When I chat to customers in the shop they are often fascinated by our Buying process and how we choose what we stock. While I would like to profess that there is a structure or formula and we get it right all the time, in reality it’s a bit more pie in the sky!

We are now buying for Autumn/Winter 16/17, but how do we know what Trends are going to be around and what the weather is going to be like?  In terms of trends, the styles and colours feed down from high end catwalks. Obviously they are adapted along the way to be more commercial than some of the outfits we see at fashion weeks. The weather is another matter completely – the reality is we have to best guess – recent seasons have shown that the UK does appear to be getting milder and we don’t have the endless weeks of snow we all remember from our childhoods. Having said that, our customer still travel so cooler climates, still stand on the side of cold pitches watching sport and still love an elegant warm coat to go out in.

So for the next few weeks I will continue my travels to suppliers and agent showrooms (it’s not quite as glamorous as watching catwalk shows), drinking half cold cups of coffee and hope that I find some gems that you will love for next Winter!

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