The range looks generous at first glance. Thirty-two styles promise choice: occasion dressing, tailoring, knitwear, denim, a logo capsule, and enough “commercial” pieces to reassure everyone in the room.

That generosity is the problem: the range is four half-funded businesses fighting over one sampling budget.

We ask four things of every style: will it sell, can it be sampled without a fight, does it belong to this brand, and does the margin work. Beauty matters. It just doesn’t get to spend money on its own.

Four businesses in one range

The 32 styles split into four groups that barely speak to each other: tailoring (nine styles), occasion dresses (eight), knitwear (seven), and a denim-and-logo capsule (eight). Each group needs its own fabrics, its own fit rounds and its own customer. On a line sheet that looks ambitious. On a sampling budget it means every group gets too little.

What works

  • The tailoring has one clear idea: soft shoulders, long lines, one cloth in three weights.
  • Three of the occasion dresses share a bodice block, so one fit round serves all three.
  • The knitwear uses the same yarn as the tailoring trims, which ties the two groups together.

What we’d cut

Eleven styles. Eight are the denim-and-logo capsule, which is another brand’s idea spending this one’s budget. The other three are variants: a second blazer length, a cropped version of the long coat, and a dress that answers the same occasion as two others.

A second style is only variety when it gives someone a second reason to buy.

What we’d test

Four styles: two dresses with untested lengths, a knit with a stitch that may not survive production, and a coat in a cloth the mill sells only in large minimum orders. Each gets one sample in one size before anything else is committed.

The range after the edit

Seventeen styles that work as one business: tailoring at the centre, knitwear that layers over it, and dresses that share a block. Four more wait on a test. The sampling budget that was split four ways now funds one range.

The four questions, applied

  • Will it sell? The capsule’s denim had no customer the rest of the range was speaking to.
  • Can it be sampled without a fight? The untested knit stitch moved to test.
  • Does it belong to this brand? This question removed the logo pieces.
  • Does the margin work? The coat moved to test until the mill lowers its minimum order.