in-house by Intermix’s creative team and others that are made by labels such as Proenza Schouler, Rag & Bone and Cushnie et Ochs. “It has to have some sort of major sex appeal - otherwise it’s going to look so grandma,” Ghezzi says to the designers sitting alongside her at a conference table. Yet she knows plenty could go wrong if she tries to sell this look to her customers. NEW YORK -Gia Ghezzi is hunched over a photo of a model stomping the runway at Altuzarra’s fall fashion show, and she’s dazzled by the outfit: A calf-skimming velvet skirt paired with pointy, lace-up boots and a sheer turtleneck blouse.
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