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From Cotton to Catwalk: Top Fabrics and Prints in Wholesale Fashion

July 7, 2025 By Anne Leave a Comment

When it comes to creating a clothing store loved by customers, the right clothing is the key to success. But to have the right clothing for your customer base, you have to take a closer look at the fabrics and prints that you choose. Whether you’re shoppers like a simple loungewear style or a statement dress, the materials and prints you choose set the tone for your boutique.

At Dear Lover Clothing, we work closely with thousands of boutique owners and wholesale buyers, and we’ve seen first-hand which styles constantly fly off the shelves. Here’s a look at the fabrics and patterns that are leading the way in today’s market.

Fabrics: What’s In

Cotton

It’s really no surprise that the lightweight, breathable cotton is at the very top of the “it” list of fabrics. It’s the go-to choice for your everyday basics and traditional staples. Cotton delivers comfort your customers can count on.

Polyester Blends

What about a fabric that holds up to wear and tear? Or fabric that keeps its shape? Polyester is going to be your go-to. It’s ideal for bodycon fits, flowy blouses, and anything with a bit of stretch. Plus, they take dye well, so prints stay vibrant wash after wash!

Rayon

Rayon is elegant with a soft, silky feel, which is why it’s become a fan favorite for more elevated looks. Think maxi dresses, wrap styles, and wide-leg pants! It’s lightweight with great drape, making it perfect for warm-weather collections.

Knits and Ribbed Textures

These add a cozy, stylish vibe, which is a total a must-have for fall or winter collections. Ribbed knit tanks and matching sets are especially popular among boutique buyers right now!

Patterns That Pop

Floral Prints

Whether you’re going for a soft, romantic feel or looking for a bold tropical flair, this pattern is a bestseller all year ‘round. Florals work across multiple seasons, and even more silhouettes! Think sundresses, kimonos, and even joggers. They’re a smart staple for closets, and an even better staple for your boutique racks.

Animal Prints

Whether you’re bold or just looking for a bit of pop, animal prints are the perfect staple for your closet or store racks. These prints are timeless, seen throughout the ages on even the biggest fashion icons. They have the perfect staying power, especially when styled in trendy cuts like asymmetrical tops or midi skirts. They’re a boutique favorite for shoppers who want to stand out.

Abstract and Geometric

Clean lines and unique shapes make these patterns the perfect fit for stores looking for a modern or minimalist style. They add visual interest without overwhelming the garment, and they pair well with solid separates.

Fun Patterns

Tie-dye isn’t just for beach days, just like plaid isn’t simply a fall ‘fit! Nowadays they’re showing up in matching sets, oversized tees, and even jumpsuits. They’re playful and still selling strong.

What This Means for Your Boutique

Success in owning your store comes down to knowing what your customers will connect with and sourcing those pieces at the right time. At Dear Lover Clothing, we make it easy to stay ahead of the trends, so you can focus on what you do best: curating a boutique that stands out.

Anne

I'm a mother of 2 who likes to get involved in too much! Besides writing here I started a non-profit, I'm on the PTO board, very active in my community and volunteer in the school. I enjoy music, reading, cooking, traveling and spending time with my family. We just adopted our 3rd cat and love them all!

How To Motivate Your Teen To Save Money

June 18, 2025 By Anne Leave a Comment

A parent’s guide to helping teens build strong financial habits that last a lifetime

Getting your teen to save money can feel a bit like asking them to clean their room without being told twice—possible but not exactly easy.

Most teens aren’t naturally motivated to save. They live in the now, and if they’ve got money in their wallet, chances are they’re ready to spend it. All of this isn’t to say they can’t learn to save. It just means they need the right kind of motivation.

Teens are much more likely to save when they feel like it’s tied to something they care about: a car, a trip, a new phone, or even the independence of not having to ask you for money. With the right approach, you can turn saving from a boring chore into something empowering and rewarding.

Make Saving Tangible

Asking a teen to save “just because” rarely works. To them, the idea of building a savings account for someday can feel abstract, boring, or worse…pointless. Motivating your teen to get in the habit of saving starts with giving them a purpose they can actually get behind.

