Retail buyer inspecting a wool overcoat with an Italian sourcing agent in a Prato warehouse showroom during an autumn winter wholesale Italy case study buying session

Case Study

The Case Studies section documents real sourcing projects: actual buyers, actual briefs, actual collections, and the decisions that made them work or required adjustment along the way.

Every case study in this section starts with a specific situation: a boutique in Scandinavia building a spring linen edit, a retailer in North America sourcing occasionwear for a resort market, a brand owner in the Gulf placing their first private label production order in Prato. The details are real. The numbers, where we share them, are real.

What we document in each case is the gap between where the buyer started and where they ended up: the sourcing brief they brought to us, the supplier selection we built around it, the decisions made during the session, and the commercial outcome, sell-through rate, margin performance, reorder behaviour.

We publish these stories because we believe that concrete examples are more useful than general advice. If you are planning a buying session and want to understand what a well-structured Italian wholesale order actually looks like in practice, this is where to start.

Case Study

Autumn Buying in Italy: Combining Pronto Moda and Production, a South American Case Study

An independent Argentinian store built its autumn range by buying part of the assortment ready from Italian pronto moda warehouses and having the rest produced to order. This account describes how the two calendars were overlapped instead of run in sequence, why a southern hemisphere retailer has to buy against the Italian season rather than the local one, and how customs documentation and landed cost were settled before the order was confirmed. Names, cities and commercial values are omitted.

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Case Study

Building a Linen Assortment for a New Boutique: A Swiss Concept Store Case Study

A Swiss client preparing to open a concept store worked with IFS to build a linen-led assortment without any sales history to guide her. The account, fully anonymised, follows the initial interview, the shared visual brief, a deliberately small trial buying session held online, the continuous scouting carried out between sessions, and the return visit for the following season once the shop had opened. It describes how a first assortment is tested rather than predicted, and what changes once real till data replaces assumption.

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Case Study

Boutique Case Study: Live Sourcing of Linen & Viscose Womenswear

Italian Fashion Sourcing worked with boutique owner Elena to build a minimalist, neutral-toned capsule collection via two 30-minute live sourcing sessions. Based on her Pinterest moodboard, Elena sought 100% linen pieces and complementary fabrics in earthy hues (brown, beige, olive, ivory, black), favoring wide-leg trousers, fluid dresses, and clean, print-free designs. Guided by Lana, sourcing agent at Italian Fashion Sourcing, two Italian vendors presented curated collections matching this brief. By the end of the afternoon, Elena selected a mix of linen and viscose styles to create a versatile, high-quality assortment – all consolidated into one order for efficient delivery. This case illustrates how real-time video sourcing in Italy’s Prato district can streamline product selection and logistics for boutique buyers.

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