Fashion Marketing: Contemporary Issues, Second edition - Pr School

The process of trend development leading to a fashion season 185
Table 9.4 UK monthly magazines’ production deadlines and coverage of fashion
weeks for Spring/Summer season
Month RTW Fashion Monthly Magazine Retailer Promotion
Shows
Deadlines
September New York, London December edition
October Milan, Paris January* edition
November February* edition Press days: Availability
of press/PR samples
December
March* & April*
editions
*In the next calender year.
other magazines allowing the trend coverage to trickle out across issues from
January onwards to stimulate interest.
Obviously, the interpretation by fashion editors of what the major colours
and styling features are for a season has an impact on consumers’ belief of
what is fashionable. ‘Must-have’ colours, styles and products are promoted
through the magazine features and consumers are educated into an acceptance
of what to wear that season. In addition to the specific trend coverage of
the RTW shows, the magazines include specific fashion features that focus on
a particular aspect of the season. This could be based on an occasion, such as
‘holidays’, or on a strong fashion theme such as a denim look. Many of these
features will include photographs of season’s products that are to be in the
stores at the time the magazine is published.
In order to take advantage of such opportunities, many fashion brands hold
‘press days’ during which fashion journalists and editors preview the forthcoming
ranges. In the UK these typically occur in July for Christmas and
November for SS. This exposure provides magazines with relevant material
to shoot for their fashion features and benefits fashion brands by giving them
crucial publicity. Brands provide fashion journalists with ‘look books’ containing
photographs of key products from the new ranges and many of the
monthly magazines select items from the ‘books’ to shoot for their own features.
As the season unfolds, so the media in all its various forms feature particular
looks across their monthly editions, maintaining the ‘newness’ of the
fashions and interest from consumers. Efficient buying departments are able
to respond to fast emerging ‘hot trends’ that supplement the rest of the range.
References
Barnard, M. (2001). Fashion as Communication. London: Routledge.
Breward, C. (2003). Fashion, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 9.
Charles-Roux, E. (1981). Chanel and Her World. London: Weidenfeld and
Nicolson, p. 237.