How can you ensure that your fashion product is both innovative and commercially viable?

1 Identify your target market

Before you start designing your fashion product, you need to know who you are designing for. Your target market is the group of customers who are most likely to buy your product, based on their demographics, preferences, behaviors, and needs. You can use market research, customer surveys, interviews, and personas to gain insights into your target market and understand their pain points, desires, and expectations. This will help you create a product that solves their problems, meets their needs, and appeals to their emotions.

2 Conduct trend forecasting

Trend forecasting is the process of analyzing and predicting the future direction of fashion trends, based on various sources of data and information. Trend forecasting can help you identify the emerging styles, colors, patterns, fabrics, and shapes that are relevant to your target market and your product category. You can use trend forecasting tools, such as WGSN, Fashion Snoops, or Trendstop, to access curated reports, insights, and inspiration on the latest and upcoming fashion trends. You can also use your own observation, intuition, and creativity to spot and interpret trends from social media, magazines, blogs, street style, and cultural events.

3 Define your product strategy

Your product strategy is the plan that outlines your product vision, goals, value proposition, positioning, differentiation, and roadmap. Your product strategy should align with your brand identity, mission, and values, as well as your target market and trend forecasting. Your product strategy should answer questions such as: What is the purpose of your product? What problem does it solve or what need does it fulfill? How is it different from other products in the market? How will you communicate its benefits and features to your customers? How will you measure its success and feedback?

4 Develop your product concept

Your product concept is the initial idea or sketch of your product, based on your product strategy. Your product concept should capture the essence, style, and functionality of your product, as well as its key features and benefits. You can use mood boards, storyboards, collages, or drawings to express your product concept visually and emotionally. You can also use tools, such as Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, to create digital mockups or prototypes of your product concept. You should test and validate your product concept with your target market and stakeholders, and gather feedback and suggestions for improvement.

6 Produce and launch your product

The final step of your product development process is to produce and launch your product. You need to find and work with a reliable manufacturer or supplier, who can produce your product according to your tech pack and quality standards. You need to negotiate the price, quantity, timeline, and delivery terms with your manufacturer or supplier, and monitor the production process and quality control. You also need to plan and execute your product launch strategy, which includes your marketing, distribution, pricing, and sales channels. You need to create a compelling story and message for your product, and use various platforms, such as social media, email, website, or events, to promote and sell your product to your target market.