How to Play Prêt-à-Porter

Game Objective

In Prêt-à-Porter, you are the owner of a fashion company striving to thrive in the competitive world of fashion. The game takes place over a year, divided into 12 rounds (months), organized into 4 quarters. Your goal is to lead your company to success by presenting the best Collections during Fashion Shows and selling them afterward. Each Design card presented in your Collection has a cash value (Cash), and you need to calculate the costs to assemble your Collections while ensuring you can cover the Maintenance costs at the end of each round. Fashion Shows generate Prestige, which provides Victory Points (VP), increasing the company's value and the sale value of the presented Collection. After 12 rounds, the player with the highest combined total of Cash and VP wins the game.

Setup

Follow the steps below to prepare the game:

1. Place the board in the center of the play area.
2. Separate the Final Contracts and prepare the Contracts deck, placing 3 cards face up in the designated space.
3. Repeat the process with the Buildings and Employees cards, placing them in their corresponding spaces.
4. Each player receives an individual board, Cash, 3 action pawns, 2 Maintenance markers, and 1 Victory Points marker.
5. Players draw a Clothing Type token and search for the corresponding Design cards.
6. Shuffle the remaining Design cards and place 4 face up in the designated space.
7. Place the Calendar marker on the first space of the track.
8. Organize the Fashion Show tokens in the spaces corresponding to the Calendar.
9. Randomly choose the first player, who receives the First Player token.

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

Game Flow

The game is divided into 12 rounds, representing months, organized into 4 quarters. Each quarter consists of 2 Work rounds followed by an Exhibition round. Work rounds have 4 phases:

1. Planning Phase: Players place action pawns on the board locations.
2. Action Phase: Players resolve the effects of the locations where they placed their pawns.
3. Growth Phase: Players can train employees or upgrade buildings.
4. Maintenance Phase: Players pay Maintenance costs.

Exhibition rounds have 5 phases:

1. Prestige Exchange Phase: Players exchange Prestige tokens for Victory Points.
2. Fashion Show Phase: Players choose which Collections to present.
3. Award Phase: Players earn Prestige based on the characteristics of their Collections.
4. Sales Phase: Players sell their Collections and earn Cash.
5. Maintenance Phase: Players pay Maintenance costs and settle debts.

Actions and How to Play

During the Action Phase, players can perform the following actions:

• Bank: Receive credit based on the style of your Design cards.
• Contracts: Choose an available Contract and place it above the board.
• Buildings: Purchase a Building and place it to the right of the board.
• Employees: Hire an Employee and place them on the board.
• New Designs: Choose an available Design card.
• Local Manufacturer: Purchase Materials and gain Quality tokens.
• Warehouse: Purchase Materials and gain Quality tokens.
• Import: Purchase Materials and gain Quality tokens.
• Last-Minute Preparations: Choose between gaining Quality, Public Relations, Trend, or Cash tokens.

Refer to the manual for details on this section.

End of Game and Scoring

The game ends after the 12th round. Players perform a final Prestige Exchange Phase, converting Prestige tokens into Victory Points. Then, each player adds up their Cash and Victory Points. The player with the highest total wins. In case of a tie, the player with the most Victory Points on the track is the winner.

Tips for Winning

• Focus on assembling Collections with Design cards that match your company's Clothing Type to gain additional Trend tokens.
• Plan your actions in advance, especially during Work rounds, to ensure you can cover Maintenance costs.
• Prioritize purchasing Materials and hiring Employees that increase your Quality, Trend, and Public Relations tokens to maximize your Prestige in Fashion Shows.