As an initial attempt to understand innovation in fashion, this volume focuses on product innovations, realizing that this industry is truly an innovative sector in which diverse technologies, science, art, and tradition have been merged, synthesized, and utilized to solve the needs and concerns of the end-users. In doing so, this book categorizes product innovation into three levels-materials, style and product development-and aims to present the broader scope of innovation in the global fashion industry with the hope that other sectors can learn from these developments and be inspired.

Process innovations - an improved way of doing things - help firms achieve higher-level performance by reducing the time and cost to produce a product or perform a service, and increasing productivity and growth. This book provides a comprehensive examination of process innovations occurring in the global fashion industry, with a focus on fashion brands from USA, Italy, and Japan. It offers practical insights for enhancing efficiency in the supply chain as well as management process such as work routines, information flow, and organization structures. Using case analyses, this book will help readers to grasp how successful fashion companies optimize their operations and advance their competitive position by integrating process innovations into their supply chain and management systems.

The first volume in the Palgrave Studies in Practice: Global Fashion Brand Management series, this book provides a comprehensive view on the internationalization of fashion brands, offering unique academic and managerial insights into how fashion brands in diverse sizes can build and sustain their businesses in competitive global marketplaces. It explores the theories and trends occurring within the fashion industry, one of the most active sectors of internationalization. The majority of global fashion brands operate beyond their home countries, yet not much is known about the ventures that generate more than half of their revenues. This book takes a critical look at the global-by-nature fashion industry through a collection of actual cases from multiple countries and cultural backgrounds.

This second volume in the Palgrave Studies in Practice: Global Fashion Management series focuses on core strategies of branding and communication of European luxury and premium brands. Brand is a critical asset many firms strive to establish, maintain, and grow. It is more so for fashion companies when consumers purchase styles, dreams and symbolic images through a brand. The volume starts with an introductory chapter that epitomizes the essence of fashion brand management with a particular emphasis on emerging branding practices, challenges and trends in the fashion industry. The subsequent five cases demonstrate how a family workshop from a small town can grow into a global luxury or premium brand within a relatively short amount of time. Scholars and practitioners in fashion, retail, branding, and international business will learn how companies can establish a strong brand identity through innovative strategies and management.