COS - S/S 2021

Product Range Planning & Sales Forecast

The use of hierarchy for the product development strategy is fundamentally to assemble product ranges that allow fashion buyer, merchandiser and developer to provide the balance product mix including material, style and colours. Furthermore, it would suggest the prices to enable the range to fill the consumer demands. Therefore, it is suggested to use a structural hierarchy framework to analyse and classify the essential products, also their exclusivity based on the price range since it can be helpful to identify it briefly (Clark 2015).

Figure 1: Product Hierarchy for the COS Womenswear and Menswear

The exclusivity of the COS products can be found through the use of materials as well as the price ranges. The figure depicts the COS key apparel products and divided into three levels which cover limited products, seasonal and or classic items. The top part shows the variety of exclusive items which are the most expensive within a minimal amount and usually have a distinctive style to highlight the collection, also specify for the target consumer. The middle part is where all the seasonal items, which usually feature trendy design and style. The last is the bottom part includes all the primary product that is available in all seasons and the most affordable as it is an essential fashion item for everyone and target the largest group of consumers.

COS Product Range Planning – Spring/Summer 2021

According to Goworek (2014), as the part of early stage of critical path in the fashion business, the range planning and selection is crucial to be carefully executed as it involves collecting acceptable collection of garments in the market within design and financial parameter, prior to production and retail delivery. The two essential sources of reference for planning the product range are the retailers sales report and the forecasted fashion trend for the brand. Since the COS does not publicly publish their financial and annual report, it is suggested to focus on the bestselling pieces as a start for range planning.

Reviewing the previous trend forecast for the upcoming Spring/Summer 2021 with big themed trend guides by Ross (2019) from WGSN, the highlight of key products development within the silhouette, fabric, colour and style of the design in this range planning as follows:

*Womenswear S/S 21*

Minimal boxy silhouette and quilted outerwear for womenswear (Bowring 2019).

Menswear 2021.png — *Menswear S/S 21*

Knitted polo T-shirt & shirt, minimal boxy outerwear in cotton denim and fine gauge stripe cardigan for men as the core items (Barnes 2019).

Based on the online and offline observation, the new arrival items from the current collection of the COS for Women and Men are 99 and 69 designs respectively. This observation outcome shows the amount of style they design for a new collection which help the design developer to plan the product range for the next seasons.

Figure 4: COS store in Spitalfields London features the new arrival collection in February

Sales forecasting – COS Spring/Summer 2021

*The price ranges for the COS bestseller items stated in the official online website.*

The graph predicts the prospective sales for conventional bestselling products of COS in the United Kingdom. The ultimate financial forecast for Spring Summer 2021 is that the resourcing and production cost shall remain steady in product development within the foreseen of increasing sales in specific bestseller product categories. However, it predicts the outerwear sales to continue the same and shall not fall since people are assumed to be less likely to purchase it in the Summer. In the sense that even if the materials new product ranges are expected to be newly innovative, yet it should not be more costly than the average buying budget in the company, and this brief analysis could potentially develop with the actual sales data.

Forecasting a fashion trend can be very challenging and yet a light-hearted pleasure for those who are very interested in paying attention to details and trend in general. The first fundamental step is knowing and analysing the style of brand products from time to time to help the forecaster analyse as well as collecting primary and secondary data for fashion trend in general. Then it should be adaptable and straightforward to pick out the relevant trend data from consumer aspect to design trend and connect it with the brand direction.

Focusing on the Autumn/Winter 2019 Collection, Karin Gustafsson, COS Creative Director, shares the primary inspiration for this collection, which is all about exploring scale and proportion. The design team were inspired by the bold lines seen in brutalist architecture, and they reimagined the fine lines then placing them on the body to achieve gentle and less sculpted silhouettes with a focus on the waist and the shoulder (COS 2020). Interestingly, we could spot one of the trends curated by WGSN on the picture, the wrapped tops for womenswear in this collection. The trend can be seen in their design development report for Autumn Winter 2019, and some key garments include the structured felted coats and oversized leather jackets.

