The Fashion pyramid is a segmentation pyramid that segregates fashion brands based on price, quality and creativity. The higher the segmentation level, the higher are those characteristics in this brand.
The five levels of fashion segmentation are Haute Couture, Ready-to-Wear (RTW), Diffusion, Bridge and Mass Market.
At the top of the fashion pyramid comes haute couture. These are exclusive, made-to-measure pieces, characterized by a high level of craftsmanship and attention to detail. They are not addressing a large audience, but rather select few clients and are considered like pieces of art.
Haute couture collections are often made by luxury brands, such as Chanel.
Ready-to-wear or Prêt-à-Porter come in more standardized sizes, as opposed to the made-to-measure pieces from haute couture. They are still characterized by a high degree of creativity that often embodies the vision of the designer
Ready-to-wear brands are intended to address a wider audience and include designer brands such as Gucci
Diffusion brands are inspired by Ready-to-Wear but intend to appeal to a much wider audience at lower price points, although the price is still at a high level. They are more casual pieces and have a younger target demographic.
Diffusion brands are distributed through different retail and wholesale channels, with the intention of reaching more customers.
Diffusion includes designer and premium brands, such as DKNY & Marc by Marc Jacobs.
Bridge brands, as the name suggests, intend to bridge the gap between high end and mass market. They address people who are ready to pay up for the right level of quality .
Bridge includes a number of premium brands, such as Coach & Diesel.
At the very bottom of the fashion pyramid comes the mass-market segment. This is intended to reach the maximum number of people, by providing trendy fashion at affordable retail prices.
This includes a high number of fast fashion brands, such as Zara, Shein, H&M, Uniqlo,..etc.
It’s important for anyone starting a clothing line or buying and pricing fashion products to know where the brand they are working on lies on the fashion pyramid.
This is because other activities done for the brand, such as marketing, buying and pricing, need to align with such segmentation.
For example, pricing a fashion item will need to reflect its segmentation, by setting a price that aligns with the brand positioning. Brands at the top of the pyramid will apply a prestige pricing strategy for example, while brands in the mass market segment will choose another strategy that is more competitive and is value driven.
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