What is your Denim Age?

Denim is an outrageously fantastic invention. Not only does it deserve second place on the list of what we need in our wardrobe - it needs two blogs to deal with it.

Which leads me to the first question. What is your denim age?

I am 40 next year. I can't quite believe that I am committing that to paper but there you have it. This new age brings new concerns - like becoming a 40-20. Never heard of it? Apparently it's where you look 20 from the back and 40 from the front. Nice huh.

Now throw in denim and you enter a minefield. What might have looked great on my 20 year old self (yes, you know I am dying to mention my tight, bright green cropped jeans with zippers down the side again) might not quite work in my late 30's. That's not to say they don't fit! Proudly they still did. But from the look of pain on my soon-to-be-husband's face as he tried not to laugh, they didn't have quite the desired affect that maybe they once had.

Now, that's not to say that those vibrant green jeans wouldn't look amazing on an 18 year old today. They would! Or that I need to resort to elastic-waisted shapless denim. Please! But I am going to look much better (and age appropriate) in a pair of very fabulous dark, high waisted skinny jeans - or another style that will work for me.

Now what does 40-20 and age appropriate denim have to do with business? The business 'look' or 'branding' and how it is acting in the market place is like the denim in your business.

Almost everyone has denim in their wardrobe. In the same way, almost all businesses have some type of brand or look.  The difference is whether it is appropriate for the audience that you are hoping to connect with.

If you are targeting a youth market but your brand it old and tired you're a 40-20 in reverse. You're a 16 year old wearing elastic waist, shapeless denim!

Or worse, you may not know who your target market is so you're trying on multiple styles hoping that one will work - but none feels or looks right for you. Sure you might get it right occasionally, but you're also going to really miss sometimes. Not a good look.

What you need to do is identify who your target market is. How old they are, what they like to do, where they go... and then make your brand work for them. If you are targeting 18-25 year olds and a 45 year old doesn't think your branding works - who cares? The most important this is what your target audience thinks.

(Hopefully) a 50 year old man wouldn't feel comfortable in tight, skinny jeans and a cardigan. That's a young guy's look. (Actually I'd like to debate that too, but maybe not here). The point is that one of the issues in denim is not whether to wear it or not - but the age appropriateness of it! And how do you know what to wear if you don't know how old you are? (I wish!)

You need to know who your customers are so that you can style your business to make it attractive to them. So go, research, get to know your customer. Then ask their opinion about how your business looks. You might be perfect! But almost everyone needs tweaking every now and then...