7)Final Collection Boards

Both Collection Boards

Collection Final

Buyer Final

6)Buyer Board

The Buyer Board would have to consist of information regarding my role in French Connection and how the collection was developed.

This would include the main colour schemes black , grey , pink ,

The target market Women aged 21-45

Type of collection A range of clothes made to fit different categories emphasising how FC customers are receiving better value for there money.

Main fabrics Lace , tweed & denim

2009 Best sellers which was shown in a pie chart by information gathered from stores



size guide the collection will be made in

5)Collection Board

All garments for the collection were finished , the next stage was to create a presentation board showing my collection , Within the collection Board all swathes for the garments had to be displayed , the garments itself and some form of text.

The collection Board involved allot of layout changes.

Collection Board in Progress

1st







2nd

3rd

4th










5th

4)Collection Garments

All materials & colours were decided so I had to move on to the next stage which was actually making the collection , designs done in 1st stage were filled in with desired swatch.

The following garments will be the c0llection f0r Autumn/winter 2010.

As the Aim of the collection is to mix and match into different categories the garments will be perceived as causal work and evening.

The Autumn/Winter collection 2010 would meet customer demand in terms of
fashion, work wear,causal & evening trends, The Autumn/winter trends are vibrant colours such as blue, the classical colours such as black & white , subtle pinks & grey.


Autumn/Winter Collection 2010

3)Development of Collection

The 3rd assignment was a follow on from the 2ND which involved using the same designs we had produced & adding the swatch material & whilst relating back to FC collection board.

My aim was to to Create the Autumn/Winter 2010 Collection, the collection would be directly aimed to the

FC main target market who would be Working women who live a very fast paced life, there main priorities are work, and therefore they would want to eestablish a professional fashionable look which FC provides.

Another factor which was highly coconsidered in the collection would be how the economic situation is affecting everyone especially in 2010 with all redundancy , therefore promotion on the new collection will be highlighting how the new collection can be worn as work wear , casual or evening with different stylists highlighting how the look can be changed , this will emphasise how they are saving money with the new FC range.

Once the designs were put into practice such as designing the dresses and filling in with the desired swatch I realised ;

* I did not have many swatches

* The swatches did not perfectly represent my brand

After considering them points I gatheredd information which would help me create my collection in terms of colour and fabrics, I used WGSN to collect my future colour trends which will be shown in my collection



The Colours which appealed to me and I wanted in my Collection was The grey , blue , pink. And also I wanted to add Black as it a colour which will contrast other colours enabling the collection to look bold.

As the collection range had to have a mixture of the 3 categories such as work , causal and evening I decided that the ideal he materials i wanted was lace and floral prints , cheque print for dresses , I wanted denim for leggingsTweed for jackets , trousers , shorts.

Therefore I visited trend hub again and found the following swatches in the book called '' '' and scanned a wider range of fabrics which would represent my brand.

2)Creating designs on Adobe Illustator for collection

2ND Assignment -

The second assignment involved starting the collection from basic steps such as Uploading clothing templates to Adobe Illustrator & exploring different colours and creating own designs.

1) Role & Visit to Trend Hub

The 1st week involved selecting a company & a role within the company, My company was French Connection and my role within FC was a Buyer.

My role in the company includes

Role of a buyer

• To work with Merchandisers, Designers, and Technologists to develop products at competitive prices.
• Be able to negotiate costs with suppliers and ensure continuity of supply.
• Identify potential new suppliers.
• Work closely with Merchandisers to maximise sales and achieve profit targets.
• Research competitor ranges and identify product trends.
• Ensure a balanced range in terms of customer profile, fashion direction, lead-times, selling price and margin.
• Present new ranges to product directors and managers

Responsibilities

• Meeting with suppliers and negotiating terms of contracts
• Attending trade fairs both in the UK and abroad
• Producing reports with sales forecasts as well as analysing sales figures
• Liasing with staff on the shop floor to ensure that supply meets demand
• Managing stock levels and reacting to change s in consumer demand
• Researching new trends and products

As a Buyer in FC my role and responsibility would include vast knowledge of products therefore knowing the company history would be useful....

In order to gain the correct knowledge regarding my role in French Connection was to research the company history.

The following Link was used in order to obtain FC history

http://http//www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/French-Connection-Group-plc-Company-History.htmlpany-histories/French-Connection-Group-plc-Company-History.html

The main company information which was gained from the website that I felt would help me within my role was ;

Brand & subrand

*French Connection is the holding company for two strong brands--the youth-oriented FCUK and the high-end Nicole Farhi brand, targeting an older, more affluent, yet still fashion-conscious market, Farhi not only handled the youth-oriented designs for the French Connection label, she also began to produce designs under her own name for an older, wealthier women's market.

