Global Fashion Industry

For a long time fashion market was a popular topic of research, but the focus of research has evolved through time. In the beginning the authors concentrated mostly in sociological and psychological aspects, For example, Wills and Midgley (1973) researched process of adoption of fashion by the populace, meaning they focused on the driving forces if fashion itself. Similarly, another popular topic of research was the life cycle in fashion industry (see Carman, 1966).

On the other hand, recently the topic of research in global fashion industry changed rather drastically that can be explained by new realities of the business environment (we can see the examples of it in the works of Wigley, Moore, 2007; Lu et al., 2009; Bhardwaj, Fairhurst, 2010).

According to the most studies, there was a typical life cycle that could be applied to the fashion products up to the 1980s. That cycle included 4 stages: (1) introduction and adoption by fashion leaders; (2) growth and increase in public acceptance; (3) mass conformity (maturation); and (4) the decline and obsolescence of fashion. Starting from the 1990s, the authors point out an appearance of new life cycle: the fashion stopped being static and began evolving constantly. According to Barnes & Lea-Greenwood (2006), Hines (2001) and Hoffman (2007) the retailers began the process of constant updating of the season’s collections. Tyler et al. (2006) noted that producers started delivering smaller stocks of fashion apparel, but much more frequently. That means that the business model in fashion industry changed drastically. Before that, the stores replenished their stocks at the beginning of the season (usually 4 times a year) with rare additional supplies inside the season, had a grand sale at the end of the season and got rid of the rest of the collection before the new season began. Now, the stores receive a limited collection to last up to a month (or rather several weeks), and the offered clothes can represent any season. At the end of the period the stores receive an updated collection, not just a simple replenishment of their

Current fashion industry is very dynamic. Sometimes, the time from design of the product to its delivery to the store is as short as four weeks. That presents a problem as not all the stages of the production process can be unified. Most of the researchers noted that the fashion retailers had to switch from supply chain management (SCM) to demand change management (DCM). More so, recent studies point to the appearance of a new type of a strategy that is demand supply chain management (DSCM). For example, Christerson & Appelbaum (1995) noted that most companies owning world famous fashion brands do not directly participate in the manufacturing process. They dedicate their efforts to design, marketing and sales. They outsource the production to third