By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTIn last year’s hit movie “The Devil Wears Prada,” Miranda Priestly, the ruthless and cynical editor of top fashion magazine Runway determines whether a high fashion collection succeeds or fails simply by pursing her lips. In the real world, timing to market makes or breaks garment offerings, not only for those introduced by high fashion houses like Gucci, Prada, Chanel, and Hugo Boss, but also for mid-level and low brand retailers such as H&M, the Gap, Zara, and Nike. For all involved, logistics plays a critical role, although—not surprisingly, supply chain requirements for these two groups are as distinctively varied as the garments they design and produce. Fickle fashionIn the high fashion and haute couture world, most garments produced in Europe and the United States are warehoused in distribution centers closely located to their respective fashion design houses. For example, Gucci Group’s Luxury Goods International and its Bioggio Logistic Centre are located on the fringes of Lugano in Switzerland’s Italian Canton of Ticino. The Bioggio Logistic Centre operates as Gucci’s central distribution center for all its goods, be it leather accessories, handbags, belts, shoes, ties, scarves, ladies’ wear, and men’s wear. “From this location we ship to all of the world,” says Luca Mavaro, Luxury Goods International general manager. Prada attempted to outsource its production to Asia a few years ago, “But it did not work out because they realized the production was not meeting their quality requirements,” comments Cedric Millet, director Cohesion Product, Air France - KLM Cargo. The reason: companies like Chanel and Hugo Boss were not able to maintain stringent quality control. Critical to these brands is workmanship, originality of a unique design, and superb materials of the finest quality. The high-end fashion houses also do not look for fast replenishment. Therefore, while logistics is critical in monitoring special packaging and secure movement of goods so their products are not subject to pilferage, speed to market is not the focus. By contrast, mid and lower-brand companies follow the trends coming from high fashion, trendy designers and produce cheap knock offs. They are more than likely to outsource their production to low cost locations like China, Bangladesh, Vietnam or India. For these companies, logistics becomes critical. Timing to market is everything. Spanish fashion retailer Zara, for example, originally had their production in Portugal and Galicia in northwest Spain. By 2004, the company had outsourced 23% of its production to China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and India, predominately. A year later this increased to 33% of their total production. Nevertheless, Zara controls the flow of its goods by first shipping all of its product back to its distribution centers in Europe, then distributing it and replenishing the goods in small batches to its retail establishments around the world. The Limited operates in a similar manner via its distribution center in Columbus, Ohio. 3PLs offer consistencyWithout a doubt, fashion is fickle. Just like short or long hem lines, what can go up can come quickly crashing down. It’s the same for fashion retailers. Today they can be in business and tomorrow they can be out of business. Obsolescence is a regular face in the trade. Today, the industry is no longer about marketing and promoting fashion apparel to consumers. It’s about getting the latest designs to consumers the moment the models sashay off the fashion show catwalks. Coupled with this and the fact that there is increasing competition, escalating production costs and eroding margins, more and more apparel manufacturers, distributors and retailers have started to evaluate the processes driving their entire supply chain. “We are noticing an increasing trend where apparel companies are now turning to third-party logistics (3PL) providers for expertise in supply chain management that reduces inventory levels and