The trick to successful fashion retail is exclusivity. Traditionally, large stores sought to entice shoppers by securing limited-edition colourways and shapes from their designers’ collections. Browse the websites of Net-A-Porter or Bergdorf Goodman and you’ll find countless mainline products proudly branded “Exclusively Ours!” But delivering something novel has become increasingly challenging in the current retail environment. With fashion being presented on the catwalk months before the clothes go on sale, everything is seen online or in print months before it arrives in store. By the time products drop, shoppers are often already bored. So, to offer some element of surprise, retailers are now working directly with labels to produce one-off capsules and collaborations that sit outside the main seasonal calendar and are unseen anywhere until they arrive in store.
行之有效的时装卖点就是突出其唯一性。一般说来，大店铺吸引买家的招数，就是强调其获得的是旗下设计师打造的特定颜色与外形的限量版时装。诸位浏览一下Net-A-Porter与波道夫•古德曼(Bergdorf Goodman)的网店，就会发现数不胜数自我标榜“限量版”的主流时装。但在当前营销环境下，推出新奇款式可以说越来越难。时装上市前几个月就已在T型台上亮相，因此在实体店正式销售前好几个月，就早已在网络和时尚类杂志上“露脸”。待正式投放市场时，消费者往往已显“审美疲劳”。因此，为了达到某种出奇不意的效果，零售商们如今与品牌公司直接合作，推出一次性混搭系列与合作款式，这些时装并不参展各大时装秀，待实体店正式上架时才露出“庐山真面目”。