Pre - Season Collections: Fashion Cycles are Getting Shorter

Stylogs,

Pre-season fashion is confusing the fashion establishment, but does bring in a fresh set of gorgeous designs.

Heavy floods in central Europe may not be your first association with June, but just ask the people the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. However, the fashion world steams ahead with ever shorter design cycles.

What used to be a four season world, has recently turned into a multiple season parade with pre-seasons to add to the mix confuse everybody. These sub-seasons are gaining popularity with some fashion buyers claiming to spend about four fifths of their budget on these bridging collections.

Customers have grown used to the ‘latest’ and ‘new’ stickers on their fashion sites, or dedicating a whole sub-section of their website for the latest collections (http://www.kaleidoscope.co.uk ). Offering a way to get into a new collection early on and before trends take place in the wider public, allows the fashion oriented customers to make an early move, according to sources in the industry.

There are several designs I actually like in the inevitable pre-autumn collections that have crept upon us from these shores and across the pons.

From Barney’s New York a beautiful and yet classy knit sweater by O 2^nd


Knit sweater by O 2^nd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Brown’s London, a chic  sweat shirt

A really clever Missoni multicoloured wool blend jumper that is as intriguing as it is pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best view on this latest development is by Paula Reed, Fashion director at Harvey Nichols who said that she thinks of the catwalk as “the icing, but the pre-collection is the cake”.  She was particularly excited about some promising young British designers such as Peter Pilotto, Roksanda Ilincic, Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders. She also mentioned Nina Ricci, Proenza Schouler and Céline as ones to keep a close eye on.

From the across the water, Tomoko Ogura a Fashion director at Barney’s of New York said that some of their favourite pre-autumn collections are Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Carven, Acne Studios and Regulation by Yohji Yamamoto. She pointed out that animal prints will be noticeably prominent this season, as well as the Manolo Blahnik’s zebra print pump