How many fashion collections to produce: lessons for beginner designers

Very often, beginner fashion designers ask such questions: “How many fashion collections should be produced per year? Is it obligatory to make spring, summer, autumn, winter and cruise collections?”

Today our teacher of the online course “Certified Fashion Designer” Yulia Kulakova will answer these questions.

What collections do famous design houses create?

Typically, high-end brands release about 5-6 collections a year: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer and Resort also known as Cruise. The Resort is an “in-between” collection that goes beyond the traditional fashion calendar.

Fashion brands – big and small – hold shows of their future collections twice a year.
There are Fall/Winter fashion shows at the end of the year in February and March.
Then, in September-October, at Fashion Weeks, collections for the Spring/Summer season for the following year are shown.

How many collections should a beginner fashion designer make?

There is no strict rule for dealing with this issue.
The most common approach is to do 4 seasons. This is an example of how most of the world’s clothing brands work. This allows them to earn as much as possible compared to making only one collection a year.
Seasonality does not necessarily depend on the season (hot summer or cold winter).
Fashion houses offer their new products four times a year. And fashionistas really want to get all these new items as soon as possible. Fashion is business.
Remember that the designer has the right to choose for himself how many seasons he should do.
Sometimes the seasonality depends on the potential buyer of the brand.

The collection can be:

  • for mass market sale
  • for a very individual consumer
  • only for yourself
  • for art and sale to the museum
  • for the exhibition
  • for Queen Elizabeth
  • for Lady Gaga and her performance on Mars

In general, when the buyer is clear, everything falls into place with seasonality.
Sometimes a collection of clothes does not have the goal of becoming massive, popular and mega-flexible.
Sometimes the capsule is released once a month. A great example is the 12storeez brand concept. They release 12 capsules a year because they decided that.