Posts filed under 'Designing Fashion & Accessories'
“come go with me -oh wo oh – have no fear” – I’m pretty sure those are the right words to the song that’s playing in my head.
Here we are coming out of a recession. And I’ve been quieter than ever in the last few months because the sudden growth spurt almost killed us quicker than the recession did. All kinds of stuff fell apart at the same time, but really, it all boils down to the fact that I got in over my head. Looking back, I don’t know if there is much I could have done about it. And “it” isn’t really that bad. “It” is just falling way behind on a few orders..but there were a lot of root causes to those orders falling behind (sewing contractor falling off the face of the planet) that had me questioning our viability for awhile.
But bygones – we are here and a good half (okay more) of those customers have forgiven us and been patient during our delays. And now that we’re growing and getting out of the “keep-spending-beyond-tight” times, I see, finally, the possibility of growing our product lines. Which brings me back to “come go with me” – we’re launching a new collection for Fall ’11. I know a lot of you are in the design and development phase, so I’m hoping that if I share my design experiences for this collection, it will help move you through the steps too. And maybe I can keep you from making the numerous, costly, and very painful mistakes I made during my first round.
Sharing with you helps keep me on track, and I hope that you will join in the conversation often – I can not tell you how much it helps to hear from you, no matter where you are on your design journey. That means whether you have a question to ask or advice to give – please join in!
And I’ll find out if I can design a collection from scratch better and more efficient this time, knowing what I know now. So, this week we’re going to start planning and exploring potential themes. Come go with me – oh wo oh – have no fear….
May 14th, 2010
One of my intentions when I started this blog was to share “where it all began”. I could never find stories of how people had made the leap from idea to real products on the shelves. Everywhere I would read “she started in her garage and then blew up into a mega —”, you get the idea, I’m sure you’ve read the stories too. I’ve received a few emails lately of people asking not so much why, but so much HOW, it all began for me.
It began for me with headbands on ebay. From my dining room table. I’d have my newborn daughter sleeping safely next to me while I sewed and starting researching business basics like mad. I quickly moved on to selling outfits on ebay and quickly learned that I couldn’t sustain anything if the production was up to me. So I quit ebay and sales and went seriously into product development and learning about manufacturing.
Once I had a good product, I started to hit up the industry trade shows and local boutiques. It’s been a building process from there. A slow one for me. We receive a lot of press and once our products are in boutiques, they can’t get enough. But I honestly started this business because my kids were my priority and so, especially during the development phase, there were times that I put things on hold for long periods of time. Such as when I was pregnant with my second.
If there is anything I’ve learned since launching, it is that growing a business is exactly that – a growth process. We are picking up momentum on a daily basis, and the reality that we ARE making it is starting to sink it. Every day I learn something new, everyday our processes get more efficient, every day we improve on our customer service.
This year, I’m looking to branching into a separate work space. Right now, the business occupies two full rooms of our house. Both of our kids will be school age next year, so it won’t be necessary for us to operate out of the home. Yesterday I discovered a retail space for lease in the heart of one of the cutest shopping districts in town. I can’t stop SEEING our stuff in that window. Maybe our first retail store is in the cards, it just seems so perfect.
April 25th, 2009
A dear friend of mine has started blogging again and this morning, THIS showed up in my inbox:
What is play and why do I care?
Here’s a part that really struck a cord with me (direct quote):
I have a choice about the attitude that I bring to my art, and that is what determines whether it is play or not. It also is what determines whether I’m available to the flow of inspiration.
If I let my art be about the result, it isn’t play. When I’m focused on the outcome, I’m out of the moment and not available to the spontaneous flow of inspiration that, for me, is a big part of play.
Those two paragraphs hit me like a ton of bricks – I’ve been WAY to focused on the result. I’ve been ignoring my own natural creative process. I blame a lot of it learning!
When I was first discovering that I had a talent for this whole baby clothing design thing, I literally let the fabric speak to me. I would get my hands on it and jumble it around on the table into interesting shapes, until a picture of the perfect little design would emerge in my mind. Then I decided I had a talent for this, a passion for this, I loved it. So I set about learning the process of fashion design and that’s where I chinked my creative process a bit.
The need for technical illustrations and pattern makers has made me sketch first. I don’t think that this is the most natural for me. The lack of fabric availability and minimums hasn’t helped either. I used to just grab any fabric that spoke to me off the shelves, now I have to purchase from suppliers and wait until trade shows – or until samples come in the mail- to see the fabrics.
The post at Reinvention Revolution made me remember how much I love to sit and get lost in creative fun, get my hands on the fabric, let it speak to me, dance for me. I need to get back to that. Doing it my way.
