September 06, 2025
The Weekend Read * You Need to Read The Truth Behind The Journey of Your Clothes !
Judi Prue | Read in 12 minutes
Hello!
Every time you slip on a new dress, pair of jeans or that cosy jumper you couldn’t resist, you’re wearing more than just fabric. You’re wearing a story, one that began long before you spotted it hanging on the rail, scrolling past in your size online or folded neatly in a boutique window.
We often think of fashion as something instant: we like a piece, we buy it, we wear it. But behind the seams is a surprisingly intricate process involving creative visionaries, global colour councils, fabric developers, buyers, marketers, and psychologists. Fashion is an industry that thrives on ideas and timing, a journey that can take months, even years, from conception to the shop floor.
And yet, depending on where you shop, that journey might also be astonishingly quick. A Dior coat might take a year from sketch to boutique, a Zara blouse could take six months but a Shien crop top can only takes six days.
So, who decides what colours and silhouettes are chosen for each season? How do designs move from mood boards to high street rails? And what happens to all those clothes that don’t get sold? Pour yourself a coffee, as this is the Weekend Read that will pull back the curtain on the fashion cycle, season by season, trend by trend.
A Brief History: How Seasonal Trends and Colours Took Centre Stage
The idea of seasonal fashion cycles hasn’t always existed. In fact, if you look back before the 20th century, most people wore clothes until they wore out, and “trends” were largely dictated by social class and fabric availability rather than the colour palette of the year. Fashion as we know it, changing styles tied to spring/summer and autumn/winter collections, really began in 19th-century Paris with Charles Frederick Worth, often called the father of haute couture. Worth would present seasonal designs to his wealthy clientele, setting the template for “what’s in” and “what’s out.”
By the mid-20th century, especially after the rise of ready-to-wear fashion, these cycles became more commercialised. Department stores and glossy magazines needed newness to keep customers engaged, and suddenly trends became not just about elite Paris salons, but about what the average shopper could find on the high street.
Enter trend forecasting. In the 1960s and 70s, agencies began to appear that specialised in predicting style directions for global markets. But it wasn’t until 1998, with the founding of WGSN (Worth Global Style Network) in London, that fashion forecasting became truly digital, global, and data-driven. WGSN revolutionised the industry by combining cultural analysis with big data, creating detailed seasonal guides that designers, buyers, and retailers rely on today.
Their influence is so powerful that a colour or silhouette predicted by WGSN can ripple across everything from Paris runways to Primark rails within a year. Without them and their competitors, the fashion industry would have far less cohesion and you’d see a lot more randomness in your wardrobe.
Who Decides What’s in Fashion?
We like to think trends appear out of nowhere, conjured by some kind of collective instinct. In reality, they’re carefully forecasted and planned. Here are the main players:
Trend Forecasters
Think of them as the weather reporters of fashion. Agencies like WGSN and Trend Union analyse everything from political moods to TikTok behaviours, to predict what colours, textures, and styles we’ll see in the coming years. They release detailed reports that brands pay for. Imagine 200 pages of what fabrics, sleeve shapes, or shades of green are “in” for Spring/Summer 2026.
Pantone and Colour Councils
Colour is the heartbeat of a season. Pantone famously declares a “Colour of the Year” - Peach Fuzz for 2024 and Mocha Mousse for 2025). These shades trickle into everything from catwalk gowns to water bottles at your local supermarket. The International Colour Authority also meets biannually to decide the palette direction. The mustard jumper you bought last autumn was no coincidence.
Designers and Creative Directors
At the high end, the creative director: think Miuccia Prada, Pierpaolo Piccioli at Valentino, and Demna at Balenciaga, sets the tone. Their collections debut on the runways of New York, London, Milan, and Paris. What’s shown at Fashion Week becomes a kind of seasonal manifesto, rippling outward into the rest of the industry.
Retail Buyers
Here’s a less glamorous but crucial figure, the retail buyer. Buyers for Selfridges, John Lewis, H&M, or even your local boutique attend fashion shows and trade fairs. They decide which pieces their customers will want, balancing creative vision with commercial reality. They are the bridge between the catwalk and your Saturday shopping trip.
The Street and Social Media
In today’s world, no one person decides. Influencers, micro-trends (think #cores like cottagecore or Barbiecore), and even viral TikToks can rewrite the script. A brand might plan for neutral tailoring, only to find that customers suddenly want sequins because Beyoncé wore them on tour.
