We are now involved with 3 collections, each of which are full year productions. That is, they do a single production run each year rather than 2 seasonal ones.
The reasoning behind such an idea is that most of the mother of the bride & groom outfits are sold in the early part of the year leading up to a significant slow-down in the latter half. Purchasing a 2nd collection for the autumn and early winter is over the top, especially as styles don't change much anyway but perhaps some darker colours may be introduced.
Each of the collections we now do are available in different colour options which can be used for later purchases therefore giving you fresh looks for the autumn.
The most significant advantage of a full year collection is that shops don't have to buy a large stock. They work on the same basis as a bridal shop does selling the wedding dresses. A decent selection of styles in a variety of mixed sizes across the styles chosen make it an easy job to work from and take ongoing repeat orders.
Doing it that way means you buy little stock, get left with very little and don't have to go into sale with the ones left as they are still in production for up to a couple or 3 years afterwards anyway.
There isn't a collection anywhere that gives you a sale or return offer but this is as close as you can get.
The Franc Sarabia styles have done particularly well this year. There have been numerous repeat orders from shops who bought only small orders; which sort of proves my point.
The F3554 shown below has been an outright winner but several other styles have all sold well. The latest order for the F3554 is in red rather than the blush pink, so that again shows the flexibility of the styles.
Although the 2017 collection pictures are with me, I am still getting lots of interest (and sales) for the 2016 styles from shops who are just taking the range for the 1st time. 2017 styles will be bought as and when I get the samples to show. Some pictures below though.
The 2017 Madison collection is absolutely exquisite. This is the 1st year we have worked with them from a brief introduction last year. The styles are so lovely. They do a full range of lovely top design dresses, suits for mother of the bride and special occasion as well as long styles some with jackets.
The pictures at the top of the post are a selection and the ones below are others we particularly like too.
Antonio D'Errico has the largest collection I have ever come across. There are as many as 140 styles, each of which can be made in up to 20 different colours. The outfits are sold separately as a dress and jacket/coat/bolero meaning you can mix and match from different styles and order in most any colour and material you prefer.
This is a true couture collection and has many styles within it from top quality mother of the bride and special occasion styles through dresses, evening-wear and now onto wedding gowns.
I now wish to raise an important warning to ladies who buy online from an unverified source.
We all know of the Chinese rip-off society. We all know that purchasing from one of the many companies who show you actual official designer pictures is a bit of a gamble, but hey; the prices are far better aren't they?
One of our customers (Norma & June Fashions) sold a Franc Sarabia outfit to a lady in Massachusetts recently. The lady took delivery and emailed back how much she loved it and top use her as a reference to others who wish to purchase from the USA.
Then 3 days later June had another email headed "Fake suit".
Of course such a heading gave immediate concern as she knows full well the outfit sent was the real deal.
On opening the email it was immediately apparent that the customer had also ordered another Franc Sarabia style from E-Bay sometime previously but as it was late coming and with only 2 weeks before the wedding had also placed the order for the Tirano from the current collection.
Now, the order she placed on E-bay arrived afterwards and it was the next best thing to a bin liner.
Chinese copies aren't even copies. It's a mish mash of cheap material, badly put together and looks nothing at all like the genuine article.
The first picure is the style the lady thought she was buying and is the very picture shown on E-bay. The second picture is what she got and finally the outfit she bought from June is shown.
So this is what she saw on E-bay and bought.
And this is what she got:
And this is the Tirano she bought from Norma & June's