Start with a short-term goal, something they’re genuinely excited about, like a new phone, concert tickets, or a new pair of shoes. These types of goals feel attainable and will give your teen a clear reason to hold off on impulse purchases.

Once they’re in the groove of saving for short-term wants, introduce the idea of long-term financial goals. This could be saving for their first car, saving for college books, or having emergency money stashed away so they don’t need to ask you for cash every time something comes up. Long-term goals feel less exciting than the fun short-term wants, but they lay the foundation for some financial freedom later down the road.

Encourage Them To Earn Their Own Money

When teens work for their own cash, whether through chores or a part-time gig, they begin to understand its true value. Suddenly, spending $40 on a clothing haul doesn’t seem quite as fun when it took hours of work to earn it.

If your teen hasn’t started earning yet, ease them in by exploring opportunities that match their interests and comfort level. Maybe they’re great with kids and want to babysit for neighbors. Maybe they’re artistic and could sell digital art or handmade crafts online. Or maybe they’re ready for a weekend job at a local shop or café.

With their own income coming in, you can help guide them on how to spend their money wisely: saving a portion of their paycheck for those short-term and long-term goals while having a bit for their everyday needs.

Talk Openly About Real-Life Costs

For teens, the idea of saving for “the future” feels vague and unmotivating, especially when their priority is what’s happening this weekend. Connecting real-world expenses and the freedom that comes with it can help make saving feel more relevant.

Have open, honest conversations with your kids about the actual cost of everyday things. Break down how much gas costs, what a phone bill looks like, or what their dream car’s monthly payment might be. Don’t overwhelm them with all the details, but do give them a clear picture to help bridge the gap between fantasy and reality.

You can frame these lessons around freedom and choices, not restrictions. You might say:

Want to take a trip with your friends next summer? Saving now means you can go without asking for help.
Want your own car? Saving for a bigger down payment will give you more flexibility with a lower monthly payment.
Want to live on your own sooner? Learning to manage money today sets you up to do that confidently.

Teens are much more likely to take saving seriously when they see it as the key to unlocking freedom.

Make It a Challenge

Teens love a good challenge. Whether it’s beating a level in a video game, winning a match at their sport, or keeping a Snapchat streak alive for 300+ days, they’re wired for motivation through achievement. So, why not apply that same mindset to saving money?

Turning saving into a competition makes it feel more fun rather than forced. Try out a monthly savings challenge. You may challenge your teen to save $50 each month of summer, and if they hit their goal, they get a bonus like a small treat or an extra privilege like picking the next restaurant for a night out.

Have more than one kid at home? Introduce a friendly family savings competition. Who can save the highest percentage of their income in 30 days? Who can go the longest without impulse purchases? Add a small reward, a matching incentive, or bragging rights to the mix, and you’ve just made saving money into something they want to do.

Open a Savings Account

Once your teen starts building up some money, they’ll need a safe place to keep it. A savings account gives them the resources to store money securely, track deposits and withdrawals, and get familiar with digital banking tools. They can keep their savings separate from their everyday spending so they aren’t tempted to spend it.

If your teen has earned income from a job, you can take things a step further with a custodial Roth IRA. You and your teen can contribute post-tax income into this investment account where it grows tax-free for retirement. That may not seem thrilling to a teenager now, but making even just small contributions now gives their money ample time to grow.

Lead By Example

As much as we’d like to think our teens aren’t paying attention to us, they absolutely are. When your teen sees you making smart financial decisions, they’re more likely to mirror that behavior—even if they won’t admit it out loud.

Be open with your kids about your own experiences with money. Share stories about what you wish you had known about money at their age, how you save for emergencies or vacations, or even how you learned from a financial mistake. This kind of transparency makes money feel less intimidating and more like a normal part of adult life.

It’s also important to create space for ongoing money conversations. Instead of sitting them down for a one-time “money talk,” look for everyday moments to weave it in:

Encourage them to listen in when you’re comparing prices at the grocery store.
Ask them to help calculate a tip when you go out to eat.
Talk through how you decided between two purchases or why you waited to buy something on sale.

