Tommy Hilfiger pre-fall 2024 image courtesy of pinterest.com
When you stroll through your favorite department stores in the middle of summer and observe fall/winter coats, sweaters, and all kinds of fall/winter garments beautifully displayed on the racks and throughout the stores, you may pause and wonder why fall/winter fashion has already replaced summer garments while temperatures are still high. There is reason for this early push for fall/winter clothing. In this feature, Fashion Reverie brilliantly details this pre-fall fashion phenomenon.
For those in the fashion industry and the fashion obsessed, the Fashion Calendar has two major moments: spring/summer fashion month and fall/winter fashion month. The spring and summer collections for the following year are typically unveiled from September through early October, while the fall and winter collections are unveiled in February and early March. The Fashion Calendar occurs in the four major fashion capitals New York, London, Milan, and Paris.
Louis Vuitton pre-fall 2024 images courtesy of thefashonspot.com
Over the past two decades, cruise collections and pre-fall have become part of the fashion calendar mix. Many brands, including Chanel, Gucci, and Dior, have created fanfare moments around their cruise collections, with international runway shows happening in late April and May. Although promoted on a much smaller scale, pre-fall collections have also become a staple for brands, including Balenciaga, Louis Vuitton, and Versace.
Pre-fall are designer collections that deliver at retail from April to May. Offerings can range anywhere from warm-weather pieces to transitional layering moments. Pre-fall started gaining traction in the mid-00s, when buyers would do much of their fall ordering in December. At the time, buyers would do 80 percent of their fall buy with pre-fall, guaranteeing deliveries at the end of May. In the mid-2000s, pre-collections accounted for much of buyer purchasing at major American department stores like Neiman Marcus.
Pre-fall pieces once mostly consisted of basics and carryover styles, but once designers saw how these collections could become cash cows, they began creating more trendy fashion pieces for consumers. In the U.S., one of the biggest advocates of the growth in pre-fall was the late Oscar de la Renta, known for his stunning eveningwear.
During the 2000s, de la Renta began doing pre-fall shows and treating the line with a full-scale collection approach. At one point, his pre-fall and fall collections were the same size. The move was successful because it gave the brand buy-now-wear-now options for customers in season.
Carolina Herrera pre-fall 2024 images courtesy of tom+lorenzo.com
Among the many reasons for the importance of pre-fall was that brands needed more pre-collection merchandise to keep new products flowing, aiding profitability. Pre-collections are often known for having better sell-through.
In the age of online shopping and the current retail model, where clothes are seen six months ahead at fashion shows and delivered six months later, by the time many of these collections hit stores, the peak interest of consumers has waned. Some designers, like Tommy Hilfiger, have taken a see-now-buy-now approach to debuting their collections, where merchandise becomes available immediately after its runway debut. However, while this can work for heavily funded large brands with that can produce inventory early, for smaller brands and independent designers, that isn’t sustainable, possible or practical.
Dior men’s fall pre-fall image courtesy of culted.com
For the spring/summer and fall/winter runways, designers often get more artistic and avant-garde with their runway shows, as they are not just designing pieces for buyers but also designing pieces for celebrity red carpet moments and fashion magazine editorials. Pre-fall collections are often more commercial, as their almost sole purpose is selling merchandise.
One of the reasons pre-fall fashion collections have also become so important to brands is because of fast fashion. The consumer obsession with newness has helped push pre-fall to further relevance, especially in the age of social media. Between Instagram and TikTok, users are constantly bombarded with new products and advertisements. There’s always new fashion, a new campaign, or a new post with someone tagging brands in their new outfit.
In an era of fast fashion, where products hit the floor and are only full priced for several weeks at a time, pre-fall collections have the longest staying power. Pre-fall collections typically hit stores in May and will remain on the floor at full price until the fall/winter markdowns.
Chanel pre-fall images courtesy of runwaymagazine.com
With its transitional pieces, wearable collections, and long shelf life on the sales floor, pre-fall is the diamond of the season for many brands and retailers. Although it doesn’t generate the buzz and social media fodder that spring/summer and fall/winter collections generate, when it comes to what’s selling, pre-fall is one of the biggest revenue drivers for many brands and retailers.
While brands and holding companies don’t break down which fashion seasons collections sell best, with multi-brand luxury retailers, like Mytheresa, still allocating seventy percent of their budget to buying pre-fall, it’s clear that pre-fall collections have long-term staying power. For the bottom line for brands and companies, pre-fall is one of the most important and potentially profitable seasons of all.
—Kristopher Fraser
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