FAHION INDUSTRY AND IT 'S TERM
[ PART II ]
FASHION CYCLE
consumers are presented each season to a large number of recent trends made by fashioners. Some are dismissed promptly by the press or by the purchaser on the retail level, however others are acknowledged for a period, as shown by customers buying and wearing them.
The manner by which style changes is generally portrayed as a design cycle. It is hard to arrange or speculate about design without distorting. All things considered, the style cycle is typically portrayed as a chime formed bend including five phases: presentation, ascend in ubiquity, pinnacle of prominence, decrease in prevalence, and dismissal. The cycle can mirror the acknowledgment of a solitary style from one creator or an overall style like the miniskirt
Introduction of a style: Designers interpret their research and creative ideas into appeal or accessories and then offer the new styles to the public. Designers create new designs by changing elements such as line, shape, color , fabric, and details and their relationship to one another. New creations referred to as the “latest fashions” may not yet be accepted by anyone. At this first stage of the cycle, fashion implies only style and newness. Most new styles are introduced at a high price level. Designers who are globally respected for their talent may be given financial backing and be allowed to design with very few limitations on creativity, quality of raw materials, or amount of fine workmanship. Naturally, production costs are high, and only a few people can afford the resulting garments. Production in small quantities gives a designer more freedom, flexibility, and room for creativity. This watermark does not appear in the registered version
Increase in popularity: If a new style is purchased, worn, and seen by many people, it may attract the attention of buyers, the press, and the public. In self-defense, most couture and high – priced designers now have secondary bridge and or diffusion lines that sell at lower prices, so that they can sell their designs in greater quantities. The popularity of a style may further increase through copying and adaptation. Some designers or stylists may modify a popular style to suit the needs and price range of their own customers. Some manufacturers may copy it with less expensive fabric and less detail it order to all the style at lower prices.
Peak of popularity: When a fashion is at the height of its popularity, it may be in such demand that many manufacturers copy it or produce adaptations of it at many price levels. Some designers are flattered by copying and others are resentful. There is very fine line between adaptations and knockoffs. Volume production requires a likelihood of mass acceptance. Therefore, volume manufacturers carefully study sales trends because their customers want clothes that are in the mainstream of fashion.
Decline in popularity: Eventually, so many copies are mass produced that fashion –conscious people tire of the style and begin to look for something new. Consumers still wear garments in the style, but they are no longer willing to buy them at regular prices. Retail stores put such declining styles on sale racks, hoping to make room for new merchandise.
Rejection of a style or obsolescence: In the last phase of the fashion cycle, some consumers have already turned to new looks, thus beginning a new cycle. The rejection or discarding of a style just because it is out of fashion is called consumer obsolescence. As early as 1600, Shakespeare wrote that “fashion wears out more apparel than the man”.
THE COUTURIER
A person or company that designs, makes, and sells expensive fashionable clothing: In 1960 Pierre Cardin became the first couturier to design men's clothes. Yves Saint Laurent was the visionary French couturier who forever changed fashion.
“Fashion is a very important economic sector for our country, and couture is the flagship of French fashion”, explained Dominique Strauss-Khan, the former French minister of industry.
Couture is simply the French word for fine, custom dress design, made to measure for a particular customer. A couturier is a make couture designer; a couturiere is his female counterpart. The couturier Charles Frederick Worth ( October 13, 1826– March 10, 1895), is widely considered the father of haute couture as it is known today. Although born in Bourne, Lincolnshire, England, Worth made his mark in the French fashion industry. While he created one-of-a-kind designs to please some of his titled or wealthy customers, he is best known for preparing a portfolio of designs that were shown on live models at the House of Worth.
Clients selected one model, specified colors and fabrics, and had a duplicate garment tailor-made in Worth's workshop. Worth combined individual tailoring with standardization more characteristic of the ready-to-wear clothing industry, which was also developing during this period.
FASHION DIRECTION:
Fashion direction is established to maintain cohesive fashion merchandising in line with a distinctive store image.
In single-unit stores, the owner usually acts as fashion director and buyer.
In large stores or chains, management may employ a fashion director.
The fashion director is the bridge between corporate marketing policy and actual merchandise-buying decisions. He or she works with merchandise managers, buyers, and promotion executives to suggest what merchandise to choose and how to present it.
Along with management and designer collection buyers, the fashion director may attend European and American collection openings to study fashion trends. These trends are analyzed in relation to the store’s image, and this information is passed on to buyers as a guide to merchandise planning and advertising.
The fashion director may also work with buyers to select appropriate merchandise, to develop the store’s private label, and to coordinate their buys with merchandise in other departments.
A fashion director also prepares seasonal fashion presentations for sales associates so that they can understand the new fashion concepts and the store’s merchandising approach and, therefore, better help their customers.
FASHION EDITORS:
The role of the fashion editors is to educate the public, to provide fashion information from all phases of the industry in all parts of the world; to make the industry or the consumer aware of all that is available; and to help the consumer make wise and suitable styling and/or buying decisions.
Fashion editors, together with journalists, stylists, and photographers, act as the eyes and ears of the consumer. They let the nation or the community know where to find the fashions that are currently on the market, and they report on how new fashions should be worn and accessorized.
The fashion editors of prominent newspapers and fashion magazines attend the collection openings, take notes on what they like best, and report on what directions they believe are important they may request sketches or photographs of their favorite garments to use in their articles.
In between openings, fashion editors write articles on topics that they think are noteworthy. They sift through the news releases that come into their offices to help them write a story.
