Will MillingPI - Fashion's Technology…•6K followers

Marleen Vogelaar - Forecasting trends

Name: Marleen Vogelaar - Forecasting trends
Uploaded: 2018-07-16T10:00:06+00:00
Duration: 57 s
Channel: Will Milling
Description: In this segment of her talk, Marleen Vogelaar recounts a conversation with a senior executive from a major U.S. fashion company about the lengthy…

16 Jul 2018 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:57

In this segment of her talk, Marleen Vogelaar recounts a conversation with a senior executive from a major U.S. fashion company about the lengthy development cycles for apparel collections, which can span six to twenty‑four months. She highlights the difficulty of predicting consumer preferences that far in advance, noting that designers often have to compromise their creative vision due to supplier capabilities and cost constraints. Vogelaar contrasts this slow, uncertain process with the rapid, viral influence of celebrities—citing Beyoncé as an example—where a single appearance can generate immediate, massive demand that outpaces the traditional fashion calendar, rendering the trend obsolete before it reaches stores.

Chapters

When I decided to move into the apparel industry, I once spoke to somebody who reported into the CIO of one of the largest fashion companies here in the USA, and I asked him, I said, "How long does it take for your company to put a collection out?" And he says, "24 months." And I was like, "What?" I said, "24 months?" I said, "How do you know what's gonna be en vogue 24 months from now?" He says, "We don't. We try to define it." And there's a lot of frustration in my design team because they make beautiful things, but then, you know, there's rules, and there's what suppliers can make, and there's costs, so the designs get diluted down. But 6 months to 24 months, I mean, look, if Beyoncé comes on TV tomorrow with something beautiful to wear, it's going to be— people are going to want to have it at that single moment, not 2 years later. The trend will be gone.