Months before Ole Miss Football fans fill Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, boutiques on the Square are already preparing for the football season and all the fashion trends that the season will require.
Game day preparation for retailers in Oxford begins in February. Store owners and managers study upcoming trends, learn the Ole Miss football schedule, attend clothing markets and adjust staff scheduling in anticipation of the economic boom that hits Oxford every fall.
For Anna Gibson, owner of boutique Vivian Mae, preparing for game weekends means ensuring her store is full of unique merchandise. Considering the ever-changing nature of fashion trends in SEC culture, finding a place for a product is vital for its success.
Vivian Mae, a clothing store on the Square near Van Buren Avenue, specializes in dresses for every occasion, from date night to game day. New merchandise appears early in the week, with fresh pieces hitting the racks on Wednesday and Thursday as game day traffic builds.
“I like to keep our floor very fresh,” Gibson said. “Even if people have walked by Vivian Mae five or six times during the week, I’d really love for them to see something new.”
Setting aside new products for incoming consumers brings more traffic and attention to the business. Vivian Mae also schedules additional employees during busier hours of the day, and the store may remain open later if customers are still shopping.
“We stay open until the last customer finishes shopping,” Gibson said.
Gibson also looks for ways to distinguish Vivian Mae from the many boutiques around the Square, especially in regard to weekly fashion fluctuations. She communicates with vendors about the popularity of certain clothing pieces within the Oxford area and tends to carry more unique pieces that are less common in other Oxford boutiques.
Stores also face unpredictable changes throughout the season. Fashion trends fade, kickoff times vary by week and temperatures rise and fall. Even the 2025 departure of former head coach Lane Kiffin caused businesses to take a hit.
“I knew that I had to change the merchandise out in my store, and I had to change the buttons, if we were going to get a new coach,” Gibson said. “The second I knew that (Pete) Golding was the new coach, I had to place new game day button orders with his theme on it.”
A similar pattern plays out at Hinton & Hinton, an upscale retailer on the Square. Manager Laura Ivins said the store begins purchasing game day merchandise for the upcoming season as early as January, requiring staff to anticipate trends and customer desires long before the first kickoff.
“We always shop our brands that we carry consistently,” Ivins said. “We start there first, and a lot of them will work with us — if they don’t have red or they don’t have powder blue or navy, we can usually talk them into making it for us.”
Predicting demand, however, is much more complex than simply looking at past sales. While the retailer does use sales reports to study what brands and products perform well, Ivins said that retailer buying requires instinct as well.
“A lot of our buying is based on gut and the art of buying,” Ivins said. “It’s not all scientific.”
The buying process revolves around balancing established brands in Oxford with merchandise that customers will not find at other stores. The store also reorganizes merchandise based on the designated game day colors and the ever-rotating SEC fashion cycle.
“It’s fun that customers and fans really get behind the color suggestions,” Ivins said. “Everybody here puts a lot of effort into being a part of the community when it comes to the colors and supporting the team.”
At Neilson’s Department Store, co-owner Amanda Hyneman said the process of preparing for the football season is not entirely predictable. The university’s designated game day colors play a major role in those decisions. Buyers anticipate demand for red, powder blue and navy clothing months before the official football schedule is even released.
Neilson’s also focuses on catering to customers of all ages. The department store relies on buyers across various generations to determine what could appeal to the wide range of customers.
“I’ve got young buyers, and I’ve got myself,” Hyneman said. “We work together, and we bounce ideas off each other because we’re in two totally different age brackets.”
Intergenerational collaboration builds Neilson’s appeal to students, alumni and parents alike, while also allowing the store to maintain a wide selection of merchandise beyond game day clothing.
“We don’t want to be a game day store,” Hyneman said. “We’re going to have game day (clothing) for people, but we also want to have fall merchandise.”
Hyneman said football season brings the store’s highest inventory levels of the whole year.
“Back a long time ago, (the busiest time) would be Christmas,” Hyneman said. “But now, it’s definitely football.”
