In brief
Most first collections should carry fewer styles than the designer wants, because each style adds sampling cost, material minimums and cash tied up in stock. There is no single right number, and a line plan should work it out from the customer, the price, the budget and the minimums. SBS Fashion offers consulting, market research and trend analysis for startups and small and medium enterprises developing new product lines.
Every style sends its own bill
Designers want a collection to express a whole world. The economics of a first season push the other way. Each style needs a pattern, samples and fittings, each brings its own fabric or trim minimum unless you have designed around that, and each needs enough units to justify a place on the line. Doubling the styles more than doubles the headaches. The development load, the odds of a fabric falling through and the number of small decisions all grow, and your attention stays the same size.
Work the number out from the money
Nobody can give you the right number without knowing your budget. Work it out. Decide what you can spend in total, including samples, production, freight and a reserve. Estimate what each style costs to develop and to produce at its real minimum. Then divide. The answer may be a good deal lower than the first line sheet.
Write a line plan before the mood board
A line plan is a one-page table listing each style with its purpose, fabric, target retail, target cost and planned units. It asks what job each piece is doing. One or two styles will carry most of your revenue. Others exist to give a buyer something to write alongside them, or to get the collection photographed. A style that can’t explain what it is for is an easy cut.
Run the margin while you are at it. A brand selling wholesale funds its costs out of a wholesale price that is often around half of retail, and a garment that looks comfortable at your retail price can leave very little at wholesale. If you plan to sell to stores, cost for it from the first style.
Sizes and colors count too
The real unit of complexity is the SKU, which is styles times colors times sizes. Twelve styles in three colors and six sizes comes to 216 SKUs, each with its own forecast and its own stock, and a small order spread across 216 boxes leaves you out of something nearly every week.
Start with a tighter size run if your customer allows it, and keep most styles in one or two colors. Add a size next season if sell-through asks for it.
Build around a few fabrics
Design more than one style from the same fabric. The yardage pools against a single mill minimum, what you learn about the fabric in one fitting helps the next, and the collection looks deliberate. The same goes for trims and a limited palette.
Test before you commit
Research belongs before the design work. Done afterward, it ends up justifying what you already made. Find out who is buying in this category, at what price, and what they aren’t being offered. An hour with a buyer at a specialty store you admire is the cheapest research you will ever do, and a pre-order or a small sample sale shows you which styles deserve the money.
A tight first collection gets you to a second one, and your reorders will show you what your customers want.
