With the evolution of retail stores and increase in competition levels, the fashion seasons have evolved as well. The brands and retailers have created many sub seasons apart from the traditional fashion seasons – spring/summer and autumn/winter – to generate more demand and collections as per distinct needs of the consumers during specific time periods. The latest addition to this trend is the new season pre-fall/autumn”…
Moving on from two traditional seasons of spring and fall of former days, the world of fashion witnessed the declaration of four definite fashion seasons for New York in 1991, with the first official winter season opening on 6th October 1991. The practice introduced by exclusive shops and departmental stores as an effort to cover up the “dull seasons” of fashion has become a common sight today. This followed with the introduction of new seasons like Back-to-School, Easter, Holidays, which were happily accepted by customers and proved good for the economy as well. Now there are many sub-seasons, not necessarily related to occasions that fill stores like ‘resort’ and ‘cruise’ collections that fill up the gap between autumn/winter and spring/summer. The latest sub-season that retailers have created is the pre-fall range to bridge the gap between spring/summer and the autumn/winter seasons. The season which came into emergence in 2007 is now a rage and has been scaling up slowly with new designers and brands adapting the same with each passing year.
Reasons for Growth…
A reason for this emerging trend is the change in climatic conditions and weather shifts in the seasonal patterns occurring for some years now. For quite some time the retailers struggled to introduce their collections in stores, as the clothes failed to match the consumer requirements according to the weather conditions. These trans-seasonal collections consist of heavier, lighter and layered pieces to attract a broader customer base and geographic location.
Designers & brands such as Burberry are working on their pre-fall collections: The newest addition to the fashion seasons
Another reason for the growth of these collections is the scope for increased sales for the retailers. The rise of these mid-season collections began to pick up following the global recession of 2008, when even the luxury shoppers stepped back and refused to spend on clothes in one go. Retailers requested more deliveries and pieces from designer labels to get back their clientele and the footfall, hoping that rotating in more and new merchandise in the stores and displays would tempt shoppers to shop again.
Since pre-fall has a longer selling season the collection today covers around 60-70% of the entire designer’s collection. Pre-fall designs begin arriving in stores (May and June) two to three months before fall clothes start arriving and generally stay on the floor until January giving it a longer shelf life for sales. These collections also serve retailers an opportunity to introduce new clothes and merchandise at full prices at a time when stores would otherwise be full of the spring/summer and end of the season sales.
Having the advantages of the longest selling period and a range of clothes that can be worn any time during the year, a lot of designers and retailers have come to recognize the potential of these garments and have started creating collections for the season. The latest pre-fall collection of 2012 had names like Oscar de la Renta and Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel who made a collection Paris-Bombay for the season with pieces that looked highly influenced by India. Jason Wu created a collection presenting a perfect balance between his inspirations of the maharajas and the colourful illustrations of Charley Harper; Rachel Zoe’s collection consisted of pieces inspired by the ’60s and ’70s with a blend of today’s menswear-inspired movement; Thakoon created a collection inspired by an Upper East Side princess; Burberry Prorsum’s collection included pieces made of mute colours, nipped at waists with long hemlines; a whiff of the ’30s also ran through the entire collection with ruched bow belts that played a part in almost every look. Other names include Giorgio Armani, Rag and Bone, Donna Karan, Calvin Kline, Zac Posen, Diane von Furstenberg and Phillip Lim. Other than the designers, retailers and a lot of online brands are also selling these collections, sites including Style.com which recently launched their first pre-fall collection for 2012, Row (official site of Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen) and Burberry with others.
Even though the season seems fruitful for the retailers, the concept has started catching bad reviews, as the season’s collections have proved to create a big confusion for the buyers, because buyers are often left with a bulk of clothes from these collections as the main consumers of these styles are less. However, propagandists feel that the most interesting part of the collection is that it consists of similar pieces of spring collection with some add-ons and accessories to make these garments look more seasons defined, thus being different yet similar.
