SEASONS : 

“each of the four divisions of the year (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) marked by particular weather patterns and daylight hours, resulting from the earth’s changing position with regard to the sun.”

While the dictionary meaning of seasons indicates it to be mere shifts in environmental factors, we in the Fashion & Apparel industry live by these.

For decades Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter have driven the fashion industry & perhaps served it well.

It has been the backbone of our daily activities and our work lifecycle is dictated by these…

The real question we need to ask is, ARE SEASONS REALLY RELEVANT TODAY?

Retailers world over are battling with issues such as left over inventories, less sell thru’s, capacity utilisation, losses in liquidation etc. Some are in fact shutting down as well… 

One of the key reasons behind this is a seasonal approach to business.

This seasonal approach is highly based on forecasting.. A designer has to predict what will sell one year from now and design accordingly. A buyer has to predict how many pieces of the design will sell. A sales person has to predict how much sale will actually happen.

While we may have historical data to help with these predictions, we are mostly depending on our intuitive powers than actuality.

Many at times, what we thought would be a hit turns out to be a miss… leading to issues such as discounting, liquidation etc etc etc…

Till about 10 years back, this intuitive forecasting worked just fine..

Why, you ask?

Because brands dictated what sells. They told the consumers what to wear & the consumers followed. This made the brands predictive powers relevant & created a profitable environment for every component in the supply chain. We all were winners…  

Unfortunately, all the changed.

The advent of social media has changed the game completely.

The consumers do not follow trends, they create trends. And a brand who caters to these needs stays relevant and one that doesn’t fades away.

And in an environment where the consumer dictates trends, seasons become irrelevant, for the consumer does not know that he/she has to wear earthy tones in winters. They just know that they like a bright red puffer jacket & want to wear it now!!

This shift in consumer behaviour has posed a problem in our industry and is compelling many to rethink & reimagine the apparel supply chain… For there is a solution to every problem… It just needs imaginative thinking!

To throw more light on this topic, we are sharing this very interesting podcast where Mr.Anindya Ray and Mr. Sachin Jain (Senior Partner, Vector Consulting Group) discuss about the The Irrelevance of Seasons in today’s environment, and how to reimagine the apparel supply chain for the new era…

We hope you enjoy the podcast.

Do share your comments with us!