How often do you go shopping and why do you do it? What image pops up in your mind when you hear the term ‘fashion industry’? Ever since we humans had to clothe ourselves, the fashion industry has been in a constant state of evolution.
The fashion industry is home to all aspects of fashion: from clothes, to shoes, to bags and accessories. Like all industries that are heavily consumer-focused, change happens quickly and constantly.
In recent decades, fashion retailing has ceased to be the domain of large fashion houses, fashion magazines and retail stores. It first evolved with TV channels that sold fashion. This trend would later pave the way for the current era of ecommerce and online retail.
The industry and the consumer are always evolving.
Keeping up with the fast pace of change is an ongoing process in the ‘here today, but most likely gone tomorrow’ industry. Suppliers have the practical problem of delivering what is expected. They face the issue of forecasting because they never know exactly how consumers will respond.
By nature, the industry is always a couple of months ahead of the consumer, so industry insiders need to make some calculated risks. In this environment–which has become far more volatile and unpredictable over the past two decades–it is not always easy to make the right decisions.
“Fast Fashion” is a term used by retailers for designs that move quickly from the catwalk to the store in order to capture fashion trends. This is different to waiting for it to filter down via the traditional fashion cycle.
In the past, those who needed plus size fashions and other nontraditional sizes and clothing used to have limited options in the retail environment. This was because what was sold was controlled by those who had specific ideas of who their consumer was and were limited by the size of the stores themselves.
Ecommerce retailers and niche brands have been able to expand their selections beyond just the traditional sizes. The popularity of some niche fashion stores has meant that a few have even made the transition from being an exclusively online store to opening physical retail stores.
In a world where what is here today will not be here tomorrow, then we must, indeed, live for tomorrow.
The Mercantile 