Early-type galaxies form a tight sequence within in the colour-magnitude space which is known as the red-sequence. This red-sequence has been used to search for galaxy clusters and study the properties of quiescent galaxies up to z~1. However, the formation and build-up of the red-sequence is still uncertain and a matter of debate. I will present new observational constraints based on our analysis of the luminosity function and colour-magnitude relation using a sample of 50,000 galaxies from the ongoing VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) project. Our data are a combination of multi-wavelength photometry with precise spectroscopic redshifts, complemented by spectroscopic properties derived from stacked spectra. I will show how these data allow us to constrain both the evolution of the luminosity function and the galaxy colours, the star formation history of early-type galaxies, and discuss possible physical mechanisms that are important for the origin and the build-up of the red-sequence