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Being ready for the new season is always exciting, with all the moving parts coming into place and the preparation of months of work in HQ finally coming to fruition. It’s not always smooth, and coordinating all this effort can, at times, be overwhelming, but for our stylists, it is a time to start the new season with renewed energy and hopefully feel inspired by having all the new fabrics and assets we created on hand to work with clients. This new Fall/Winter 2024 season started for me in the depths of last winter when I was walking in some of the beautiful woods around my home in Connecticut. Not in the famous New England fall, but later in the season, in the winter of January and February. |
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I have learned to find the beauty in nature all year round, not just in the brightness of spring and summer nor in the beauty of fall foliage, but also at its quietest, in the depth of the cold winter. Walking in the deep winter in the quiet of the forest can, at times, be a little scary and even magical. You can almost hear Mother Nature take a deep breath, sleeping deeply in hibernation as she prepares for spring. I love the look of the sculptural shape of bare trees against the winter sky, the grey beech tree bark, the blackened oak and brown maple bark, with the textural tree roots grabbing through deep green moss. The low sunlight at that time of year casts the longest shadows across the frosty grass that, itself, has lost its color intensity. The winter depth of color and saturation is so different from any season, and I found myself looking at these earthy tones, feeling a sense of calm and harmony. From this “Back to Nature” inspiration, I started to create the vision of the collection, building each piece individually of the final mosaic of color, pattern, and texture. |
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When it’s the middle of summer heat the idea of Fall isn’t an exactly welcoming idea, but planning is a key factor with a new collection. Focusing on the new season ahead, especially for clients who have upcoming plans on the calendar, getting appointments booked now is truly necessary so as not to disappoint. If he has needs for September, remember that now is the time to place those orders for him, and remember to give yourself even more time for new clients or new categories for established clients. Timing is everything when providing a concierge custom-made service for clients, and we strive to always deliver the best experience to our clients. There can be a misconception that “there is plenty of time” as we enjoy these hot days of summer, but we, like the rest of retail, follow a calendar built around key milestone dates. In each new collection, we add a series of new seasonal swatches of fabric we carry in stock for the season. These sit parallel to our Essentials which are, for the most part, solid qualities of year-round selling colors such as whites in shirting, navy in suiting and casual pants, etc. The pre-season will be a capsule anticipation of some of the upcoming seasonal swatches that carry over into the new season, hence pre-fall and pre-spring. These two moments are designed to give clients the option of new items when we have our twice-a-year annual events and in the interim months of July and January. |
