A sneak peek into the future

Ok, maybe that title is a bit lofty. But I thought I would give you a quick look into how each season’s designs come together, in case you’re interested in that sort of thing.

First of all, you should know that if you plan to sell clothing through any stores, each season has to be designed pretty far in advance. It’s currently market season for the Fall/Winter season, which means that sales reps and designers are busy showing Fall samples for the lines they represent at wholesale shows around the world. Most stores do their Fall/Winter buying in the early Spring, so everything needs to be designed, sewn and photographed by February at the latest.  Fall clothing starts to ship to stores in August, which happens to be the same month that the Spring/Summer lines for next year are at market (they ship the following March, which is – you remembered! – Fall market time). Confused yet?

I used to sell all of my work myself, at great shows like the One of a Kind Show in Toronto, and my online store. Those were simpler days – I bought an assortment of fabric I loved in whatever quantity was available, then designed and sewed like crazy, creating a random variety of dresses. Now that I’m wholesaling, I need to buy fabric that’s currently being made, and create designs for an entire season at once. It’s much harder, but I love the way the creative juices flow when the pressure is on to create a whole collection of garments that work together. This Fall’s collection uses a wide variety of fabrics I love, including some gorgeous prints I imported from Japan, and I can’t wait to show them to you in August. Oh, forget it – I can’t wait that long. I promised a sneak peek so I’ll show you just one. I hope you like it! Stay tuned for the rest…