Fast Fashion

Fast Fashion 

 

 

 

Kyrsty Hazell gives you the low-down.

 

More and more high street shops are starting to drip-feed new fashion line to their customers as if it was, well, going out of fashion! This means that there is more choice on the market, fewer people wearing the same dress as you because last months stock has been replaced by brand spanking new stock.

 

The fashion emporia being Primark for example, have the fastest turnaround of new clothes and have their eye firmly on the fashion radar and even firmer on the pulse. Anything that captures the public imagination can be knocked up in days and put on the racks as fast as you can say ‘Primark rocks’ Topshop, however, is also one store which is fast on the mark when it comes to producing new lines at a fast pace. Every 2 weeks a staggering 300 new garment lines are purchased into the store in every trend, colour and style around. Their target market is young, fashion conscious women, so it is important that they keep the line fresh and exciting to cater for their needs.

 

 

 

H&M is also another great candidate for knocking out great collections in such a  small amount of time and introduces a completely new stock every 6 weeks – so that is at least three shopping trips every season! The only down side is that if you see something gorgeous that you want to wait until the end of the month to buy, chances are if you leave it for more than a week, it wont be there anymore.

 

 

So it is all about quick purchasing – they produce them as quick as possible and the customers buy them as soon as they hit the shelves to satisfy their fashionista needs. Zara is also another store who produces line quick and have new stock every 3-4 weeks, while Reiss manages  a couple of lines every week and a store revamp every three weeks.

 

These guys don’t mess around so it is understandable that some chain stores do miss out. Marks&Spencer, also it has improved over the last year with its snazzy advertising campaigns ala Twiggy and Erin, it has a very slow turnaround of stock compared to the lights of Topshop and co. Most of the lines are introduced at the beginning of the season and pretty much stay that way until the next season. However, the creation of M&S’s range called Per Una, has improved this slightly as this range produces new ranges every 6 weeks, which give it more variety and keeps the process moving.

 

The Limited Collection have a revamp every 8 weeks, therefore it is good to keep an eye out for these.

Dorothy Perkins, which is part of the Arcadia Group which also owns Topshop, Topman and Miss.Selfridge to name a few, has a complete stock change every 6 weeks along with a new window display

 

 

However, the store has the drip-feed process, so make sure you take a trip into the nearest store every other week as it is guaranteed that you will find something new.

Primark has the one of the quickest delivery rates due to mass demand of cheap clothing which are good quality, but produced 10 items quicker than the original versions, only at a fraction of the cost. Primark has at least 4-5 deliveries a week, bringing in fresh, new garments to the store which sell out within minutes. I have been in the store when a new dress has been brought into delivery and hung up by a shop assistant, and people are queuing behind her to see whether they have their size. It is safe to say that the item was sold out within minutes.

Miss Selfridge has a window change twice a week, and new lines coming through every 2 weeks as well. Next collections filter into stores in phases – therefore new stuff goes in every 4-5 weeks. It also reacts to fashion trends and customer demand when necessary with new lines.

 

House of Fraser and Selfridges both have so many labels in each, they couldn’t possibly keep up with the race of their fellow fashion brands but because they have so many brands under one roof, they don’t have to worry about their customers getting bored of what is available. Debenhams is now packed full of guest designers and celebrity designers such as Matthew Williamson, John Rocha and Betty Jackson, and they all provide new collections of stock every couple of weeks. The fashion display in the shop floor changes every 6 weeks.

Meanwhile on the shoe front, Faith, gets an astounding 15 new lines of shoes in every few weeks, as do Office.

 

Top end designers tend to push out the majority of their ranges when the season begins, leaving all high street stores to follow suit. If you wan tot find fresh designer treasures which is guaranteed to hit the spot, visit www.net-a-porter.com as they have all the latest designer goodies and have new designer items every week, so there is no chance of getting bored on what is on offer. You will also have the advantage to snap up the latest fashion fabulously early.

 

Kyrsty Hazell