Fashion Forecasting
Know your Customer!!
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Government sources of information
Business publications
Resident buying offices
Non-competing stores
Vendors and manufacturers
Observations and counts
Competition
Electronic systems
Personal contact!!!!
The fashion director for a leading
department store was asked,
“What departments within a retail
store are influenced by
fashion?”
The reply:
“All departments.”
Basic Fashion terms
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Fashion
Style
Fad
Silhouette
Detail
Good taste
Classic
Haute couture
Fashion
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A distinctive method of expression that has
been accepted and adopted by a number of
people as the result of common thought
Not universal
May be divided by the group to which they appeal
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High-fashion
Mass fashion
Style
• unique manner of construction
• the distinctive quality of an art form that makes it
different from other art forms in the same
category
Fad
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a minor fashion adopted by a group of people
for a short period of time
Silhouette
• the overall shape or contour of a costume is called
the silhouette. It is the basic ingredient that
changes slightly with each new season
Details
•design lines that are held within the silhouette
•may include the waist, neckline, or bodice
treatment and trimmings and decoration
Good taste
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implies knowledge of the proper use of
materials, design, and color.
Classic
those styles which remain in good taste over a long
period of time may be referred to as classic.
These usually appeal to a great number of
people for a long period of time
Haute Couture
Refers to an expensive original style created by
a French fashion designer or manufacturer
in limited editions for a group of people
considered leaders of fashion.
Why Fashions Change
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Boredom
Outstanding and dominating events
Dominating ideals
Social groups
Five Principles of Fashion
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Consumers establish fashions by accepting or
rejecting the styles offered.
Fashions are not based on price.
Fashions are evolutionary, but rarely revolutionary
in nature.
No amount of sales promotion can change the
direction in which fashion are moving.
All fashions end in excess.
“Revolutionary fashion”
Fashion Cycle
Variations in the
Fashion Cycle
Fashion Buying Cycle
vs. consumer use
cycle
Theories of Fashion Adoption
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Trickle down (downward flow)
Trickle across (mass market theory,
horizontal flow theory)
Trickle up (upward flow, subculture theory)
Trickle down
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Oldest theory of fashion adoption
Premise: fashions are accepted by lower
classes only if, and after, they are accepted
by upper classes, and upper classes will
reject a fashion once it has flowed to a
lower social level
Implications
Trickle across
Fashions move horizontally between groups on
similar social levels rather than vertically from
one level to another.
Trickle up
The young, particularly those of low-income families
and those in higher income groups who adopt
low-income lifestyles, are quicker than any social
group to create or adopt new and different
fashions.
Applications
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Chain store
Boutique
Small Store
Specialty store