The COS Current Colour Palette from Latest Collection at Store

Figure 2: COS Store in Spitalfields, London

As a part of the primary research, visiting at least one of the stores is quite helpful. The picture shows how they have a speciality in displaying their garments, we can see how colour coordinated they are, and there the customers could spot the trendy colours of the year in according to WGSN (2018) they are including lime green, lilac opal, mustard, and neon.

COS Spring/Summer Collection 2016 – 2020

Figure 3: COS S/S Collection 2017 - 2020

The typical Scandinavian style is effortless, relaxed and yet very sophisticated. It is also about the art of layering fashion pieces and well-known to be comfortable, simple and easy to wear (Rogers 2015). The picture above shows the COS Spring Summer Collection between 2017 to 2020, and it projects how consistent COS design is. It presents the tangible value of the brand in products, and they have always been in the neutral colour palette, muted/organic hues. The modernist & timeless style appears on how minimal boxy the silhouette. However, despite the simplicity, COS also design some pieces in asymmetrical cut, give the small extraordinary twist as a focus and functional details in their products which mostly inspired by the art and architecture as well.

Riberti and Lancaster (2020) state that the future cutting-edge biotechnologies will make us reassess our relationship with nature, leading customer to find new materials and experiences that combine the engineered with the grown. The consumers are predicted to become more aware of what they actually need in life and connect themselves with nature as they are in urge to address the environmental issues.

Picture 4: Spotted Trends & Key Product in New Collection S/S20

Most of the garments in the upcoming collection are made with eco-friendly methods such as vegetable dye and responsibly sourced natural and recycled, which are ultimate offers of the organic (Pauly 2019). The board above shows the key products of COS Spring/Summer Collection, which are currently the new arrivals in-store, and it presents the selection of trends curated by WGSN (2019) in-store which are:

Colour selection, such as blue, rosewater, optic white.
The exploration of emerging natural method to dye the fabric with sources such as algae, bamboo, and the glut of fruit.
Design Development such as wide sort sleeve and poncho with functional details.
Reuse and recycled materials, COS produced the necklace using recycled glass (COS 2020).

Trend Forecast for COS Spring/Summer 2021

It is also essential to look at the current lifestyle, art and architecture COS when it comes to trend forecasting the upcoming garments. Because they initially want to offer it alongside the fashion pieces to their community and continuously make those three aspects as the most significant fundamental influence and inspiration in designing to align with the brand concept.

According to global trends platforms, Worth Global Network (2018), the key point of future innovation in 2021 is that the next decade advisers age of systems is both the way of thinking and a movement of product-focused design to the systemic design. A clear vision of human evolution will emerge beyond design and aesthetics, driven by climate change and environmental requirement, but also by broadening the definitions of beauty, including biohacking.

As Ross (2019) projects some of the trends in Spring and Summer 2021 below, the collection would be influenced by the future conscious lifestyle, which embraces clarity and simplicity as it is appropriate for the essence of COS. The trend board below suggests the next trend spotted in COS in-store.

Figure 5: Proposed Trend Forecast – COS S/S 2021

In n the purpose of focusing on the design core, it only shows the trend of product development in a bigger picture for COS upcoming Spring Summer Collection as follows:

The natural colour palette is drawn on the board including bottle green, and to support the suggestions above, a trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort believes that a green summer is a logical continuation in spring/summer 2021 (Loon 2019).
The use of natural basic, powdered luxe, subdued stripe gives the highlight of the material of the collection (Palmer and Skliarova 2019).
Minimalist quilted outerwear for womenswear (Bowring 2019).
Knitted polo and fine gauge stripe cardigan as menswear core items (Barnes 2019).

In summary, it seems that COS does not follow the trends as they are very steady in terms of style and committed to what they want to deliver since the brand was established. However, on the other hand, they are quite fashion-forward and giving a massive hint of future trends, which is very modern, distinctive and complicated as they carefully follow the future of human need and lifestyle in some ways.

COS - Spring/Summer 2021 Collection