How has the housing crisis affected home fashion retail?

With the current recession in the economy, many no matter what the industry are suffering. This suffering can be seen dramatically in the home fashions industry. Because of the possible financial instability people arent buying new homes and creating reason to buy furnishings for them. The clothing industry is also suffering from the recession but not as much as the home fashions industry. During this time of year the industry usually booms because people have more reason to stay inside. Depending on their location the colder weather will push them inside. This effect then causes them to want to decorate the inside of their homes because they will be there more often and even hosting guests for different reasons. Holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas also play an essential part to the home fashions biggest revenues. Hopefully when the recession sseems disappear, houses will begin to leave the market and people will start decorating again. I would love to see this industry revive in the coming years.

Guest Speaker- 11/14/2008

The guest speaker in todays class inspired me a lot. To see a recent graduate of UNCG excelling in the work world really caused me to engage into her presentation. To find out that she was an english major and not a CARS major with her current position in the fashion industry was interesting. I was surprised to know that she didnt find out about the CARS program until her junior year. As a CARS major i just assumed it was a well known area in the school. I also enjoyed her enthusiasm and interraction with us. She grabbed my attention and kept it. Another reason I was interested was because her topic related exclusively to my concentration, constuction. The example fabrics she presented were cool and it was also interesting to learn she helps produce them. In general the things she dicussed helped heighten my perseverance for wanting to work in the apparel industy.