Competitors

*Principal Competitors: Arcadia Group plc; Benetton Group Diesel Esprit Holdings GuessInc.; H & M Marks and Spenc er plc; New Look Group plc; NEXT plc; The Gap, Inc.

I also visited the French Connection website www.Frenchconnection.com
& looked at the Women's department to observe the products sold & what type of consumers they were targeted at.

http://http//www.frenchconnection.com/?cmpid=ppc_goog_kwd20&gclid=CLKwudaS_p0CFVtm4wod-2iwqg

The FC website 2009 winter trends were found in the website ;

http://http//www.frenchconnection.com/content/magazine/magazine.htm
http://http//www.frenchconnection.com/content/magazine/magazine-aw09.htm


The main trends which appealed to me as a buyer were

Questionnaire was made and distributed to FC customers in Order to help me find my initial target market.

FC Questionnaire

Please circle the following

1) Gender: Female Male

2) Age: 18 & below 19-25 26-35 36-45 46&55 over

3) Marital status: Single Married

4) Occupation:

5) What do you do in your spare time?

6) How often do you shop at FC? 1- 4 in 6months 4-7 in 6 months 8 or more in 6months

7)Average expenditure amount in FC? £50 & under £51-£80 £81-150 £150 &over

8) Where else do you shop? _____________________________________________________________

9) Are you a regular FC customer? Yes No Sometimes

10) Put the following stores order of your favourite retail 1 being favourite

FRENCH CONNECTION, ZARA , TOPSHOP , MONSOON , WAREHOUSE , MANGO

11)What type of products do you tend to buy?

Work wear, causal, evening, footwear, accessories, cosmetics

Other please state _________________

12) What do you think of the shop layout in terms of lighting, displays, accessibility & range of stock

Very Good, good, Average , poor

Other comments

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13) How would you describe the window display?

1) Eye-catching, interesting, dull, Boring

2) Very good, Good, Average, poor , Could be improved,

If ‘could be improved’ please explain why

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The main questions which relate to my role are reflected in the table below , 2 stores Manchester and Leeds were visited & results showed

Identify Lifestyle/ target customer

-French Connection target customers would be working class women ideally from 20-45, Mums as they have a baby range, there brand FCUK is targeted for the male category. But main targeted segment would be the 20-45 year old working class women

Range structure

-the lifestyle of the consumers would idea

ldeallly be customers who work therefore FC has the working range such as smart trousers, blouses, shirts, evening wear and party wear for certain occasions such as very sophisticated dresses for customers who have events to attend, the shoes are very classy such as appropriate wear for work, sandals and heels for occasions, and the winter boots, casual wear such as jeans and t-shirts with graphics or plain for everyday wear is also available.

Considering the target customer age majority of the consumers may have babies so FC has a baby range also

The brand itself relates to target customers as the range itself is explanatory and follows certain trends which customers rely on therefore choose French connection as there 1^st option, such as if women need to purchase work wear FC would be considered.

Best sellers

- In FC the best sellers were the work wear and evening wear, this was found by interviews with the staff members at stores in Leeds & Manchester

A pie chart was constructed showing the 2009 best selling categories in terms of Work wear , Evening & casual.

Work wear range consisted of – Trousers, Dresses, Shirts, Jackets, Coats

Evening wear – dresses, skirts

Casual wear – jeans, tops, graphic prints

Size ranges

http://www.frenchconnection.com/content/product/popup-size.htm

* The trends would be ;

-smart office wear- shirts , trousers , jackets , blouses , skirts

-evening wear- sophisticated dresses , elegant, classy

-party wear- sequined bold flashy dresses , tops

-casual - jeans hoodies , t-shirts , dresses

The 1st assignment required me to visit the tred hub and scan fabrics which best reflected my brand French Connection. As a Buyer I researched my fabrics in terms of current trends and how they could be developed, I also researchd future trends which could be adpated by FC.

I scanned certain fabric swabs which I belive would be used as fabrics for certain garments in FC.

The Fabric Swabs I belive would be used as a smart jacket as it has a twead texture & was very soft with subtle but bold colours & yet very sophisticated

The second set of fabric swabs were selected for the casual dresses , floral prints are a season trend which have been very sucessfull and adapted by FC.