Costumes now account for more than half of Leg Avenue’s business, revealed operations manger Trudy Pijnacker at the company’s European headquarters in Wijchen.
Over the last few years, the Leg Avenue operation has continued to develop in Europe – the accessories and wig side of the business are growing while costumes remain stable.
“When we first started six years ago, the costume side of Leg Avenue accounted for just 19% of the business,” said Trudy. “That has now risen to 54%. That growth has levelled out now but it was an extremely steep growth curve at first.”
“It’s quite interesting,” Trudy continued, “but probably around 90% of our costumes are sold in the high season, while accessories sell steadily all year round. It all balances out in the end though and keeps us moving forward. The market is always changing and we just need to keep changing along with it.”
The Leg Avenue design team creates new designs and collections each year and is currently working on costumes for the 2020 season. “I’d say we are about 75% done on that front,” said Trudy. “Probably around 20% of our costumes are refreshed or introduced as brand new each year, so we’re always able to offer something new and exciting.”
Part of the secret to Leg Avenue’s success is the simple fact that it is able to design what people want at the right time. Mapping trends so far in advance is a very difficult thing to get right, but the team spends a lot of time looking at trends and fashions when creating each year’s new looks.
“We’ll consider the types of films that are being released and the general mood in fashion and design,” revealed Trudy. “It’s not ever going to be an exact science, but that’s the joy of it!”
“We have also seen fashions moving back toward the ‘short and sexy’ costume, which is great news for us as that had started to be less of a trend over the past few years! Really, customers just want a costume that reflects who they are as a person but still allows them to dress up and have fun.”
