In this session, we are going to talk about the development of the seasonal collection. We will analyze this in terms of the entire process of the collection development, the single activities within each phase of the process, and the roles that are cooperating within each activity and process, between management and creativity. But let's start defining the concept of seasonal collection in fashion. A collection is seasonal group of products, usually structured and organized on different bases, price ranges, occasions of use product typologies, product categories, and this collection is the seasonal offer of each fashion and luxury company on the market. Historically concept of the collection was developed in France by the haute couture in that case the couturier of each collection was developing a group of products that were completely seasonal. So completely new models that were presented in fashion shows, every six months. Autumn - Winter; Spring - Summer. Modern collections are a mix of model, Mix intended as products that are totally new and seasonal, together with products that are so-called carry overs. So carried over from previous seasons. There are also icons within the seasonal collections, what maybe with minor change in terms of colors or materials. Usually a company that works on seasonal collections start working on the collection from three to twelve months before the presentation to the retail and to the buyer. And usually works on up to three collections a year in parallel. So, quite a complicated management of time and activities. Let's take a look now to the product development process and how it works in terms of roles first of all; and activities second. Let's start from the beginning of the process. The process starts with one phase that is named as, collection planning. The collection planning usually is a phase where managers drive the process, and these managers are brand managers or merchandisers. The activities that they perform are the analyses of the past season’s performance. They sell in in case the company's selling to the wholesale business. Or they sell out, in case the company is selling to its own retail network. After the analysis of the performance of the past season merchandisers usually prepare a collection briefing. A collection briefing is a tool for designers and in general, product managers; Where some guidelines in terms of price levels, bestseller categories, typologies are addressed, and ask to designers in order to be developed. After the collection planning, the second phase is the collection creation. This phase is typically in the hands of creative people. The process in this case is driven by the design director or design directions in different product categories and teams of designers specialized by gender or by product category. What are the activities here? First of all designers based on the briefing, but also based on their own inspiration, they create the mood, the inspiration for the collection itself. This mood and inspiration can be connected related with the seasonal trends, but also be authentic and original for the specific company. After the inspiration phase, then designers develop specific themes and product concepts that will be part of the collection’s structure. And they start to work on individual products and their costing and their positioning. There are some checks, along this process, in order to work with product managers and understand the pricing and the margins connected to groups of products and individual products. And then there is the collection freeze that is the phase when the collection, is ready then to be produced. In fact, the following and third stage of the collection development process is the so called sampling. The sampling is again a process that is driven by the manager and technical people. Here, we have product managers working with the supply chain. What were the activities in the sampling phase? Prototyping, so based on sketches provided by designers, the prototypes are created. In this phase, the company starts to purchase materials and the sample collection is then produced in order to be presented to the network of actually buyers or in the showroom, or during the fashion show. In the sampling phase we have also the color card creation. And, the pricing is made. After the presentation of the sample collection to the buyers of the directly operated stores or buyers of wholesale customers during fashion shows or in show room, then orders are collected. And the production process can start. So here is the end of the product development process, and the supply management and the operational process starts.
