The design department can be considered as the research and development department of a clothing factory, because it is in this department that the prototypes of garments are developed and prepared for selling and production. For most factories the process of product development involves seven stages;
Forecasting Fashion forecasting is information that offers effective and highly accurate trend predictions to the fashion, style and related industries. Fashion intelligence and industry experience shape the reports which are creative, inspiring and highly focused on various product. This provides analysis of current and future fashion trends and a very comprehensive coverage of Colour & trend direction, 18 months in advance of the season followed by design reports for each trend, 12 months ahead.
Designing The designers work in different ways. Some sketch their ideas on paper, while others drape fabric on a dress form and some others use computerized design system. These systems are becoming widely used and provide the designer with a highly versatile and flexible tool for creating new designs in the shortest time. The designer with the help of forecasting trends of style, colour and fabrics develops the illustrations/sketches for haute couture or readymade or mass market.
Collection Planning This process is in effect the pre production phase of sampling and the objectives are to set out in detail the styles, fabrics and colors which will represent the company’s proposals for the forth-coming season. The designer works in close co–operation with the marketing department and tighter they attempt to determine the best possible style, fabric and price combinations. Using the sketches of core collection, various alternatives and approaches will be examined:
Developing the variations from the core designs,
Trying the same cloth on a number of different designs,
Modifying some of the ideas to make garments more acceptable to a wider range of customers,
Addition of ‘fill-in’ type garments for which there may be a steady demand throughout the season.
Inclusion of garments which some of the larger buyers have indicated an interest.
Balancing the contents of the collection so that it contains the optimum style and price combinations.
Pattern Making Pattern making may be done manually by a trained patter maker with a paper and measuring tools or by using an auto CAD or by draping fabric directly onto the dress form. The resulting pattern pieces are used to construct the garment in required size. Various shapes and sizes of pattern pieces can be produced for various styles of garments.
Technology Technological innovations in the garment industry have been tremendous. Each and every department of the apparel industry has the scope of highly efficient machines. Use of sophisticated and advance ,machine improves the quality of the product and maximizes the profits of the company.
Production of sample garments Sampling unit within the industry makes sample garments supervised by the pattern maker or the designer. Sampling is a continual process during the development of new product. A sample needs to conform to the design, fabric and color trends along with the perfect fit analysis. Cost of each sample must be accurately calculated in order to determine the cost price and then the selling price.
Pattern Grading Pattern sizing and grading done on computer or manually is link between pattern design and generation and preparatory stages of cutting in different sizes. It is the process where patterns of different sizes are produced from the original master pattern.
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