31 January 2019
Meet the buyer… Paige Homan, ASOS
Every season, Jacket Required attracts buyers and visitors from some of the most sought-after retailers in the industry. We sat down with a few of the experts to get their point of view on this season’s trends, their take on the AW19 Jacket Required edition and have a glimpse into the life of a fashion buyer.
Run us through a standard day in the office
For me, the first thing I always check is reports and trading to see how everything’s performing. Quite often when you put something live on ASOS you can get a real if it’s going to work or not, within the first day particularly if you’re putting a whole brand live. Every day is so different. In meetings, we work on trend boards and our strategy for the next season. Right now, it’s trade show season so I’ll be doing a lot of back work for shows I’ve been attending. A lot of my job is going out and meeting suppliers. I do believe that this job is all about building relationships, so I prefer to be out of the office seeing suppliers, that’s how things get done.
In terms of the brands you buy, are always on the look out for new names or do you tend to buy from existing brands?
Predominantly we would be looking for cash-driving brands, which would be your big brands – there are a ton of them here! The trade show that I go out to in America is very much emerging talent and small start-up activewear brands – there’s definitely an element of going out to build a relationship with them and trying to coach them in the right areas for us. Even though we are ASOS, it’s really important for our brands to have a big brand presence; even though we’re a big platform there are still brands and products that don’t sell. We’ll coach them on growing their social media followings and sometimes encourage them to work on special collections with ASOS.
So, would you say trade shows, like Jacket Required, are the way to do this?
Totally. That’s predominantly where I would find brands. A lot of the brands that you see on Instagram and social media that are quite big don’t normally wholesale anyway, so I’m less on the lookout on social media. I also get introduced to a lot of brands through contacts, but trade shows are the one.
What are you particularly excited about seeing at Jacket Required? Has anything caught your eye so far?
So far, I’ve seen Hummel who I really like, and Hunter looked amazing. It’s great to see the big brand names, like K-Way and Hunter, who I think have a really cool, fashionable edge.
And what about trends, is there anything you’re loving right now?
I want to see what everyone’s doing with their outerwear because that’s such a big category for us right now. It feels like there’s loads of colours going on. I’ve seen lots of colour-blocking and neons in particular. It’s cool just to see the products first-hand.
Our talks today are on sustainability, what does sustainable fashion mean to you?
I’m very passionate about sustainability and ASOS is very passionate about it as well and there’s definitely a strategy in place. It’s a bit of a slow burner as we are a fast fashion company, but a lot of people are doing smaller capsule collections of sustainable products and we’re definitely trying to buy into that. It’s a huge focus and it’s such an amazing thing for a brand to have – as soon as they say “sustainable” or “ethical” it’s music to my ears. We don’t want to take on new brands that are not sustainable and we’re working with our existing brands to help them develop their brands. It’s not an easy process to be sustainable so it’s going to be a long time but we’re not looking to bring on any brands that don’t at least have a point of view on it.
Save the date: Jacket Required’s summer edition will take place 24th and 25th July.