Editors may ask to borrow samples for simply use a photo sent to them in a publicity release. Sometimes sketched illustrations are used, depending on the mood or effect to be achieved.
Garment and fabric descriptions may be included as well as a list of stores that carry the merchandise described in the article
LINE
After selecting the fabric, the designer must consider the other elements of good design. In this section, the term line refers to the direction of visual interest in a garment created by construction details such as seams, openings, pleats, gathers, tucks, topstitching, and trims. (It is confusing that the apparel industry also uses the term line to refer to a collection of garments.) Line direction should flow from one part of the garment to another and should not be meaninglessly cut up.
Straight lines suggest crispness, such as that of tailored garments; curved lines imply fluidity. However, a garment designed with only straight lines is too severe; a garment with all curves is too unstable. For optimal beauty, the two should work together. Straight lines are softened by the curves of the body, and full curves must be restrained to be compatible with the human form.
KNOCKOFFS
A knockoff is a copy of someone else’s design, usually a garment that is already a bestseller for another manufacturer. Knockoff companies simply buy a particular garment, make a pattern from it, order large quantities of the same or similar fabric, and have the garment manufactured. Production and fabric costs are lower because of the huge quantities made.
The knockoff producer must have:
An acute awareness of what garments are selling well at the retail level
Rapid production capabilities to capitalize on the success of the style while it lasts,
Lower prices. Now, in and age of instant global communications, copies often reach stores before the originals and at a fraction of the cost.
AVANT GRADE:
Some fashion leaders actually create fashion. They may be designers themselves or just want to express their own individual style. These fashion leaders constantly look for interesting new styles, colors, fabrics, and ways to accessorize their clothes. They try to find unique fashion in small boutiques or vintage clothing stores, or they design their own clothes. They are discerning shoppers who like to wear beautiful or unusual apparel. They may give impetus to a certain style by discovering and wearing it. They may be referred to as avant grade.
BRIDGE:
This styling and price range was created to give consumers a less expensive alternative to designer fashion. Bridge is simply a step down in price from designer, achieved by using less expensive fabric or different production methods. Some designers have secondary lines such as CK from Calvin Klein, Donna Karan’s DKNY, Versus from Versace, or Emporio from Armani. Other collections, such as Ellen Tracy or Dana Buchman, cater specially to the bridge market.
BUYING HOUSE:
Although the term buying house is still used in the industry, its role has greatly expanded to fill a wide variety of functions.
The two primary type of buying house are independent and store owned. § An associated buying house is jointly owned and operated by a group of stores.
Member stores usually have similar sales volume, store policies, and target customers but are in no competing locations.
Operating expenses are allocated to each member store on the basis of the store’s sales volume and the amount of services rendered.
Associated Merchandising Corporation (AMC) is a well-known example. § A corporate buying house is owned and operated by the parent organization of a group or chain of stores.
At Federated Department Stores, 70 percent of the buying for member stores is done centrally by the percent company, while the other 30 percent is done by individual member stores.
APPAREL
Apparel is just another word for what you wear. Hopefully the apparel you wear to work — suits and heels — is very different from the apparel you wear on the weekends — pajama pants and bunny slippers.
Apparel means clothes, especially formal clothes worn on an important occasion. [mainly US, formal] Women's apparel is offered in petite, regular, and tall models. Synonyms: clothing, dress, clothes, equipment More Synonyms of apparel.
The Apparel Industry consists of companies that design and sell clothing, footwear and accessories. Product categories include everything from basics, such as underwear, to luxury items, for example, cashmere sweaters and alligator-skin handbags.
FASHION MERCHANDISING
Fashion merchandising can be defined as the planning and promotion of sales by presenting a product to the right market at the proper time, by carrying out organized, skillful advertising, using attractive displays, etc
The term “Merchandiser” defined as a ‘Person who do buying and selling of goods for the purpose of making a profit.’
In fashion industry there are different types of merchandising profiles which are meant to perform different types of functions all together at different stages of fashion industry.
Over the years of the growth of merchandising as a discipline in the fashion industry, there have been many changes in the job profile of the merchandiser. It has charges from a simple to a much more complex job transcending almost all functions in fashion industry. This has led to a change in the skillsrequired for the job and evolution of the discipline of fashion merchandising. Different types of merchandising in fashion industry can bedescribed in following way.
The role of merchandiser is very crucial and demanding in fashion industry. The development of design, production execution and sourcing, selling the merchandise to customer and displaying the merchandise at retail shop, these are the functions of fashion merchandiser at different level of industry.
The skills requirement of fashion merchandising tuning with current trends in market, forecasting of upcoming fashion trends, technical parameters like fabric and trim details, garment quality, deciding the sourcing strategy, communication and coordination along with concern people in the industry.
Fashionmerchandiser takes design or sketch from designer and develops it in such a way that it will be market feasible, production feasible, and meets customer demands.
PRÊT-À-PORTE
The term haute couture has been misused by successive ready-to-wear brands and high street labels since the late 1980s so that its true meaning has become blurred with that of prêt-a-porter (the French term for ready-to-wear fashion) in the public perception. Every haute couture house also markets prêt-à-porter collections, which typically deliver a higher return on investment than their custom clothing.
In fact, much of the haute couture displayed at fashion shows today is rarely sold; it is created to enhance the prestige of the house. Falling revenues have forced a few couture houses to abandon their less profitable couture division and concentrate solely on the less prestigious prêt-à-porter. These houses, such as Italian designer Antonio Capucci, all of whom have their workshops in Italy, are no longer considered haute couture. Many top designer fashion houses also use the word for some of their collections.
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