Meteorologists Shape Fashion: In the clothing business, the global warming debate is over

NYT, page one: What to Wear? Meteorologists Shape Fashion
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: December 2, 2007

....Two consecutive years of volatile weather — last November and this October were the warmest on record for the New York City area, a retail Mecca — have proved disastrous for companies that rely on predictable temperatures to sell cold-weather clothing like sweaters and coats.

So the $200 billion American apparel industry, which is filled with esoteric job titles like visual merchandiser and fabric assistant, is adding a more familiar one: weather forecaster. Liz Claiborne, the apparel company, has hired a climatologist from Columbia University to predict weather for its designers to better time the shipments of seasonal garments to retailers. The discount retailer Target has established a “climate team” to provide advice on what kind of apparel to sell throughout the year. More and more, the answer is lighter weight, “seasonless” fabrics.

And the manufacturer Weatherproof, which supplies coats to major department stores, has bought what amounts to a $10 million insurance policy against unusually warm weather, apparently a first in the clothing business. Fredric Stollmack, the president of Weatherproof, said that unseasonable weather, once a widely mocked excuse for poor performance in the industry, is the new norm, forcing companies to make sweeping changes in how they manufacture and sell clothing. “I have been in this industry for 40 years, and during that time, we always knew it got cold in December and stayed that way through January and February — and that was that,” he said. “Now, it’s a crap shoot.”

The scientific debate over global warming may not be entirely settled, but in the American clothing business, at least, it is over. The apparel maker Diesel ran magazine advertisements this year proclaiming that its cold-weather clothes — in one ad, a woman’s puffy coat and shorts — were “global warming ready.” A host on HSN, formerly known as the Home Shopping Network, promoted a lightweight women’s poncho as ideal for this winter, “especially in the midst of global warming, when none of us are wearing heavy coats anymore.”...

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Target’s plans for coats “have changed dramatically,” said Michael Alexin, vice president for apparel design and development at the chain. “Retailers used to consider September the start of fall,” Mr. Alexin said. But Target now stocks lightweight jackets during that month, waiting until November to sell heavy coats. And even then, Target is avoiding the thickest fabrics. “We sell very, very little wool,” Mr. Alexin said....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/business/02weather.html?pagewanted=all

And the wool industry (which I admit, I know nothing about) could be over. It's also interesting how the so-called argument over global warming breaks down when people consider their real-life experience -- not only in what is selling, but in memories of colder years.