These real-life, low-pressure conversations help build your teen’s financial decision-making skills organically.

Saving money might not come naturally to teens, but motivation grows when they feel empowered, supported, and in control. It probably won’t be your teen’s favorite thing, but what matters is helping them see the point in saving.

Whether they’re saving for a car, college, or just the feeling of independence, your support and guidance can make all the difference. And once they start hitting their own money goals—even the small ones—they’ll start to feel that pride and momentum build.

Anne

Looking After Your Elderly Parents Doesn’t Have To Be A Struggle

June 12, 2025 By Anne Leave a Comment

If your parents are now of an age where they are struggling to look after themselves then they may be relying on you to help. This can be incredibly difficult especially if you have your own life to lead. Not everyone will have the time or the space to help their parents, they could have children of their own and busy jobs.

If you are looking for helpful tips and tricks when it comes to looking after your parents then take a look at the article below.

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Visit Them Often

One thing you can do to help your elderly parents is visit them as often as you can. This will give them something to look forward to each week and offer them the chance to see a familiar face. The last thing you want for your parents is to feel lonely and like nobody wants to see them, aim for at least once a week but if you can do more then that’s great.

If there are a few of you that can make the trip to visit then set up a rolling schedule. Each person can have a different day and then the pressure doesn’t get too much for one single family member.

Hire Help

If there is simply nothing that you can do for your parents, for instance if you live too far away or in a different city then you will need to explore options. If they are still capable of looking after themselves then you don’t want to go down the nursing home avenue just yet. However, there may be some tasks that just can’t be done in the home anymore. This is where a home care agency can help you out as a family. They can come in and sort out meals, cleaning, and pills for your elderly parents.

Take Them Places

You may be looking for places to go with your elderly parents, always try and include them in activities you do so they don’t feel like a burden in your life. This could be going anywhere from the zoo to abroad somewhere. If you love spending time with them then why not? Speak to them about where you are going and always keep them in the loop.

Encourage Socializing

Finally, socializing is a wonderful way for your elderly parents to meet people who enjoy the same things as they do. This could be anything from bingo to hitting the gym, if they have a shared interest then they are more likely to carry on going.

Try and encourage them to join elderly groups in the neighborhood or even meet up with existing friends. It has been shown that meeting friends at least twice a week can help reduce the risk of cognitive decline as people age.

So there you have it, a useful guide on how to look after your elderly parents. Remember, it isn’t a given that you will care for them when they reach old age. If you are able to then this will relieve some of the pressure and stress from everyone involved.

Anne

Tips for saving to buy a property

May 28, 2025 By Anne Leave a Comment

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Buying a property is an exciting prospect that is very rewarding when you do. It can take years of hard work and dedication to save the deposit to buy your first property, so when you get there, you should be proud. It’s a significant milestone – one that reflects your perseverance, financial discipline, and long-term planning.

In order to save for a property,, there are various things that you can do in your life to speed up the process. You can turn on the round-up feature on your banking app (every little helps), you can take on extra work in the evening and save that money specifically towards buying, and you can put together a financial spreadsheet to help you budget, amongst many other things.

To help get you started and point you in the right direction, we have put together a guide on four tips for saving to buy a property. Hopefully, some of our suggestions are useful to you and you can start applying from today, in order for you to achieve your goal of buying. Then you can get in touch with a company like: https://www.estateagencyedinburgh.co.uk/buying-a-property to help you find somewhere

Round-up feature on your bank

The round-up feature, which a lot of banks offer, is a smart tool which helps you save. What it does is round up every purchase you make to the nearest pound and then move that money into a savings pot. You may not think this will generate much savings, but over a year, you’ll be surprised at how much it adds up to. Plus, you’ll be making interest on the money, so if you have it in a high-interest rate account, you’ll save even more.

Work extra hours in the evening

A simple solution (although it may be tiring) is to pick up more hours at work. Working extra hours in the evening will often pay more, and that extra money you can put into your savings. Over time, your savings will grow a lot, and you’ll earn interest on your savings as well, helping you get close to your goal. If you aren’t able to work extra hours at work, you could look to pick up some freelance work or find a second job. More often than not, a freelance job will pay more than your day-to-day job, as you can charge more being a freelancer than your hourly rate.

