Today's drive
Oct 1, 2016 12:08:35 GMT
Post by Humph on Oct 1, 2016 12:08:35 GMT
Well, the fashion business is always working ahead of itself. All the design work, sample manufacturing etc is done up to a year in advance of product reaching the shops. Twice a year the next seasons collections are launched, in as much as they are at that stage offered to the trade to pre-order. So for example we are right now in the thick of selling to retailers the stock which will be delivered to them during the course of Spring and Summer 2017. The ranges/collections only exist in sample form at this stage but once all the retailers who want them have placed their orders with the suppliers they choose to use, those manufacturers/brands collect up all those orders into one big order they then place with the factories who will make them.
There has to come a point when the order books close to allow suffient time for raw materials to be sourced/made and then in turn converted into the final product. That product then has to be shipped from wherever it is made ( often China at present ) to hub warehouses near to its final destination. In our case that's in the UK.
At that point, the bulk orders are split back into the individual small orders required by individual retailers.
The sales campaign for Autumn and Winter 2017 will begin mid January and end at the end of April and so it goes on.
Meanwhile, the designers are even now working on AW17 which will be refined into a collection over the next few weeks prior to its launch to the trade and while the AW17 selling is underway, they'll be working on Spring 18 designs.
Resultantly, there are two major bursts of activity in the year when retailers are open to buy and their suppliers have new collections to show them. The retailers job is to choose the right mix and quantity of product to sell and the wholesalers job is to encourage those retailers to buy their ranges before considering others.
There are of course other mini launches throughout the year and indeed wholesalers will carry their own in season stock as well, but the majority of clothing and footwear is planned, sold and ordered way in advance of its arrival in front of the public.
Trends, colours, style types, fabrics etc are all pre-agreed by style consultants and key designers so it's absolutely no accident when a particular look, colour, cut or whatever becomes popular. It has been pre-ordained sometimes years before.
People, women in particular, like to follow trends in clothing and footwear although ironically when asked most will claim to have "their own style" but in truth that style has been professionally and subliminally suggested to them well in advance by the power brands.
Fortunes are spent to ensure that the celebs, actors, singers, film stars etc are wearing the "next big thing" and if they do, it more less guarantees that the public will follow suit.
All good fun, and it goes wrong as often as it goes right of course. Fortunes are made, lost and made again on the most nebulous of decisions.
Wouldn't swop my nigh on 40 years involvement in it all for the world though. Never a dull day. A few anxious ones though !
There has to come a point when the order books close to allow suffient time for raw materials to be sourced/made and then in turn converted into the final product. That product then has to be shipped from wherever it is made ( often China at present ) to hub warehouses near to its final destination. In our case that's in the UK.
At that point, the bulk orders are split back into the individual small orders required by individual retailers.
The sales campaign for Autumn and Winter 2017 will begin mid January and end at the end of April and so it goes on.
Meanwhile, the designers are even now working on AW17 which will be refined into a collection over the next few weeks prior to its launch to the trade and while the AW17 selling is underway, they'll be working on Spring 18 designs.
Resultantly, there are two major bursts of activity in the year when retailers are open to buy and their suppliers have new collections to show them. The retailers job is to choose the right mix and quantity of product to sell and the wholesalers job is to encourage those retailers to buy their ranges before considering others.
There are of course other mini launches throughout the year and indeed wholesalers will carry their own in season stock as well, but the majority of clothing and footwear is planned, sold and ordered way in advance of its arrival in front of the public.
Trends, colours, style types, fabrics etc are all pre-agreed by style consultants and key designers so it's absolutely no accident when a particular look, colour, cut or whatever becomes popular. It has been pre-ordained sometimes years before.
People, women in particular, like to follow trends in clothing and footwear although ironically when asked most will claim to have "their own style" but in truth that style has been professionally and subliminally suggested to them well in advance by the power brands.
Fortunes are spent to ensure that the celebs, actors, singers, film stars etc are wearing the "next big thing" and if they do, it more less guarantees that the public will follow suit.
All good fun, and it goes wrong as often as it goes right of course. Fortunes are made, lost and made again on the most nebulous of decisions.
Wouldn't swop my nigh on 40 years involvement in it all for the world though. Never a dull day. A few anxious ones though !
)