Manolo Blahnik reshuffles its calendar to focus on consumer needs

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Dec 15, 2016

Manolo Blahnik is moving away from the traditional seasonal calendar with new names and deliveries for all its collections.

The prestigious shoe brand has announced that from January 2017 its collections will be simply named ‘Spring’, ‘Summer’, ‘Autumn’ and ‘Winter’, replacing the current names of ‘Spring/Summer’, ‘Pre-Fall’, ‘Autumn/Winter’ and ‘Resort’, respectively.

“We find the fashion industry’s naming conventions counter-intuitive to the consumer needs and patterns,” says company CEO Kristina Blahnik.

“Traditionally the Spring/Summer collection is delivered from January and Autumn/Winter from July, but in the Northern Hemisphere we are not seeing a demand for linen sandals when it’s snowing or fur lined boots when its 30 degrees outside. By re-naming our collections to be naturally accurate and logical, we feel we are focusing our own offering more appropriately.”

Manolo Blahnik says to have built a formula that includes its global locations and temperatures, volume of distribution and consumer patterns. With 290 points of sale in 33 countries, the brand wants to offer consumers relevant styles at the right time.

“In our opinion, the luxury customer has changed their shopping habits, they have an expectation of instant fulfilment that is symptomatic of our current social climate and our new model also addresses this,” commented Kristina Blahnik.

The Spring collection will be delivered in January/February; Summer in April/May; Autumn in July/August, and Winter in October/November.

The wholesale sales campaign dates will run as before and there will be four press presentations a year.

Manolo Blahnik’s decision to change its seasonal collections and deliveries follows a wider trend in the fashion industry to move towards a more consumer-focused model.  The luxury brands that have adopted a “see now, buy now” approach, such as Burberry, Tom Ford and Ralph Lauren, have reported strong results, while there are numerous labels that are combining their men’s and women’s shows to align the runway with retail.