While scavenging through piles of clothing at a rummage sale
recently, I came across a fun graphic 80’s style t-shirt, that was way too big
for me, but had some DIY boxy cropped-tee potential. When I got it home, I was
amused to see the label – Cotton Ginny! As a child of the 80s, I fondly
remember the over-sized logo-ed sweatshirts and hot pink leggings of my youth. I
wondered – whatever happened to Cotton Ginny? Do they still exist? Have they thought to
capitalize on the 80s/90s revival? This, of course, led me down a Canadian 80s
retailer Internet rabbit hole.
 |
| Pricey Cotton Ginny Look-alikes by Splendid, MSGM and Alice + Olivia |
Yes, it turns out, Cotton Ginny does in fact
still exist. No, they are not capitalizing on the resurgence of ‘fashion’
sweatshirts and leggings as pants. Why? God knows. They should be in the midst of a grand resurgance. Instead, they’re half-assing it as on online retailer, all of
their brick and mortar locations having closed ages ago due to bankruptcy (damn
those fickle customers! Stirrup pants 4evr!). Their site looks so sad and abandoned – prominently
advertising their fall 2012 collection, with an About Us section that says
‘Coming soon…’. Really? How is it possible that a company who have existed for 34 years can't come up with anything to say about their business? They carry a small selection of
mumsy clothing in drab colours, with nary an 3X in sight. I
remember Cotton Ginny Plus flourishing for a while, even as their original line
lost popularity over the years, but their current line maxes out at XL.
 |
| Even boring Beaver Canoe has made a comeback |
Sadly, I wasn’t able to find any Cotton Ginny ads from their heyday, but my exercise in procrastination research, did lead me to
Au Coton. I had always considered them to be Cotton Ginny’s slightly lamer
counterpart, but they seem to have a much bigger online
presence. They even have a
Facebook group for former employees. Their site advertises a new collection coming this Spring (although I’m guessing ‘this
Spring’ isn’t actually this Spring),
with non-functioning twitter, facebook and RSS links. It’s too bad, because the vintage
80s pic on their site definitely suggests their trying to use nostalgia to
their advantage. If only they would
follow through…
 |
| The 80's: So much colour! So much fun! So much fabric! |
It’s particularly unfortunate that Cotton Ginny isn’t seizing
this opportunity. They have the retro nostalgia /much neglected plus-sized
market double-whammy going for them. Ignoring this seems like such a
missed opportunity to be seen as relevant again.
 |
| Oh well, there's always Etsy |
Fashion revivals only last so
long – grunge is already back, and soon enough the runways will be teeming with
phat pants and neon fun fur everything. In the meantime, maybe their new
Islamabad location will be a success…?
0 comments:
Post a Comment