Semantics
2026-09-04 · 6 min read
Key takeaways
- Canonical entities come before any agent.
- Colorway, season and market are business concepts, not columns.
- One definition means one answer, everywhere.
ERP, PLM, CRM and documents keep provenance and version.
Identity first
A fashion product exists in every system with a different code and a different granularity: style, colorway, size, barcode.
The semantic layer declares one canonical Product and attaches each system record to it, with the mapping that produced the link.
Entities that matter
Twenty-four entities cover most fashion questions: product, colorway, season, collection, store, market, supplier, order, allocation.
Each carries the terminology the business actually uses, so a Orchestrator answers in the language of the buyer, not of the table.
Why it is not a data warehouse
A warehouse stores rows; the semantic layer stores meaning, relationships and rules, and it is read at decision time.
It is also what makes provenance possible: every figure can be traced back to the system that produced it.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Why does “Identity first” matter?
A fashion product exists in every system with a different code and a different granularity: style, colorway, size, barcode. The semantic layer declares one canonical Product and attaches each system record to it, with the mapping that produced the link.
How does “Entities that matter” work?
Twenty-four entities cover most fashion questions: product, colorway, season, collection, store, market, supplier, order, allocation. Each carries the terminology the business actually uses, so a Orchestrator answers in the language of the buyer, not of the table.
What should a team know about “Why it is not a data warehouse”?
A warehouse stores rows; the semantic layer stores meaning, relationships and rules, and it is read at decision time. It is also what makes provenance possible: every figure can be traced back to the system that produced it.