In my previous posts, I made a point (or at least tried to, lol) about people thinking that the fashion industry is “so fancy and glamorous” but the truth is that nobody sees how the behind the scenes really happens and who makes it happen. Big brands, new collections, material sourcing, development, and investment are a few steps designers go through during the process. But how does it really happen?
Basically, if designers are organized enough, know their budget and have styles decided, the entire development starts a year ahead. Especially if you are looking into offshore production and sourcing… yes, add about three to four extra months to your development and production.
How does everything start? Like any idea, everything starts with thoughts on your mind. At V.Mora, most of our clients send us ideas (sometimes styles already sketched) and we help them finalize their designs so we can move into material sourcing and development - which is when everything gets off the paper, start taking shape, and, most importantly, it is where the business and the numbers show up.
After choosing inspiration, designs, and colors, it is time for the sourcing and this is when the industry goes wild! Developing patterns and samples have a fast turnaround time (if we are talking about local development), but sourcing fabrics/trims are where things tend to move slower. If all the sourcing is being done offshore, fabrics can take up to three months to be sourced/produced, and, obviously, coming from overseas it is always necessary to meet their minimums per order (China minimums can go up to 2,200 yards per order). Local vendors can be, sometimes, a little more expensive, but have lower minimums and (if materials in stock) turnaround time can be only two weeks.
When talking about the development, what really happens in this industry is: choose your designs, colors, material sourcing, patterns, prototypes, samples, digitizing & grading (this is one of the hardest parts of this industry, so if you are not familiar, do not try to understand. It will mess up your head - lol, but for real), size check run and photoshoot samples. Now, this is a lot to understand... Most new designers, even investors, do not really get the development process, which is why they need a team. As a production manager, this is what we do daily - dealing with clients, teaching and guiding them through each one of these steps until how to make the sales.
As I already mentioned in prior posts: development is one of the hardest parts of this industry! Nobody wants to do it hahaha (lol, but for real). It is a constant change/ pressure in between meeting deadlines, teaching clients the difference between prototypes and samples, dealing with three-week delays from China fabrics/trims (which got worse because of covid) and obviously keeping clients under their budget. It is a hard task and each step is a challenge, but I do not think I would choose anything else as my career. Watching our clients conquer their dream of a fashion brand, helping their “baby” become alive, and helping them to be successful is worth each headache, WTF screams, and lack of sleep!
a friendly reminder from a person who is inside the industry and has seen how the industry works and deal with ALL different situations with clients/vendors: if you are not familiar with the fashion industry if you never study fashion if you do not understand how the process works at all but you do want to have a fashion brand, hire a team who know what they are doing.
Have your team guide you and, most importantly, LISTEN to your team!
At V.Mora we guide our clients from the very first step (sketching) until budget and sales plan. So your team should be able to help you build your budget and be ALWAYS aware of and on top of your budget. Sometimes it is easy to say “I have the money” but do not build a long-term investment which can directly affect your business in the long run.
Ok, speaking from my personal experience working in product development and dealing with clients who do this ALL the time, it is goddamn annoying and fuck*ng frustrating the fact that clients come to us with “I have a lot of money” to end up “oh, why am I being charged for this” or “sorry, I have no more money” so be on top of your budget and make sure your team will guide you through the process and what will be needed/ what is the realistic number needed for your project.
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