The Early Bird Gets The Worm.
Luca Orlandi will stage a pre-fall runway show of his Luca Luca ready-to-wear collection Dec. 4 in New York in response to buyers who tend to place the bulk of their fall orders in December. Oscar de la Renta, which has been doing pre-fall shows for several years now, has plans for two shows the afternoon of Dec. 5.
“There is a major shift in the business that people are not realizing yet,” Orlandi said during a trunk show at his Dallas store. “The buyers do 80 percent of their [fall] buy with pre-fall, some even 85 percent. They want to buy then to guarantee deliveries at the end of May. We have to place fabric orders in December and January to get deliveries in April and ship in May.”
Pre-fall collections, which formerly were mostly handled by assistants, are getting far more attention from the designers, Orlandi said.
“Before it used to be basic for pre-fall,” he noted. “Now you are having real designer collections. I’m using 50 fabrics in pre-fall — couture fabrics, nothing basic.”
Ann Stordahl, senior vice president and general merchandise manager at Neiman Marcus, said that pre-collections have accounted for the bulk of the chain’s buy for many years.
“It has grown in importance as deliveries have become more difficult on the runway, and as designers get to a certain level they need the pre-collection to keep the merchandise flowing on a constant basis and to ensure profitability because, typically, pre-collections have better sell-through,” Stordahl said.
She added that within pre-collections are more commercial, versatile items that are not recognizable as runway fashion and have more longevity.
“We typically are not endorsing the idea of a whole season for pre-collections,” she said. “We think that would negatively impact the essence of what makes them work well.”
Brian Bolke, co-owner of Forty Five Ten, a Dallas luxury retailer, said this year he put more money into pre-season collections than runway for the first time.
“It’s gotten to the point where the deliveries of some of the [runway] clothes have been coming later, and the time to sell it is shorter,” he said. “And now there are pre-fall and resort clothes that are as good or better than runway, and that makes all the difference. The real fashion customer is the one who is shopping first.”
Related Articles
You May Also Like
Susan Lana, couture buyer at Stanley Korshak, also said the style of pre-season collections has changed significantly.
“Before, they used to be dumb-dumb basics,” she said. “But in the last five years things have truly changed, and more designers are getting with it. They are doing collections that are sometimes stronger than what they’ll send down the runway, because they know that is the time they will be doing the most business.”
Pre-fall collections typically feature lighter weights that lean toward buy-now, wear-now and have a longer selling period. Winter showpieces in richer, heavier fabrics with a shorter shelf life are spotlighted at fashion week in February, Orlandi asserted.
Orlandi said he started paying attention to the phenomenon when he observed that de la Renta’s cruise collection featured more looks than the spring show he presented in September.
Alex Bolen, president and chief executive officer of Oscar de la Renta, said his firm has been doing pre-fall shows for the past several years. “It’s a good way to showcase and highlight the pre-fall collection and we approach pre-fall as its own collection,” said Bolen, who said the pre-fall and fall collections are the same size. He said having a pre-fall show doesn’t take away from the fall show. He said de la Renta begins shipping pre-fall in May, and fall arrives in the stores in July.
“It’s all about what’s new for the customer. Those who deliver early pick up share just for being there,” said Bolen.
“We want to have a certain portion be buy-now, wear-now, and hopefully the customer will buy it right away. Those things that work in the summer months wouldn’t work in the later delivery,” said Bolen.
Luca Luca’s Orlandi is working to build his wholesale business this year. Since he started the label in 1992 by opening a signature boutique on Madison Avenue, Orlandi has concentrated on developing his business through his own stores. Luca Luca has eight shops in the U.S.
Orlandi began the effort to build his wholesale business with a cruise presentation in August, when he was startled to learn that the buyers had written most of their orders in June. The designer sells to 40 specialty accounts in the U.S. and has sporadically sold to Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. Orlandi works with Italian fabrics and manufacturers in Italy, but his company is based in New York.
“We are focusing on wholesale, so we have to think about not only what concerns our own stores but also for our retail customers,” he said.
Orlandi chose Dec. 4 to present his collection in his showroom because he knew de la Renta planned to show Dec. 5.
“It’s our first time to do a show in December,” he said. “It’ll be for 200 people — 100 buyers and 100 press. It is less oriented toward celebrities and more toward business [than the February shows],” he said. “Then, on Dec. 6, we start with a blank sheet of paper and start sketching the February show.”
But Orlandi doesn’t see December shows replacing fashion week in February.
“I think the two shows are different in nature,” he said. “Pre-fall has lighter fabrics, and the February shows are more spectacular and more glamour, with fur and heavier fabrics, like velvets, where I don’t worry so much about weight and price. This is for the customer who wants special things. The deliveries are at the end of June and beginning of July, but the weights you won’t wear in August or September. It’s a short selling season because by November cruise is shipping and by December, spring-summer.”