The fashion
industry is very complicated. There are no standard fashion companies. They
come from a wide spectrum of enterprises working in the apparel, footwear, home
textiles and accessories markets.
The industry is made up of various kinds of companies like retailers, design source and selling companies, companies with their own manufacturing facilities and other companies who outsource production but retain control over parts of the production process.
The industry is made up of various kinds of companies like retailers, design source and selling companies, companies with their own manufacturing facilities and other companies who outsource production but retain control over parts of the production process.
Moreover,
companies functioning in the high fashion segment often face a different kind
of pressure as compared to those functioning with commodity fashion goods. All of these
aspects combine to make the fashion industry one of the most complicated
industry. Yet, various issues can be noticeably recognized as common across the
industry.
. Consumers
have the power
. Supply
chains are complicated
. Product
launching and delivery takes time
. Companies
must be able to manage a product mix
. Inventory
control maintenance is important
. Impact of
the latest technology on the fashion industry
. Copyright
issues for fashion designs
Consumers have more power
Today's
buyers have more purchasing power then ever before and are less tolerant due to
increased time pressure in today's lifestyles.
They are
more aware about environmental and human rights issues and have superior
quality demands. They demand a huge variety and more frequent changes in the
choices available to them. Moreover, they also expect immediate availability of
perfect matching set of garments and accessories in their preferred color and
size combinations in the same store.
In terms of
satisfying the consumer's needs, retailers are the first in line, but all
companies in the supply chain are driven by the prerequisite to anticipate the expectations
and requirements of their customers. From design to production and to the final
sale, all members of the supply chain need to check that stores are stocked
with the correct requirements when the consumer needs to buy! The
companies that are quick to respond to the consumer requirements are those that
will remain profitable in an environment of rapid global competition and
increasing material and operational costs.
Supply chains are complicated
The fashion
industry is distinguished by global supply chains and complicated logistics.
Labor and transportation costs often determine where production takes place and
outsourcing of all or part of production is common. Companies throughout the
industry have to deal with global sourcing problems and need to regularly
evaluate their sourcing strategies.
Production
work is often done across multiple places, which may be also located in
different countries. Setting up of cutting, sewing, subcontracting and
transportation, and the synchronization with raw material supply, is a very
tedious process.
Product
launching and delivery takes time
While
working through the many pre production steps, including yarn or fabric
selection, garment development, specification and sampling, the industry takes
a long time to introduce a new product in the market.
Both, the
complex nature of the supply chain and the global nature of production add to
the industry's long lead times. This arrangement of long time-to-market and
long lead times does not correlate with the need to react immediately to
changes in customers requirements. The ever
changing seasonal and trend driven nature of the industry depicts that the
product life cycles are too short. Even for cyclic demands where the life cycle
may continue further, there are often small changes to design, and color or
size combinations may be changed. The logistics of managing the large number of
styles and maintaining stock keeping units is a difficult practice.
Companies must manage a product mix
Besides long
lead times, fashion producers are stressed to constantly design and develop new
product lines to maintain retailers' interest and increase consumer sales.
Producers have noted that in order to maintain this speed, raised flexibility
and quickness to satisfy changing customer demand, which is quicker than ever
before, it is very challenging for them to judge or come out with such types of
products. Gone are the days when a perfect fashion trend direction decided what
consumers wore. At present, many styles are available, and with rising
globalization, consumers can approach fashion news through latest media tools.
Fashion
products change frequently, from hosiery and basic underwear through
medium-priced high street brands, to exclusive high fashion brands. Managing
brand awareness and brand loyalty is a serious task in retaining the position
in the market. Margins in repetitive basic products are low, so neither a
retailer nor a manufacturer can ever afford being out of stock. Shifting to
the high-end fashion sector, margins increase and sales volumes are lower, but
consumers demand an ever changing range of choices, forcing the companies to
produce multiple collections per year.
Many
companies have to put in efforts to overcome the added challenge of arranging a
mix of repetitive lines and collection-driven products, and a requirement to
segment their product range and arrange the different segments in a suitable
way. From design to demand planning, sourcing, production, distribution and
sale, the demand of various product segments must be separately tackled if
companies need to perform well.
Companies
require clarity about the sector of the market they are targeting, and they
have to direct their business in that way.
Inventory
control management is important
Companies
try to keep inventory levels at a minimum in all industries. In the fashion
industry the requirement to maintain inventory levels under control is worst
due to less product life cycle. In this industry, there is only one solution to
sell the goods.
For
collection-driven brands, the entire floor sets must be in the retail stores
when these products are introduced, otherwise the chance to sell the goods is
missed and obsolescence exposure is a high risk.
For the
products that are frequently in demand, it is crucial that retailers and
suppliers do not undergo stockouts. This part of the market does not possess
the same level of brand loyalty, and customers may well be attracted to shift
brands if the color and size they required is not immediately available in the
stores when they need to buy. For all
companies, the balancing action of keeping inventory at the necessary level to
fulfill demand, while ensuring that they are not left out with obsolete
inventory, is a main problem.
Latest technological impact on fashion industry
Recently,
the Burton Amp jacket, what is depicted as "the world's first and only
wearable electronic jacket with an integrated Apple iPod" was introduced. According to
some fashion experts the clothes will soon turn into accessories for your
gadgets. Today new technologies are much involved with clothing and apparels
that you can not judge whether you are wearing technology or whether technology
is wearing you?
Besides, electronics will keep decreasing in size to such an extent where we would no longer considerably need the objects to hold them. Hence, today the fashion industry is experiencing new challenges: "intelligent textiles", "smart clothes", "i-wear" and "fashion engineering" and are only a few of the trends which will transform the entire fashion industry within the next decade.
Nowadays,
many new materials and technologies are applied in textiles and accessories
when they are still too costly or primitive for other applications. A wide
variety of electronic devices can already be made into clothes and this will
rise. New fabrics are already being developed to offer power generation - by
using solar power, electromagnetic, thermal and mechanical means.
The
combination of high-technology into textiles, e.g. modern communication or
monitoring systems or the development of new materials with new applications,
has just begun, but the branch has already moved in a gigantic expansion for
this sector. Particular applications for the health and security sector, e.g.
clothes with extern monitoring systems, already today exist in a large
quantity. Within the
coming few years, we'll see a lot more new applications in garments with latest
technology. Hence, there are many designing challenges for fashion designers
and engineers for making most demanding fashionable wears.
Copyright
issues for fashion designs
Fashion
apparel is a multi-billion dollar business that has no national boundaries due
to its global existence. Designers, retailers and consumers decide their
statements according to international fashion trends. In the last decade,
consumer awareness of particular designers has also raised dramatically.
Magazines and newspapers also cover the fashion industry as a part of their
national news coverage, concentrating on the dynamic world of creative designer
expressions.
The common
man is very much aware about names and faces of fashion models and the
designers for which they model. At present many television channels and feature
films involve the fashion industry. Consumers can now identify the various
types of designers and designs.
Today, many
designers find inspiration from street fashion, celebrities, vintage styles and
other designers' work. Even though there are possibilities of duplication in
products and designs due to easy accessibility of the latest printing and
computer technology, and due to appearance of the regional or traditional
designs in apparels worldwide, it can not be ignored easily. It is really a
challenging task to cope with this issue globally.