products: the soft goods chain and the four-
groups approach.
Fashion merchandisers should understand
the processes, timing, and practices of the
individual segments or groups within the overall
fashion industry. Knowing the interrelated
functions of the parts affects decisions about
what, when, from whom, and how much
merchandise will satisfy the current market
demand.
The Soft Goods Chain
The soft goods chain is the channel of
distribution for apparel and home decorating
textiles. It is also called the textile/apparel
pipeline. As shown on the left side of 4-1, the
chain starts with the textile segment, moves
through the apparel segment, goes to the retail
segment, and fi nishes with end users. The end
users are consumers who use the products.
Elements that make up a garment evolve
toward a fi nished product as they move through
the chain. There are companies that operate at
each level. Each segment buys products from the
previous one and sells to the next one. Thus, for
companies at the beginning and middle of the
pipeline, “customers” are not end-use consumers.
For them, customers are businesses positioned
at the next step of the overall chain.
The Textile Segment
As shown on the right side of 4-1, the textile
segment of the soft goods chain starts with fi ber
production. Fibers are very thin, hair-like strands
that can be quite short or very long. They are the
beginning, basic units in making textile products.
They originate either from naturally grown
sources or from chemical mixtures, 4-2.
The next step in the textile segment is yarn
production. Yarns are continuous strands of
textile fi bers in a form suitable for processing
into fabrics, 4-3. They are formed by spinning,
or twisting, fi bers together at yarn mills. (Fibers
and yarns will be discussed more thoroughly in
Chapter 6.)
Next, fabric manufacturing is done at textile
mills. The mills weave, knit, or otherwise join the
yarns into fabrics, which are long pieces of cloth.
At this point, the fabrics, or yard goods in an
unfi nished state, are called greige (gray) goods.
The fi nal step in textile production is
fabric fi nishing. This is done by bleaching,
The Wool Bureau, Inc.
4-2 Wool is naturally produced on sheep.
The Soft Goods Chain
Fiber production
Yarn production
Fabric manufacturing
Fabric finishing
Apparel designing
Apparel manufacturing
Apparel sales
Quantity buying
Single-item selling
End users Consumers
Textile segment
Apparel segment
Retail segment
4-1 The textile/apparel pipeline, or soft
goods chain, has three main segments that
feed products from beginning raw materials
to fi nished items for consumers, who are
the end users.
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