“It’s not only the seasonality aspect-it’s about understanding what they need,” she said, “and when they need it.” “Do you want your sweaters and your new pair of jeans in summer, when it’s still 80 degrees across most of the country?”Ĭonsumers have echoed these questions for years, and Leonard said the company’s sales data shows that October is when consumers truly begin their search for fall garb. “For a long time we’ve been talking about Back to School-does it really happen in July?” Leonard said. The shift will help to create a more appropriate seasonal flow, she said. “You’re making that decision once, versus making that decision eight months in advance and changing it four times.”
“Now we’re looking at how we start buying and committing to a month at a time.”įor designers and product developers, that will mean making snap judgments without a lot of time to waffle. “Our merchandisers for the DTC side would buy in quarterly, our wholesale team would go to market quarterly,” Leonard said. Like many brands, Lucky Brand has historically developed product in quarterly chunks. It will be a just-in-time model where decisions are made just weeks-not months-out from production. “We’re really moving toward a much shorter calendar in terms of concept through development,” Leonard said. Lucky Brand is managing its development timeline differently from here on out. “It’s not the supply chain that’s slow, it’s the decision-making process.” “To go forward, we have to be smarter and faster,” she added. Tedious rounds of sampling and deliberations over colorways and styling are bad habits that have to go, she said. With an eye toward optimizing efficiency, Leonard is focused on cutting out unneeded steps in the product development process. “This could be a gift in a sense that it’s a clean sheet of paper to redefine what your brand is, and how you operate your supply chain,” she added. “Part of it is the solitude and the alone time, if you’re lucky enough to find a quiet room in your home and not have a child or a dog or a spouse around, to just think hard. “There’s so much that we’ve learned personally and professionally going through this,” she said. Though she hates the hackneyed term “silver linings,” Leonard is quick to point to the current upheaval as a much-needed reset. “It’s impacting us in every country that we operate in,” Leonard said of the coronavirus’ spread. Now, that assumption-once held by many brands-seems laughable. Lucky Brand Offers Quiet Luxury for Spring 2024 “All of our stores have closed, and all of our wholesale customers are closed.” “We’re not unique in how this has impacted us,” she said. Senior vice president of sourcing Amy Leonard is matter-of-fact about the roadblocks the brand is currently facing. Now, in the midst of unprecedented headwinds, the brand is working to make itself over from the inside-out. The California denim brand, famous for its boho styling and cheeky “Lucky You” label sewn into the flies of its jeans, has managed to retain relevance with shoppers through the shifting styles of three decades. Los Angeles-based Lucky Brand falls squarely into the second camp. But for other brands, the unexpected challenges have served to strengthen resolve and prompt pithy conversations about future strategy. Some of those hits have proven too much to bear. In the U.S., department stores, household name brands and once impossibly hip direct-to-consumer upstarts have all been dealt blows.
The pandemic has leveled economies indiscriminately, leaving broken businesses of all sizes in its wake. Unlike a natural disaster or a local tragedy, the COVID-19 pandemic has swept societies across the globe.