Working with a factory is a big step towards getting your designs made. I find that designers fall into one of two camps when it comes to this stage. They either are intimidated and are scared to move forward on their own or they underestimate what goes into onboarding a new design successfully.
You don’t want any unwanted surprises in production and your customer doesn’t want any unwanted surprises the first time they pull the garment out of the clean laundry basket. To know what shrinkage to expect and how to manage it in production and beyond, testing your fabrics for the different types of shrinkage is essential.
Different production models can yield very different businesses, garments, customer experiences, and ethical and environmental impacts. Let’s look at a range of fashion production models and their pros and cons.
Finding the right factory for your brand is often not a quick and easy process, so it helps if you are prepared. While each factory has their specialties and ways of working, there are certain things that all cut & sew factories will need from you in order to make your design successfully.
Have you ever heard the term “production pattern” and wondered what that really meant? There are actually clear differences between just any regular pattern and one that is production-ready. Plus, there and reasons why you don’t want to (and sometimes can’t) go into production with just any pattern.
Whether I’m meeting a new factory at a trade show or interviewing a factory for a client project, the one question that I always ask is ”What do you specialize in?” How they answer tells me what type of work I should send them and whether I want to work with them at all.