Boring fashion threatens retail profits

You know the fashion industry is in trouble when one of the hottest-selling trends is a rubberized sandal-shoe named after a reptile.

According to the New York Times, sales of women's apparel were down 6% for the first half of the Christmas season. However sales of men's clothing were up 4.5%.

Experts have been quick to blame the usual suspects for the women's clothing weakness: economic woes, housing troubles, rising gas prices -- but that doesn't fully explain it. Electronic sales are up 5.8% and sales of luxury goods have soared 10.8% -- the struggles of Coach, Inc. (NYSE: COH) notwithstanding.

While holiday sales have been lukewarm, the expected growth of 4%, the lowest rate in 5 years, indicates that there is some other factor driving the slowdown in women's clothing.

According to Fortune, the problem is that there are no must-have women's fashion products and trends to loosen nervous purse strings. Skinny jeans just aren't enough to drive nervous consumers into the stores.

This could actually be bullish for the industry: The fact that the major factor driving the slowdown appears to be within their control -- as opposed to broader macroeconomic factors -- means that they could bounce back stronger next year if they get some hotter threads in the pipeline.