The Journey of a Trend
So, how does an idea become the skirt in your shopping bag? Let’s trace the journey from concept to a finished garment to buy:
Inspiration & Forecasting: Designers attend trend seminars, scour art exhibitions, look at political shifts, or wander vintage markets.
Mood Boards & Sketches: The inspiration becomes mood boards, swatches, and initial sketches. This is where colours, textures and silhouettes take shape.
Fabric Sourcing & Sampling: Fabrics are selected from textile fairs in Paris, Milan, or Shanghai. Samples are created, sometimes dozens of prototypes before one is chosen.
Runway & Presentation: For luxury brands, the new collection is shown at Fashion Week. Buyers, press and influencers attend, snapping up the vision.
Orders & Buying Season: Retail buyers place orders, sometimes months before pieces hit the shops. A buyer might choose ten coats from a collection of fifty.
Manufacturing: Factories, often overseas in China, Bangladesh, or Turkey, produce the garments. This can take months for traditional brands, or just weeks for fast fashion.
Distribution & Marketing: Products are shipped, warehoused, and marketed. Campaigns roll out. Influencers are sent PR packages.
Retail Arrival: Finally, the clothes arrive in store or online. That “new in” section you browse is the final act of a very long play.
Seasonal Stories: Colour and Style Across the Year
Fashion doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Each season has its own story, shaped by light, mood and lifestyle. Here’s how the seasons tend to break down:
Spring
Freshness, renewal and optimism. Think pastels like mint, lilac, lemon, light layers and playful prints. Fabrics are soft - cotton, chiffon and lightweight knits. Silhouettes lighten after winter’s heaviness
Summer
Bold, carefree and energetic. Expect bright colours like coral, turquoise, fuchsia in breathable linens, holiday dresses and swimwear. Summer loves experimentation: cut-outs, shorter hems and dramatic sunglasses.
Autumn
Richness, depth and comfort. Colour palettes shift to earth tones like rust, olive and mustard. Textures like tweed, wool, leather and corduroy emerge. Silhouettes sharpen with structured coats and tailored trousers.
Winter
Drama and sparkle. Deep jewel tones like emerald, sapphire and ruby, in metallics and velvet. Winter thrives on occasion dressing: party wear, coats, and knitwear. Practical layering meets festive glamour. Of course, micro-trends disrupt these traditions such as dopamine brights in winter and 'quiet luxury' neutrals in summer, but the seasonal backbone remains.
Luxury vs. High Street vs. Fast Fashion
Not all fashion timelines are equal. Here’s how they compare:
Luxury Brands (Dior, Chanel, Prada)
Timeline: 9–18 months from sketch to store.
Process: Highly creative. Couture ateliers hand-make the samples, and runway shows dictate mood. Production is slower, focusing on craftsmanship.
Quantities: Limited runs with exclusive distribution.
Unsold stock: Sometimes it is archived and sometimes it is destroyed to preserve brand exclusivity.
High Street Brands (Zara, H&M, Mango, Marks & Spencer)
Timeline: 4–6 months.
Process: Designers reinterpret the catwalk trends into accessible styles. and Buyers focus on versatility and commercial appeal.
Quantities: Mass production, but still seasonal.
Unsold stock: Discounted in the sales and garments are sometimes sent to outlets, or offloaded to third-party resellers.
Ultra-Fast Fashion Brands (Shien, Boohoo, Fashion Nova)
Timeline: 3 days to 3 weeks.
Process: Data-driven. Algorithms scrape social media for trending looks., then Designers rapidly mock-up their own versions, often copying others. Factories produce these garments in micro-batches.
Quantities: Thousands of styles are uploaded daily online.
Unsold stock: Often minimal because of micro-production runs, but at the cost of cheap labour and environmental impact.
The contrast is stark. What takes Dior a year, Shien can achieve in under a week. But speed has consequences: quality, sustainability, and originality.
The Buyer’s Eye
The role of the buyer deserves its own spotlight. They’re part artist, part accountant and part psychologist.
At Selfridges, a buyer might attend Paris Fashion Week, spot a standout coat at Chloé and order 50 units knowing London shoppers will covet it. At M&S, a buyer might know their customer wants “elevated basics” and commission a tailored jacket that mimic a runway shape but in a machine-washable fabric. Shien buyers are more like data analysts, deciding which viral TikTok look to replicate in real time.
