Start Up Kids Line

Excited about vision for new collection

May 6th, 2007

Wow, I feel my inner-designer coming alive again. I feel like I’m tackling my first ‘real’ season for some reason. Once I decided to start my own children’s clothing line, I realized that I had a lot of learning to do. A lot – like, I don’t come from this industry, this part of the world, so where do I start?

I didn’t know how seasonal colors are decided. I didn’t know that pattern making, cutting, sewing, grading, etc. are all seperate functions. I knew nothing of market or how to get to the point of salesmen’s samples.

Then, as I started learning, I had the inspiration to create our personalized blankets. And I went on a whirlwind of a journey to figure out how to get those babies manufactured. All late nights, all phone calls and meetings on my lunch hours, and it took forever.

Meanwhile, I had dabbled in an attempt at one season of designs, but the sample-making process was such a fiasco that it never happened in-time. Then, this last season, I got it down through all the stages and am still working on the sales -so we’re doing good. But honestly, all with old designs or old ideas. Not old to anyone else, they’ve never been launched, they’ve never been seen. But old to me.

So THIS season. This season is like a whole new beginning. Because I’m sitting here way at the beginning of it, and I’m holding and touching the swatches in my hands. And I’m designing TO the fabric. I’m selecting my fabrics and letting them inspire me, the way it all did in the beginning. And I’ve got a lot of ideas.

So, I’m also ready to start messing around with scrap fabrics to see what kind of look and feel I can get. And I’m doing it at the right time. I’m already thinking of the collection coming together as one, about layer-ability, about color and number of styles. And I almost have my project schedule hashed out.

I guess I feel that I finally know the process well-enough to do this right. Instead of being so late in the season that I have to go with what I have, or being stuck on one type of fabric because it will work with my existing patterns.

So, that’s why I’m excited again. Because for the first time since I started this thing, I feel like I’m really designing again. And it makes me so so so so so happy.

          

Entry Filed under: Designing Fashion & Accessories