The Journey of a Fashion Style (Production Edition)
This is the LAVINIA Rose Twill Jacket from Rebecca Taylor’s upcoming Holiday season. Let me bring you along the ride this style experiences in the Production department!
1. A PM (production manager) is briefed about this style in a Handover meeting with the Product Development team. The LAVINIA print was designed in-house so we had a mill laser print the artwork on approved twill body fabric from a partnered factory. Approved sample fabric, lining, and trims are also handed over along with preliminary garment cost projections.
2. Color standards are sent out to factories so they can create bulk lots of the fabric or trim and send submits for our approval. For this particular style, twill body fabric, LAVINIA printed twill body fabric, collar fabric and buttons needed bulk approvals.
3. Once bulk fabric is approved, the PM will do fabric buys and issue official POs to the factory.
3. While the bulk approval process is in the works, fittings are scheduled with the designer, tech designer and a model. The tech designer will send a 1st fit tech pack (which includes necessary patterns and sewing constructions along with detailed photos, comments) The factory produces a 1st fit sample to be approved at these fittings. (Rarely do new styles get approved at the 1st fit stage. Most go through one or two more fit samples in order to get the green light of approval) At these fittings, the style designer will work with the tech designer to comment on what the factory needs to change for the 2nd fit sample. There is usually a lot of cutting, safety pinning and taping on the fit sample. PM’s role in the fittings is to make sure designer’s call-outs are conducive to factory’s realistic abilities and most importantly, do not increase COSTS.
4. When the style is Pre-Production sample approved, the factory is given a green light to go into bulk production. During this time, the PM negotiate the final cost with the factory. Most of this is done through email, however if a style went through some trouble before this point, PM would either meet with the factory’s US representative or skype call the factory.
5. A final reference sample is sent to our department for archive and internal use.
And after production has completed at the factory, it gets sent to distribution centers. And that’s when Production’s job ends. Keep in mind this is a very condensed, overly simplified explanation of what Production takes care of for each style.
Thanks for reading!! 🙂