Day to day in fashion

Just this season we got set up with software called WFX (World Fashion Exchange).  It is a PLM (product lifestyle management) software system and is SO amazing…the screenshots below don’t do it justice.  This system is how we manage all of the tech packs for garments, approvals, sample ordering, reporting, and much more.  We used to manage everything in a billion Excel spreadsheets, and it was a mess – when something changed, it had to be updated in 5 different spreadsheets.  It was a mess and a lot of work.  This database like set up saves a lot of time and work while also tracking things more efficiently.  Here is a quick rundown on a tech pack:

WFX Tech Pack Home Page

Click on the image to get a legible view, but here’s a quick rundown on the capabilities of the software.  Circled on the left are the details for the tech pack – you can add more but the basics are colorways, care, image and annotation (allowing you to upload CADs to call out details in garments/patterns), file upload/download, specs.  Circled along the top are various tabs that allow you to track the status of the garment, a log that tracks everything modified on the tech pack, a messaging center where you can communicate w/ your vendors on that specific style, BOM (bill of materials) that allows you to add all of the “materials” required to make your garment (buttons, zippers, hang tags, poly bags, fabrics, etc), and costing where your vendors can input pricing and it will auto calculate all of your margins frombased off of your sell price.  Wow, as I write about this I realize that this is only the smallest fraction of what the software does.  More details will have to come later or this will wind up being one lengthy post…

Although I’m not nor have ever been trained as a techincal designer, I do think all the steps and processes that are followed to make sure a garment fits right are interesting.  My knowledge of this portion of the design process is somewhat limited and I’d like to expand it (although it’s hard to find time in my work day to learn new things) but I will share a little bit about what I do know.

Depending on the silhouette of a garment and/or our past experience with a factory, we will request various numbers of “protos” which will be fit and measured.  A new silhouette will without a doubt require at least a 1st proto, just as a new factory will have to submit at minimum 1st protos for all garment silhouettes they are working on.  When the garment comes in, it is first measured at the defined Points of Measure (POM) and the data is put into a spreadsheet that will automatically calculate if the measurements are out of tolerance.

Points of Measure - each has a code and a description, plus a set measurement with an allowed amount of tolerance from the Spec.

Depending on where the measurement is, the tolerance will vary.  The opening in an armhole will have a smaller amount of tolerance than the opening at the bottom of the garment.  When too many measurements are “out of tolerance”, we will request a 2nd proto and in some cases we will even request a 3rd proto.

In addition to measuring, we also fit many of the new silhouettes to ensure the pattern doesn’t just measure right but fits well on a human body.  We have both a male and female fit model so we are always fitting to the same figure.  Here you can see comments that were made for the fit on a sweater and how those comments are conveyed to the factory:

This photo shows (although hard to see) that there is an excess of fabric in the back neck. Remember, a photo can be worth 1000 words especially when communicating with people whose 1st language is not English.

This week we had a great trainer visit us from NedGraphics, the company that produces the fashion design softare we use.  We were well overdue for a software upgrade, and our upgrade included 2 days of training.  Woot!  It was an amazing 2 days of education and we learned all about the new tools that the software has to offer (some of them were actually just new to us…).  I will share with you here one new tool we learned as well as a few of the basics of one of the many programs we use.

Storyboard & Cataloging
This program is used to both “fill” garments with patterns as much as it is used to put together presentations.  I will show you here how we use it to “fill” a garment.

Storyboard & Cataloging: Filling a Garment

I’ve circled a few things that I will review briefly.  Garments are brought in filled with color based on where we need to put different patterns or where those patterns need to go in different directions.  I show a few steps of “filling” a garment from the original multicolored shirt, to defining what direction the pattern needs to go (straight up and down in the body, and at a slight angle in the sleeves – defined by the arrows that are circled), and to the final “filled” shirt.  Garments are brought in from your “article library” and patterns from the “fabric” library.  Everything can be scaled and manipulated based on the size and needs of your garment.

The new tool that we learned in S&C has by far been my favorite and without a doubt the one over which we oohed and awed over.  That would be the 3d mapping capacity of the program!  We don’t have the software to create the images to be mapped, but we have a library of basic items that we can fill using our patterns.  See below:

3D Mapping in Storyboard and Cataloging

The item (ie tie) is pulled in from the 3D Book, then your pattern is pulled from your fabric book.  It’s was my first experience with 3d mapping like this and I’ll be honest, it was a little bit like magic.

This week back in the office was a much needed change of pace in comparison to last week, full of final review on the FA10 collections and development of the SP11 line.  I’m going to make this post about the process of moving from sales samples garments to bulk production.

After receipt of sales sample garments (which are manufactured and produced independent of bulk production, giving us the opportunity to change things – details, fabrications, colors, etc) and to drop pieces, we review each and every item and send comments back to the vendors for things that must be changed and resubmitted for approval before proceeding with bulk production.  Another very tricky part of this process is that the vendor who manufactured our sales samples (SS) is not always the vendor who will get the PO for bulk production.  Initially, vendors are submitted POs for a SS order, which is usually done at 1.5 times FOB cost.  Vendors may run into various problems/challenges with any given style, such as limitations with the machinery in their factories inhibiting them from manufacturing to our expectations.  One would think that upon submittal of the GRs, the vendor would be able to say yes or no, we can/can’t do that, but surprisingly (I think) they will often take styles and then later on (which can create many problems for us in the long run) they come to us with these problems, and many of them make it our job (which it really should be theirs) to come up with the solution.  A perfect example was a knitted jacquard polo with a “cross” type design going across the left chest.  There were limitations in how many colors of yarns could be knit going vertically and horizontally, and the vendor came to us 3 weeks before SS were due and asked us to change the design.  Not willing to alter the integrity of our design, we came up with alternative solutions such as knitting the ground of the garment and then printing the cross design, or digitally printing the entire garment for SS purposes only.  This garment is a perfect example of where the vendor took something on that they were unable to complete, giving us good reason to move this style to another vendor for bulk production in order to get what we wanted.  One thing you don’t want to do however, is tell the vendor that they are not getting bulk POs for styles X, Y and Z before they have completed their SS order.  At this point they would have little/no incentive to complete their SS orders (of course they need to consider long term relationships etc, and there are vendors who will still take care of your needs even if you don’t give them certain bulk POs, but there are vendors who will totally screw you, so you just have to be careful).  Because of this, it’s best to wait until SS are done before issuing bulk POs.  As all SS are reviewed, pricing must be finalized and bulk vendors decided.  At this point, comments are sent out to vendors on things that must be changed for bulk, and we must send any quality approvals, garment samples, whatever we have for any garments that are being assigned to new vendors so that they have as much to work with as possible.  It is now time for vendors to submit everything, trims, lab dips, qualities, protos etc for bulk production at which time we will “approve for bulk”.  Almost everything that was approved previously was “approved for SS only” – this is a safe way for us to proceed as it always gives us an out to change anything before bulk begins.