Linen and Blues - What's Selling in April

Let's look into apparel demand

Price increases are coming whether we like them or not.

According to the Dallas Fed Survey, 70% of (Texas) retailers expect to raise prices within the next three months. Companies are starting to feel rising costs—most just haven’t passed them on to consumers yet. But they will.

At the latest Fed press conference, Powell acknowledged the growing risks of both inflation and unemployment, but emphasized that there's still not enough hard data to drive a new policy decision. Meanwhile, shipments have stalled and Chinese factories are trying to figure out how to unload hundreds of thousands of pieces of clothing American companies can’t accept. The impact likely won’t hit until June or July, so we may get to enjoy a peaceful hot girl summer before the fundamentals crash through the door late and chaotic as usual.

Consumers don’t seem swayed by record levels of credit card debt in a rush to stock up. Retail sales rebounded in April up 7% year over year. This seems to be driven by electronics and home supplies, perhaps a pre-tariff purchase rush. Even apparel showed growth, although premium retailers like LVMH, Nike, and Nordstrom posted Q1 year on year revenue declines, while Walmart and Amazon saw gains—suggesting a shift toward value-oriented shopping. Walmart, in particular, is going on offense, leveraging AI to identify and act on consumer trends faster than ever.

Similarly, I identify what’s trending and selling out fastest, with a bit of AI help to categorize and organize. Check out my dash snapshot HERE for the report, and read on for April's biggest movers.

So, what’s selling in April? Let’s dive in.

Linen

I mentioned in my 2024 overview that linen was poised for a bigger comeback in 2025. Linen is now a presence on best-seller and landing pages across retailers. What’s different this time is the range: black and pink linen shirts, little black linen dresses, and even green linen vests. Since March, linen has grown in both inventory mix and out-of-stock rates, signaling strong demand. It’s also the fastest-growing keyword in retailer email promotions, up 5% month-over-month in mentions as we near summer.

White and Blue

White is rapidly growing in product mix. It tends to be more in-demand over the summer. Makes sense — retailers are stocking up.

What’s more interesting is blue. It has replaced red as the core color; it's now a top three most common color in stock, right behind white and black. It’s trending heavy on socials under a ‘Sky Blue’ trend. This is right on time seasonally as well — blue tends to outpace red in the hotter months. It’s probably top of mind for retailers as it’s the most mentioned color in email promos – at 11%. All of this is showing up in what’s in stock; blue is growing in stockout rates across dresses and shorts.

Maxi dresses

I know—dresses for spring? Shocker. Right now what’s moving the most is sleeveless styles, maxis, and flared silhouettes. Maxis tend to peak around this time, as we enter prom and wedding season.

Flare skirts may be a continuation of last year’s styles. Last summer, the fit-and-flare dress in longer lengths dominated across trendy stores. Helsa’s flared sleeveless dress sparked a frenzy, alongside with a few other top picks. This year, it’s gone fully mainstream—Aritzia and even H&M now carry an identical style to kick off summer 2025. Perhaps we’ll see continued midi fitted flared styles grow down the line.

Fun surprises

A few emerging signals have also caught my attention—unique, early-stage trends that haven’t gone fully mainstream yet:

Fruits & Veggies – From giant lemon campaign visuals to adorable lemon-print dresses, fruit prints are popping up. I’m spotting apples, tomatoes and peppers sneak into best-seller items.

Flare sleeves – I’ve only seen one so far, but it sold out instantly. What stood out is that searches for flare sleeves are slowly ticking upward.

Green – There’s a subtle appetite for green. It hasn’t fully broken through yet, but it’s being mentioned in Reddit threads. One commenter dubbed it “matcha girl summer.”

Polka dots – I notice them creeping up more in best seller pages and slowly on the streets of New York.

Butter yellow - A present color amongst best seller items, but seems like interest has stayed pretty flat this month.

Thanks for reading

You can find the full report and support my work HERE. All reporting is based on my observations, using public sources and tools I built.