Assortment Planning
At the beginning of each season, each designer sits with the buyer of the department, reviews sales together, does analysis with various assortment planning tools as shown here and then creates an article plan of what to design .
Fashion Triangles
After doing design research, the designer sorts all products into fashion triangles that indicate the if the products are basics, stars (medium fashion level) or question marks (untested and high fashion level.) This is a guide for the buyers on quantifying the products and also a guide on what to develop for the season.
Product Life Cycle
When planning the upcoming season, the buyer reviews selling of the category and together with design determines where in the product life cycle the products fall. This helps to determine which existing styles will stay in the collection, which need to be updated, which will be dropped and what is needed for newness.