Take a moment to read the whole post at ReinventionRevolution.com, you won’t be sorry. Gorgeous collage and inspiring thoughts…
February 18th, 2009
I have to admit that it is sometimes hard for me to remember all the things I didn’t know when I first started down this designing path. Fabric, fabric, fabric. Everything about fabric intimidated me. Not because I hadn’t worked with plenty of it in my life, but because I didn’t really know anything about it – types, care of, properties, etc.
I felt really lucky to happen upon the Fabric Swatch Kit that is available at fashiondex.com. It comes as a workbook that you put together. The fabrics are divided by type in the 3-ring binder, and you start with a pile of tiny fabric swatches. As you put the kit together, you can touch and feel and really LEARN about the different types of fabrics that are available, what the common uses are, and all kinds of useful information!
I still use the kit as a reference tool and to keep additional swatches that I’ve found through my designing journeys.
The knowledge that this kit gives you, especially if you are completely new to the field, is invaluable. You will have a lot more confidence in your line and your fabric buying excursions if you take the time to learn about fabric.
June 21st, 2008
I was researching fashion advertising last night and ran across what I think is a REALLY cool site, both for fashion advertising samples and fashion designing inspiration. The site is:
Fashion Ad Resource: http://www.fashionadresource.com/
Here’s what I think is great about the site:
- You can view past advertisements by designer brand or by type.
- She has a great section on magazines – which preview images from the decades of the last century.
- You can zoom in on the images twice, so you can actually see them!
Her homepage has her bio, so you can read a bit about her by clicking on the link above.
Enjoy!
February 19th, 2008
I’m starting to work through some of the email questions. Since I’ve received a few questions about how to source fabrics and find textile suppliers, I’ll try to give as many tips as I can (and please, everyone jump in with what I miss!).
How to locate suppliers that carry the types of fabrics you are interested in:
- Attend a textile show – you can touch and feel all the fabrics, learn about upcoming trends, and meet the reps in person. You also leave with a trade show directory, a virtual gold-mine for suppliers. This is pretty much how I’ve found all of my suppliers.
- Go to a fabric district – I’ve had some luck this way, but not much.
- Purchase directories of suppliers.
- Search for suppliers online.
Next, call potential suppliers and ask them to send you HEADERS, or swatch cards, and ask if they have a price list and / or website:
- If they don’t have a price list, you can call them back after you have the headers in-hand and talk to them about prices for each.
- They should send you cards with fabric swatches attached to a tag that contains the style numbers, care instructions, and fiber content.
- The headers are important – so that you can see and feel the different options they have before making a
- purchase. They can often inspire your collection.
Purchase sample cuts before placing a production order:
- After you select a few fabrics you’d like to try, you will call them back and ask for “sample cuts for testing”. – get enough to make at least two samples.
- Be very open with them about what you are making (and what price point you were hoping for) – they might have recommendations and options you don’t even know exist.
- Find out the availability of the fabric, some are a standard part of the suppliers line, some are seasonal. This will affect your design decisions, especially as a startup.
- Ask about their minimums, policies, payment terms, and method of shipping.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions!!!!
Before you actually go to market with production samples, make sure that you have verified the availability of the fabric. Just because a lot was available when you ordered the sample cut, doesn’t mean a lot will be available when it’s time to produce the actual garments (Oh, yes, I’ve learned this one the painful way).
October 7th, 2007
Right now, this is a catch-all post because I need to catch up…on everything (ha ha). Focus and vision, – have a vision, keep the focus. If I work on this long enough, someday I’ll get it.
My sample fabrics have arrived and I’m giddy with excitement. We’re definitely back in the usual “make it happen” mode – being only a month out from the trade show. If I can make this happen, I feel that we should be good for awhile, that we might get a good stable product line with a decent variety. I have to get to some point of sanity, and getting to a stable product line is a big one for me right now.
Oh please, oh please, grant me the late-night strength this is gonna take.
On a side note, one of you wonderful readers out there wrote me about organics suppliers and I don’t think I ever got back to you (apologies), but I have some info if you want to contact me – info@babyfabulous.com.
Speaking of suppliers I just had a longtime customer mention to us that she’s starting to see our most popular blanket fabric everywhere. I hate it, yes I hate it. Bad enough when I notice the same fabrics in boutiques, worse when customers notice. The problem is that we’ve gone with this fabric because it’s a big seller and also because it’s a fabric that the supplier keeps in-stock. Meaning, it’s not as limited edition as every other cool fabric from suppliers with low minimums (more than once our supplier has been sold out of the fabric we need when it’s time to place the production order). Since it’s a blanket that boutiques can have on display without worrying about the print selling out, we’ll stick with it a little while.