Buyers aren’t just middlemen; they decide which trends thrive and which fade. If no buyers back a look, it doesn’t reach the consumer.
The Fate of Unsold Fashion
Here’s the shadowy side - what happens when clothes don’t sell?
Discounting & Sales: Are the Boxing Day sales rails groaning under the weight of sequined tops? That’s unsold seasonal stock.
Outlet Stores: Many brands send leftover stock into outlet villages such as Bicester, Cheshire Oaks.
Third-Party Resale: Some stock is sold off to discount chains or international markets.
Recycling or Upcycling: Increasingly, brands repurpose unsold fabric into new collections. Stella McCartney leads the way here.
Destruction: Controversially, some luxury houses burn or shred unsold stock to protect brand value. Burberry admitted to destroying £28m of unsold goods in 2017.
Donation: Charitable routes exist but are less common due to tax and brand image concerns
Fast fashion produces less unsold stock because it manufactures tiny runs. The volume of overall production means its waste is astronomical, often ending up in places like Ghana’s 'dead white man’s clothes' markets or Chile’s Atacama desert landfill.
Life After Covid: A Fashion Reset?
The Covid-19 pandemic didn’t just pause life, it rewrote the rules of fashion. When the world went into lockdown in 2020, suddenly no one needed party dresses, office suits, or new heels. Instead, sales of joggers, hoodies, and “Zoom tops” (anything presentable from the waist up) skyrocketed. Comfort became king and fashion had to pivot overnight.
Trend forecasters and designers faced a new challenge: how do you create seasonal stories when everyone’s living in loungewear? We saw a rise in athleisure, minimalism and home-focused dressing. Colour palettes shifted too with calming neutrals and soft pastels replacing bold, extroverted shades, reflecting the global mood.
But post-Covid, something interesting has happened. On one hand, people are craving joy, escapism and expression - think sequins in the daytime, dopamine brights, and maximalist patterns. On the other, comfort hasn’t gone away. Wide-leg trousers, oversized blazers, and chic trainers remain staples, because we’ve learned that style and comfort don’t have to be enemies.
So, are we back to normal? The answer is, not quite. While fashion weeks are back in full swing and the seasonal cycle continues, Covid has permanently loosened the rules. Workwear has softened, casualwear has elevated, and many of us now prioritise versatility and comfort when shopping. Perhaps most importantly, the pandemic accelerated digital fashion culture. TikTok-driven trends, micro-cores and online shopping dominance, means the old model of trickle-down runway-to-high-street trends has been disrupted forever.
In short, we’re not fully back to pre-Covid fashion and perhaps we never will be. Instead, we’ve entered a hybrid era where comfort, digital culture and joyful experimentation all coexist, reshaping the way trends and colours are dictated for good.
Shopping Smarter: Why This Matters
Understanding this cycle makes you a more empowered shopper. Next time you buy a dress, you’ll know that the colour was chosen by a global council years ago and the silhouette was shaped by a creative director’s vision months ago. The price reflects not just the fabric, but the entire chain of design, forecasting, buying and distribution and the fate of your garment, whether worn, resold, or discarded, connects you to a global system.
When you see a £5 top online, you’ll recognise the trade-offs behind that speed. When you invest in a £300 coat, you’ll know the months of craftsmanship behind it.
Final Thoughts: Your Wardrobe as a Story
Fashion is more than consumption, it’s storytelling. Each piece in your wardrobe has travelled through the minds of forecasters, designers, buyers and marketers before reaching you. The blush-pink dress hanging on your door was once a colour swatch debated in a New York boardroom. The tailored trousers in your drawer may have originated in a Milanese atelier sketchbook. Even your £10 impulse buy carries the imprint of algorithms, factories and global logistics.
By understanding this process, we see clothes not just as things, but as stories stitched with creativity, commerce and culture. And with that knowledge, we can shop not only more stylishly, but more consciously.
Enjoy your weekend! In next week's The Weekend Read, we will explore how colour and style can boost your wardrobe confidence in hybrid work settings. Wherever you work, we have have the ultimate guide to help you.
Best wishes,
Judi & Jenny xx
Judi Prue
Personal Stylist & Colour Analysis Consultant
Celebrator of Individuality
Curator of Confidence
Tel: 07904 347847
e: judi.prue@houseofcolour.co.uk
w: www.houseofcolour.co.uk/judiprue
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