Designers Eye 30-Something Women

(CBS)  Clothing companies who usually cater to younger customers are launching new fashion lines and stores, to reel-in the more "mature" shopper -- the "thirty-something" woman, reports CBS News Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi.

Designers realize that the millions of thirty-somethings who don't fit the style or size of your average teen model make up a market with huge potential, since it's often overlooked.

In McLean, Va, children's clothing company Gymboree opened "Janeville", one of the first stores aimed at moms on the go.

"She drives an SUV, and she's a soccer mom, and she's very time-constrained, and very focused on her family," observes says Gymboree CEO Lisa Harper.

"Some things you just can't wear anymore, you know, once you get into your 30s, it just doesn't work. Midriff baring tops, short short short skirts, it just doesn't work," concedes Amanda Edwards, 33.

For decades, what's worked for clothing retailers are designs that target the young, notes Alfonsi, at the expense of fashion for the young at heart.

"The midriff top collided with middle age spread, and the result was not the ringing of the cash register," says David Wolfe of The Doneger Group."

But some stores are starting to cash in on older customers, going after a neglected market with plenty of spending potential.

"The boomers," Wolfe points out, "account for $2.1 trillion dollars of turnover in the economy and they're spending money -- but not on fashion, because fashion isn't right for them."

Sarah Jessica Parker may look great in Gap outfits, Alfonsi says, but, "The huge retailer knows its styles are lost on most other women over 35."

So next year, they're launching a whole new brand, hoping to tap into the same women now flocking to "Janesville," Alfonsi reports.

Shopper Susie Moore, 38, says, "I'm a mom, so you know you don't want to be wearing something really skimpy when you go to pick up your kids at school."

The new fashions are giving a whole new meaning to going shopping with your mother for clothes, as Moore's mom, Louise Brophy, 61, can attest: "They want to be fashionable; they don't want to be wearing older clothes and being grannies and all that kind of thing."

The Doneger Group's Wolfe adds, "There are a tremendous number of these people with money to burn, and they are in their heads certainly not old."

And, concludes Alfonsi, "Retailers know if they can get into a shopper's head, they're that much closer to their pocketbook."