Put together a budgeting spreadsheet

Spreadsheets will become your best friend when it comes to saving money and budgeting. We would always recommend that you put together a spreadsheet for your finances (even if you won’t be saving for a property). Spreadsheets will help you keep track of your monthly spend, keep track of your monthly subscriptions, as well as decide a reasonable figure which you can save each month. If you use Google Spreadsheets, they have plenty of budgeting templates which you can use to get you started and on your way to buying your first property.

Reduce your monthly subscription

When it comes to monthly subscriptions, we all fall into the trap. We sign up for something thinking we are going to use it, use it a couple of times and then a few months later stop using it, only to forget to cancel the subscription and end up paying for it, many months later. A good little tip to save more is to review all your monthly subscriptions and see if you can cut any of them down. Maybe you don’t need your Netflix account anymore as you are using Prime, or maybe you don’t edit photos as much as you used to, so you no longer need Adobe. When you start cutting down on your subscriptions, create a pot on your banking app and each month, send that money over to it. You were paying for it anyway, so instead you will be saving that each month towards a property.

As you can imagine, there are so many different ways you can save money. What works for one person may not work for you. For example, you may not have the time to work in the evenings, due to having a family. What this means is that you should try various methods to see what works best, and if you can, do a couple at the same time.

What recommendations would you put forward to someone trying to buy a property? Which of the above suggestions did you find most useful? Is there anything missing in our guide that you think we should be adding? Let us know in the comment box below, we look forward to hearing from you.

Anne

3 Principles For Helping Elderly Relatives With Health Conditions

May 28, 2025 By Anne Leave a Comment

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There are many wonderful parts of aging that are often under-discussed – the fact that you live with no pretense or the desire to impress anyone, being surer of yourself, having the wisdom of the years behind you, and knowing what really matters in life, like family.

However, it’s true there are downsides, of course. We need not list them here, but the one of note is that health conditions become more common and likely. It’s not unusual for an elderly individual, even with a healthy life behind them, to have one or two conditions that need management. Thankfully, medicines and healthcare appointments exist to keep them on the right track.

It also helps to provide some love and care as their younger relatives. It’s what we would hope for ourselves after all, and so soothing their daily experience can count for a great deal. But what principles can help you in this duty, especially if you have children and a full working life to manage?

Well, let’s explore that.

Medication Management

Keeping track of someone’s meds isn’t hard because the task itself is complicated (even with a fair amount of prescriptions) it’s more that it never really stops, and because of how important it is. If your elderly relative has trouble with their need to to check or reorder or double-check, and if you’re juggling work and kids on top of that, it can be tough. But before you notice pills running low, and want to avoid realizing they missed a dose because the old bottle didn’t have one of those pop-up reminders, there are some measures you can use.

Some people use alarms on their phone, or you may just tape a note to the fridge and go from there. Weekly pill boxes can be helpful too, especially the ones with big writing that show what’s been taken and what hasn’t.

Device Upkeep & Repair

If a device they rely on stops working, it slows everything else down, and you can usually tell something’s off before they even mention it. That might include a hearing aid that’s started to buzz or lose clarity, which can cause a bit of quiet withdrawal, which can happen without anyone really noticing until someone points it out.

Hearing aid repair, or making sure you go for maintenance checks of the device in question, can help. In this case it might be a blocked tube or the battery running low, and a quick clean or part swap sorts it. There are also services that can check the device without needing a full in-person appointment, which helps if getting out is tricky. It’s worth checking every so often, even if they haven’t said anything.

Routine Scheduling & Management

Most people like knowing what their week looks like no matter their age or health, and it doesn’t have to be rigid, just enough structure that there aren’t surprises. But when we’re elderly we care about that more, such as having a repeated morning walk for exercise, lunch at the same time most days, or going for chekups.

Helping them with this can help, like such as swinging by the pharmacy on the way back from a check-up or booking appointments close together to save an extra trip later in the week. And if you can’t make it one day, asking a friend or relative to step in can help. But assisting you relative is very worthwhile in this matter.