Paris Fashion Week sounds glamorous. The reality? It's showrooms, spreadsheets, and a lot of walking.

This season, the MakerSights team was on the ground in Le Marais (comfy shoes were non-negotiable) fuelled by croissants and moving between back-to-back buyer appointments. What we saw up close reinforced something we already knew: by the time brands reach market week, most of the risk is already baked in.

What the Market Is Really Testing

Across showrooms, a few themes kept coming up:

Texture and material interest: tactile fabrics and visible structure doing the heavy lifting on perceived value

Statement detailing: collars, embellishment, construction features telling the story

Sport references crossing categories: athletic cues influencing lifestyle silhouettes and proportions

Collaborations as credibility signals: used to open doors or connect with new audiences

These ideas generated energy. They also raised familiar questions. Which details genuinely elevate a range? Which collaborations feel distinctive rather than formulaic? And how much experimentation are buyers willing to back when budgets are tight?

The Exhausting Reality of Market Week

First, let's be honest: "Fashion Week" is a misnomer. Anyone who's lived through it knows it's at least a month. Paris matters, but so do NYC, Milan, London, Copenhagen. It's a global circuit, not a single event.

And it isn't the start of decision-making. It's the final checkpoint.

Picture this: You're a buyer, three appointments deep before lunch. You're mentally shuffling budget, trying to figure out if you can pull from one brand to invest more heavily in another. You're looking at a jacket with a persimmon collar, except design decided yesterday to change it to black, so now you're imagining what that might look like while the seller pitches it as a seasonal must-have.

Meanwhile, the seller has heard "Wow, how much is it at retail? It would be better at [insert lower price point]" at least ten times today. They're presenting ranges they've lived with for months to buyers seeing them for the first time, absorbing real-time reactions, and mentally revising projections after each appointment.

By this stage:

• Concepts are locked
• Ranges are built
• Pricing is set
• Stories are defined

Buyer meetings become moments of validation or deflation. Feedback is fast, high-level, and shaped by commercial realities, not creative ideals. And there's limited room to adjust what's already been decided.

Inspiration Is Easy. Validation Is Harder.

Classic items perform. That's expected.

What's harder to judge under pressure are the pieces that create differentiation:

• New materials or finishes
• Bolder colour or pattern choices
• Elevated price points tied to storytelling
• Collaborative ranges meant to signal cultural relevance

These are often the ideas brands care most about. They're also the hardest to assess without evidence, especially when you're making decisions across dozens of styles in a two-hour appointment slot.

Testing Before the Showroom

In performance categories, products are tested in real conditions long before race day. The same should apply to product strategy.

Digital testing allows brands to pressure-test ideas earlier, before the showroom, before production commitments are locked. Not to replace creative instinct, but to support it with evidence.

Questions like:

• Does this detail actually increase perceived value?
• Does this collaboration resonate with our target audience?
• Does the full range work together, not just the hero pieces?
• Where can we push creatively, and where should we anchor with confidence?

By the time you reach Paris (or Milan, or NYC), those questions shouldn't be new.

Testing in the Moment

That said, testing doesn't have to stop when you get to market. It's absolutely possible to test product and buyer assortments in showroom, live in appointments with quick feedback loops.

Imagine using that as a top-up to make sure a new style gets adopted. Design changed that collar from persimmon to black? AI-generate both versions, pulse-check which one actually works with buyers in real time. Use those insights to inform final buy decisions or production adjustments while there's still room to move.

The best approach combines both: early strategic testing to reduce major risks, and in-market validation to fine-tune with confidence.

From Category Thinking to Range Confidence

One of the strongest signals from market: buyers evaluate collections as systems, not silos.

Testing at the range level (across categories, price tiers, and use cases) creates clearer alignment before market pressure peaks. It shifts the conversation from "Will this sell?" to "Does this belong, and does it strengthen the whole?"

Making Market Week Feel Different

Paris, Milan, NYC, London, Copenhagen: these markets will always matter. The physical product, the face-to-face conversations, the human read, these can't be replicated.

But the brands that arrive best prepared are those who've already done the hard thinking. They use earlier testing to reduce uncertainty, align teams, and focus market conversations on refinement, not rescue.

The market moment becomes less of a gamble and more of a confirmation.

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