In-season Fashion Trend Information: implications for decision-making in own brand fashion retailers operating in the UK

This research is a cross-disciplinary investigation into the continuous clothing development of a cutting-edge fashion retailer, drawing on fashion marketing and sociology theory. Empirical data is amassed from a single case study of selected buying teams in Topshop, a leading UK high street retailer, and star of the Arcadia group. The study examines the interaction in retail buying teams, during the processes of analysing fashion change and developing clothing collections in the fast-moving high street context. Topshop's buying teams anticipate and create new clothing ranging from premium collections to own-branded fashion staples, with a seasonal intake of approximately 6000 new items. Clothing development in a high street retailer is a continuous process involving sustained interaction, as forecasting and creating own-branded clothing is the remit of centralised buying teams, not the individual buyer. Internal interaction is shaped by and shapes the process and structure in which it takes place and therefore may not be replicated in another retailer. Topshop was selected as an exemplar based on the key aspects of extensive product range, market share and differential fashion profile observed by fashion media and academic research.

Research to date has examined the downstream processes of supply chain management and ignored the collective upstream stage of fashion editing and design execution. This research purposely adopts an alternative stance and investigates the social processes in the upstream phase of anticipating fashion change. Key elements are explored: the forms of interaction, the viewpoints of buyers, merchandisers and designers and the underlying social structures. Conflict, competition and sociality emerge as primary forms of interaction and are identified collectively as the interactive dynamics that sustain Topshop's clothing strategy and the struggle for positioning in UK fashion retail.

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