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An investigation into product development processes for UK fashion retailers: A multiple case study

The purpose of this paper was to investigate contemporary practice in product development for clothing sold by UK fashion retailers, focusing on three essential types of participant: textile designers, fashion designers, and fashion buyers. The article was double blind peer-reviewed prior to acceptance by the journal. Interviews were conducted by the author with practitioners working in textile design, fashion design and fashion buying in clothing suppliers, a design agency and fashion retailers, from which case studies were compiled. These case studies provide evidence that communication skills have become particularly significant to enable effective collaboration during fashion product development. Participants involved in product development for High Street retailers including Oasis, Marks & Spencer and River Island were selected by utilising a snowball sampling technique. Building on the author’s own experience as a fashion designer and fashion buyer, the research explores the dynamics of the relationships between designers and buyers when developing products in the fashion industry. The three roles discussed in the paper have a high degree of congruence in their responsibilities, particularly in terms of awareness of fashion trends and market. There is an overlap between textile design, fashion design, fashion buying and other roles in the fashion business, evidenced by the findings in the paper. Therefore the congruence between various other roles and processes within the fashion business could potentially be analysed in future research. The paper concentrated on the mass market fashion business in the UK and the same roles mentioned here could be investigated in other countries or at different market levels.