Fashion and Boutique

Management
  This course deal with the art of establishing a
fashion and boutique store acquainting students
with various marketing and merchandising
procedures for apparels and fashion logistics.
 Topics may include but not limited to creative
Course design and production of apparels, operations
Description: strategies in boutique management, apparel and
fashion marketing and retailing, visual
merchandising, customer relationship
management and events management for
fashion show.
 After completing this section the
learner will be able to:
 explain the significance of fashion
Learning design and merchandising in
Objectives garment industry
 describe the fundamentals of
fashion
  Fashion and Boutique Management are
among the most exciting career options
in today’s world.
 The recent boom in fashion designing
has led to new prospects in the existing
INTRODUCTI domain of garment and accessory
ON design.
 The fashion industry satisfies both the
creative urge and the materialistic needs
of people.
  Barter
 “What was available is saleable”
 1920 – sale of garments was a big business
 In a short span of time, fashion apparel become
most important type of merchandise in
INTRODUCTI department stores.
ON  As a result of the economic opportunities of
fashion, a new specialization came into being
— Fashion and Boutique Management
  Fashion design and merchandising will
enable you to understand how the
SIGNIFICANC fashion business works.
E  So simply put, it encompasses ‘planning,
buying and selling’.
  Fashion is the style or styles most popular at a given time.
 Style is any particular look or characteristic in apparel or
accessories. A style may come and go in fashion but the specific
style always remains.
 Fads or short lived fashions, can come and go in a single season.
For example, hot pants, baggy pants and unmatched buttons.

Basic Concepts  Classic or styles that never become completely obsolete, but
instead remain more or less accepted for an extended period.
Examples of classics include blazer jackets, polo shirts, and
Chanel suit.
 Boutique – a small business or establishment selling
sophisticated and fashionable clothing or accessories.
 Management – the process of controlling things or people.
 Chapter 1:
Fashion Development
  France became the centre of fashion due to
support from the royal court and the
development of the silk industry there.
FRANCE —  The Industrial Revolution marked the
THE CENTRE beginning of technological advances in textile
OF FASHION and apparel production. Due to the
developments more fabrics were produced in
less time.
 Fashion cycle —
The way in which
Fashion
Evolution fashion changes is
described as a
fashion cycle.
 Designers interpret their
research and creative ideas into
apparel and then offer the new
styles to the public.
A. Introduction Designs are created by
of a Style
changing elements such as line,
colour, shape, fabric and
details, and their relationship to
one another.
 As the new fashion is
purchased, worn and
B. Increase in
Popularity seen by many people, it
may begin to rise in
popularity.
 When a fashion is at the
height of its popularity, it
C. Peak of may be in such demand that
Popularity many manufacturers copy it
or produce adaptations of it
at different price levels
  Eventually so many copies
are mass produced that
Decline in fashion-conscious people
Popularity
tire of the style and begin to
look for something new.
 In the last phase of the
fashion cycle, some
Rejection of a
Style or consumers have already
Obsolescence
turned to new looks, thus
beginning a new cycle.
 The business of fashion and boutique might be
viewed as a critical path and each milestone in it,
from concept to customer, is specifi cally designed
to add value to the product.
The Key Stagesin TheCritical Path ofFashionandBoutiqueManagement
 Fashion designers develop new
concepts and, as part of the creative
1. Designer process, are responsible for
Typology delivering these concepts in the form
of fashionable clothing designs.
 1. Mavericks/Creative Design Director -
These designers are not primarily
concerned with current consumer or
1.1
market trends; they will instead create
Classifications
of Fashion couture, new looks and direction for a
Designers brand, preferring to lead rather than
follow.
 1. 2 Interpreters - Interpreters work
closely with
the merchandising and technical aspects
1.1 Classifications
of the business and will focus their
of Fashion
Designers energies on the way in which a brand or
retailer communicates their design
message to consumers.
 1.3 Reproducers
Reproducers (also known as fast fashion
designers) work in conjunction with a
1.1 Classifications team of buyers and product developers,
of Fashion
Designers managing the development of the looks
for a particular retailer or brand. They
ensure that colour palettes and trends of
the looks fit with the business or brand.
 The creative process of fashion design
does not have a fixed start or end point;
it is an iterative one and fashion designers
often display magpie tendencies by
2. Research and
Idea Generation constantly seeking and collecting sources
of inspiration in order to rework, evolve
and advance their ideas in a cyclical way.
 The behaviour of customers dictates
to
retailers how to develop successful
new
3. Market
Analysis and products and gives a great insight (if
Research correctly analysed) into customer
shopping
habits and behaviour.
 Shopping takes on a whole new meaning
for commercial designers. At the beginning
of any fashion season, designers travel
4. Directional (often extensively) to trade fairs, designer,
and comparative high street and vintage stores and street
shopping markets in order to seek out ideas from
around the globe.
 Trends in marketplace help shape the
future
direction of the business and help the
organization to fulfil the needs and
5. Trends in the desires
Marketplace
of the customer. The fashion
business is
no exception.
 The customer is at the centre of all
design
developments and, simply put, the
fashion
6. Customer business is the creation,
Behavior and interpretation and
Segmentation
development of ideas to suit
customers’
needs. It
 Trend forecasting is a
vital part of
the fashion design
7. Trend process; it provides the
Forecasting
fuel in the fashion
engine.