Last week I was reading up on the Spring/Summer 2016 fashion trends while a deep freeze was hitting the east coast. I noticed that florals, rompers and strappy sandals were saturating the covers of the latest magazines and populating the photos of my favorite designers and, all the while, I was bundling up with hat, scarves, gloves and Uggs just to walk a block and a half to Trader Joes. As I stared out of my window at people trudging around in cold, snowy weather, I simply thought to myself, why is it that companies seek to sell us spring fashion when it is still (literally) freezing outside. Well, apparently the industry’s top fashion designers and insiders are beginning to ask the same questions.
As you may have heard, both Burberry and Tom Ford decided to ditch the traditional fashion calendar this year in favor of a direct-to-consumer or “fashion immediacy” model. In other words, the clothes debuted at the designer’s runway show will be available for sale to the consumer immediately following the show. In a press release, Tom Ford referred to the current way of showing a collection four months before it is available to consumers as “an antiquated idea…that no longer makes sense.” He continued by stating,
We have been living with a fashion calendar and system that is from another era. Our customers today want a collection that is immediately available. Fashion shows and the traditional fashion calendar, as we know them, no longer work in the way that they once did. We spend an enormous amount of money and energy to stage an event that creates excitement too far in advance of when the collection is available to the consumer. Showing the collection as it arrives in stores will remedy this, and allow the excitement that is created by a show or event to drive sales and satisfy our customers’ increasing desire to have their clothes as they are ready to wear them.
I wonder if it might be time for the fashion industry to not just rethink how they host runway shows but how they market their products in general. While I must admit I couldn’t resist the temptation to purchase Banana Republic’s new Honey Fringe sandal, it quickly occurred to me that I really will not have the opportunity to wear them until March at the earliest. As 4-8 inches of snow fall across the Washington D.C. metro area and as a self-professed cold-blooded individual, there is absolutely no way I would be willing to risk even the slightest bit of freezing cold air touching my delicate toes.
Personally, rather than releasing spring collections in February and torturing me with clothes I cannot wear for another 2-3 months, I would much rather prefer if the fashion industry would wait to release their new spring products until March. While I acknowledge that for us fashionista budget-istas it is nice to be able to scoop up those February spring styles at a discount in March, I find it way more frustrating to enter a store and see it filled with unlined, cotton pants and tee shirts while a blizzard rages outside. Where do you stand?
Update: Tommy Hilfiger is the latest brand to shift its operating model by offering synchronizing runway shows with retail drops. See the article here!