From record players, to colored cigarettes jeans, to mason jars filled with chia water, the URBN Company has begun to edit their brand to target a more sophisticated age group. The Urban Outfitter Brand first started out in Philly in the mid 1970s, they don’t just sell clothing but a lifestyle. Along with their two sister stores, Free People and Anthropologie, Urban continues to be the lower priced store currently targeted for teenagers.
What Hipsters Wear From UO
With its DGAF ambiance that identifies with high schoolers, the brand sells Tshirts with marijuana to the infamous tongue of Miley Cyrus and Polaroid cameras. This is catnip to any stoner, hipster, or SoCal sorority girl that walks by their faux “broken” window displays. The past few years as the sister companies were flourishing with their costumers, UO sales have been barely surviving, except for this past year. The slow revamp their look includes reducing their product count and selling higher quality pieces. With greater conviction and less amount of “froo-froo” is what they are working towards. Their sales? Last quarter they have increased by 4% making a revue of $1.39 billion, surpassing Anthropologie.
DGAF Fashion UO Sells
It’s exactly what fashion critic’s say of designer collections on the runway: you need to edit. “By no means are we claiming that the business is fixed, but we feel we have established momentum in the right direction,” says Trish Donnelly, Urban Outfitters’s president of North America. As a former stylist for the Anthropologie brand, I’m excited to see a shift in UO with items. I’ve had enough with the crop-tops that say “FU” and platform Timberlands with a Grumpy Cat pattern, I’m hoping for something youthful yet still trendy enough to get over 100 likes on my Instagram or even an L.A. business casual look. But don’t worry, if your lifestyle is hipster-like or you’re that bohemian girl who wears flowers in her hair, UO is still catered to you. You just won’t be twinning with your 16 year-old sister anymore.
