Understanding Fashion Seasons: A Guide for Wholesale Clothing Brands

Is selling spring clothes as simple as selling them when spring comes? That may be the obvious conclusion, but if you work with wholesale clothing, you understand reality is a little more complex. You should plan according to the fashion seasons for your brand to succeed in this field. But you should think ahead as well, and if you want to sell to retailers worldwide, you should understand the schedules of the different regional markets.

The two main seasons

Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter are the two main seasons. This structure makes designing clothes and presenting new collections easier. It considers the differences in weather from each season, and it helps the industry develop trend cycles to encourage people to update their wardrobes. This is when fashion weeks happen in cities like London, Milan, New York, São Paulo and Copenhagen. A quick side note is that the fashion week of the latter has gained prominence in recent years, setting new trends in the industry. Using these two main seasons to divide collections in the fashion world has been a thing for many years. 

Transitional seasons

Eventually, though, the market saw the need to introduce intermediate or transitional seasons between the main ones. For example, the resort or cruise season was created for those people who will travel to places with warmer weather during autumn and winter. The High Summer season is made for the peak of summer and usually incorporates lighter clothes. These intermediate seasons help keep collections fresh, making the transition between one primary season and the other easier. Especially since the fast fashion custom of having weekly or bi-weekly drops in stores was introduced to the industry. Another reason that helped motivate the creation of these minor seasons was to drive up sales during times when they used to drop between the two main seasons.

The importance of planning around seasonality

When people go to the shops and see the fall/winter collection available, they have no idea how much planning it takes. Brands need to plan for the next season while the current one is ongoing. This means the orders from the retailers need to happen on a specific schedule for everything to work out well. It’s vital to understand what each season means, why it exists and what people need during that time. It also means you should follow an organised schedule, and if you want to sell internationally, you should comprehend how different markets work in various regions.

Order and delivery windows

Let’s look at an example. For the Spring/Summer collection in the European market to be ready in time, you need to place your order between mid-September and the end of October. Then, the delivery will happen between early February and mid-May. Each market and each season has its own order and delivery window, which you need to remember when organising your brand’s business.

Forecasting demand and inventory management

There is also the challenge of correctly predicting what each season’s demands are going to be. To help you with that, you may use historical data, market trends, and economic factors you need to keep up with. Planning is also essential when it comes to inventory. The idea is to have enough stock to meet your client’s needs while avoiding excess items that end up being left behind from one season to the other. You don’t want items from another season taking space in your inventory.

A successful partnership

The fashion industry can be very profitable if you understand all of this. Sure, it’s a highly dynamic ecosystem with constantly evolving trends and consumer preferences that are always changing. But suppose you have a creative brand with a quality product, and your strategy includes gathering and interpreting data to plan your business. In that case, all that would be missing is a good partner to help you connect with retailers worldwide. BLANC Fashion can undoubtedly help you with that.