The moment we’ve all been waiting for: Today, the CFDA released the official findings from a six-week study conducted by The Boston Consulting Group. While the information isn’t necessarily new, it voices what many industry insiders have been speculating for some time. The study is a whopping 13 pages long; we’ve summarized the key points.
The fashion calendar is causing three major problems:
1. The failure to adopt “see now, buy now” models is hurting full-price sales potential, as in-season clothes are on markdowns during relevant seasons.
2. Technology is ruining newness; Instagram and livestreamed runways expose consumers to collections months before they’re shoppable, giving “fast fashion” brands enough lead time to replicate trends at a smaller price tag. This also means the original trend feels stale by the time it reaches stores, hurting full-price retail.
3. Designer creative burnout is real! The pressure of creating pre-collections and the up-in-the-air fashion cycle doesn’t allow designers sufficient time to fuel their creative process.
A few solutions:
1. Hold retail and press appointments and presentations early enough to allow buyers to place orders, and give long-lead press original content that’s more exclusive.
2. Create biannual, in-season consumer-relevant activations during or after New York Fashion Week around the main and pre-collections to be delivered to stores immediately and over the course of a few months.
3. Merge men’s and women’s shows, merge design for main and pre-collections, or move retail/press appointments or in-season activations to pre-collection timing.
The benefits for…BRANDS:
Boosts full-price selling and return on investment
Allows designers more time to focus on creativity
Limits availabity of fast-fashion to deliver trends early
The benefits for…RETAILERS:
Increases “newness” with a shift in delivery timing
Able to leverage New York Fashion Week to increase traffic and create exclusive experiences for top customers
Allows more opportunities for collaboration with designers, especially emerging designers
The benefits for…PRESS:
Creates timely and relevant content for readers
Increases the relevance of advertising, and allows the return on marketing spend for both traditional and new media to be measurable
Find the complete study HERE.