That’s the growing pains, if a supplier offers low minimums then it seems like everyone uses their fabrics – and they sell out quickly. Not so fun when you’re trying to break into a style industry. But we just have to make it through the startup phases, right? Which reminds me that a really cool graphic designer approached us this week, offering his services. He’s got some big-wig clients in his portfolio, so that’s flattering. It will be so nice to get to the point of our own print designs.
And to sign-off, I want to let those of you who’ve contacted me with questions recently know that I’ll be combing through my emails so I can answer your questions to the best of my knowledge.
August 4th, 2007
This is an add-on to my last post on Spec Sheets. Ayomide was kind enough to elaborate on her experience with this aspect of the development process in a comment she left on the blog post. I just wanted to highlight what she shared, because she has valuable input from an industry-insider’s view.
She also points out that they called them “Tech Packs”. Here’s what Ayomide had to say on spec sheets:
“I remember doing spec sheets at work. So much information but we called them tech pack, becuase it was like a pack of paper we would send to the manufacture with so much info. We would have the specs, the style #, size range, black and white line drawing, a colored line drawing with the colors called out, art information, with all the colors called out, sometimes send the actual embellishments, and sometimes a swatch of the fabric.”
One of the main things I gather from reading her comment is that if you have a decent enough color illustration, then you don’t need a full prototype. I’m not that good at drawing yet, but creating a prototype works great for me, gives everyone in the process a real picture of the expected outcome. It would be nice to be good enough at drawing to save the time it takes to create a prototype. Practice, practice, practice.
*Also note she refers to the technical sketch as a “line drawing” – I point out these terminology differences because they are useful search terms, industry slang, which we might not think of on our own.
July 21st, 2007
I have to get the tech sketches and spec sheets together for the pattern maker. If I can get this whole concept to come together by the September tradeshow, I will be very excited. I’m just excited to have a concept. So, fashion design spec sheets tell the pattern maker (and everyone else down the line) all the information he/she needs to know about a style. Here’s the information that I need to get together for the pattern maker:
- Tech Sketch
- Finished garment measurements
- Fabrics and Other Inputs that will be used ( buttons, velcro, snaps, elastic, etc.)
- Style #
- Style# to base the style on (blocks or existing pattern)
- Size of Pattern
- Description of Style
- Prototype is ideal!!!
I’m lucky enough to have a couple of patterns from previous designs that I can tweak to get a decent prototype. I’ll be using the same neckline and armholes anyways – so I think it’ll work. I can tweak it enough to get a decent prototype to my pattern maker.
Every time I look at the list of what still needs to happen by ABC Kids Expo, I freak out. Brochures and photographs and catalogs and posters and a mock display setup – pre-show pr and advertising – and then the design and development of the products we want to launch at the show. It’s better to not say all of that out loud sometimes, better to just chink away at the top item on the to-do list.
July 19th, 2007
I have to admit that keeping up with the business is difficult enough without trying to keep up with the new & upcoming trends. Whether it’s trends in styles, manufacturing systems, or consumer buying – it’s hard to keep up. Lucky for me, another mompreneur posted a link to a great trend watching site – which just happens to have a very timely article right now on “manufacturing locally”.
Oh, that’s us! We’re “Made in the USA”. The article is worth skimming over, if not reading in it’s entirety. The trend watching site looks like it’s a great trend resource, an easy click away, for us busy entrepreneur’s.
I have to say I felt a sense of pride when I read the part of the article where it says:
“(STILL) MADE HERE encompasses new and enduring manufacturers and purveyors of the local. In a world that is seemingly ruled by globalization, mass production and ‘cheapest of the cheapest’, a growing number of consumers are seeking out the local, and thereby the authentic, the storied, the eco-friendly and the obscure.”
We are not competing on price. We are competing on quality, materials, and style. And, I do believe that it’s taken a longer time to kick start a company that is based on high-end products, because we’ve have to build the brand up enough for people to believe that our products are worth the higher price point. But we’re getting to the point where we have to do less and less convincing and more and more people are buying.
The three big “drivers” for consumers seeking out the locally-made are:
- Social / Eco Responsibility
- Status
- Support
So, if you are manufacturing locally, considering how you are meeting the needs and desires of your target consumer in the above areas. I can say that one of the big drivers for me personally to manufacture locally was to provide jobs here. It’s not like we can take credit for any great number of jobs yet, but our personalized blankets provide work for hard working moms in our community, so it’s a start. I also have control issues, and the thought of having our stuff made in massive quantities far from my peering eyes gives me hives. Not really, really, really – but I’m not wanting or ready to go there.
So it’s refreshing to read an article that confirms the consumers are willing to believe it’s worth it to buy stuff that is made locally..and it also confirms my belief that quality and good service will make a difference in the long run.
June 16th, 2007
Previous Posts
