Category: Fashion

“Every season as a team we collectively go through all of the runway shows from New York, London, Milan, and Paris, and pull through actual looks that we think will work for future stories at Teen Vogue,” Says Sarah Brody. “Once we’ve identified the trend for the season, we go through all of our market images, which are the photos that we’ve taken at all the appointments that we’ve gone to so far, and we pull out the lower end market and the more affordable pieces that we think that our readers want to see on the page that still relates to the bigger trends that we’ve seen this season.”

“After that, we compile a book that we present to Amy, our editor in chief and our creative director at Marie. We go over every single trend, what styles we think might like that trend, what photographer would work well with it, and we send them out to all the stylists and photographers that we work with regularly. They send back their feedback and some inspiration images that they would want to incorporate for a future shoot for the magazine.”

“As shoots are confirmed, we work with stylists to call in the best pieces that we think will work for the story that they’re doing. Whether that’s a sweater from Guess or a pair of jeans from AG, we’re always looking for the best pieces in the market because it’s our job as editors to not have everything here.”

“Once everything is here and laid out, it’s organized on racks and tables. We then, as a team, edit through to what we think are the best of the best pieces that we want to show the stylists and show Amy in the run through. For those of you that don’t know what a run through is, it’s like a dress rehearsal before a show,” Explains Brody.

“We go through everything. Amy picks out her favorite pieces as the stylists goes through the looks that they’ve created. We talk over the shoot before it actually happens.”

“My favorite part of my job is meeting with new designers and figuring out how I can incorporate them into the book. After all, the Teen Vogue tagline is ‘fashion starts here’. A special experience for me was our main cover story with Kylie Jenner where our sales brand and Maxwell asked the fashion team if we knew of any designers that sent a muslin dress down the runway, and no one really did.”

“I thought of a friend that was just starting out on his own, and I asked him if he would make a dress. Brandon, myself, and my friend Max designed the entire thing from scratch. I was super excited when it ended up being shot. Here’s the image of Kylie and her friends wearing it. That was just one of the many, many memories I have of working here at Teen Vogue.”

Sample creation is essential to making fashion products that sell. According to Angela Gao, no design process is complete without time spent creating and refining these mockups.

“When I’m designing, I like to have a mood board right where I work. If I find appealing images for a new collection, I pin them up along with fabrics I’d like to use.”

Next, Gao refines the creative inspirations she’s collected. “I sort the fabric I’ve gathered. Then, I develop sketches representing flat joins of what I’d like to produce.”

Sample making comes next. Many designers produce samples in factories or designated sample rooms, but smaller designers may prefer in-house production.

“I usually produce the initial mockups and send them directly to my factories,” continues Gao. “Then the factories send me the completed samples.”

Sample-making ensures that everything fits before it goes into production or gets sold to stores. Gao says the extra effort helps her create quality products for her target consumers through a “fit modeling” process.

“Working with fit models is important, but it differs from runway shows,” Gao explains. “Runways are glamorous, so everything is slim, skinny, and tall. When you’re selling to a customer or buyer, however, your work must fit real people. Fit models have the perfect sizing that matches typical clientele. The fitting process lets the designer fix aspects that they dislike and adjust poorly fitting elements. For example, if an armhole looked too big, the designer would pin it up and resize it at this stage.”

Gao also says that fit modeling is just the first step – It’s important to recheck the work afterward. “After you finish fitting a garment, you can send the sample back to the factory. When the factory returns an adjusted prototype sample, you’ll check it against a fit model again.”

Sample making also facilitates business opportunities known as sample sales. “A sample sale is a retail channel for designers to sell samples,” says Gao. “Companies can generate some extra profit by selling samples that would go unused. The only downside of this practice is that samples aren’t perfect. Sometimes, they might lack buttons, closures, zippers, or other features. They also can have fit issues. Nonetheless, sample sales offer great deals.”

“Claire McCardell is one of those names that’s synonymous with American sportswear. She is somebody who redefined the sportswear market by adding things such as play suits and swimwear,” Patrick Michael Hughes explains. “She followed her customers from the late 1930s, to war bride, to movement to the suburbs, and into the early to mid-1950s.”

When we take a look at our Claire McCardell shirtwaist dress, we find a number of historical elements. The first of which is the shirtwaist. The shirtwaist is something that is synonymous with American fashion. It’s something that American women at the end of the 19th century into the 20th century are absolutely going to fall in love with. It’s the look of the Gibson Girl, which is really an exciting moment in history and for women. The Gibson Girl is a woman who is going to ride bicycles, operate typewriters, and have dreams of voting.

By the time we take a look at this shirtwaist dress from around 1942-1943, we have a simple cotton dress in war-time kind of proportions. It’s very paired down and very clean with just a tiny little bit of something to keep it fresh and new. The collar is able to be tied into a bow tie.

What’s also fun about this are the prints. This is a whimsical shamrock. Morality prints during World War II are very exciting to take a look at. Who are they fighting for? Why are we fighting? Keeping your morale going and looking pretty while the men are fighting abroad. This is also part of the World War II message and something that McCardell will plug into.

“If you take a closer look at the McCardell shirtwaist dress, you’ll find an interesting enclosure. McCardell was known for interesting enclosures like brass hooks, brass studs, and all kinds of things that are different than just plain buttons. When we started styling and having fun with our timeless shirtwaist dress, we put a Beastie Boys t-shirt underneath it. We tied it with a Double RL Ralph Lauren flannel shirt. We’re mixing an American message, and she’s ready for grunge. Grunge is making a comeback. Grunge never really went away,” Says Hughes.

It’s something that is also tremendously romantic. When we think about grunge, and we think about grunge dressing and the story or the narratives of a songwriter or a poet, and tragic endings. We have a really fun sort of look here.

“We find the white dress at the beginning and end of every century emblematic of the rise of democracy, going back to a classical theme. I love the white dress, in the sense that it’s fresh, it’s new, and it can say a great deal about revival,” Patrick Michael Hugues states.
“Our particular white dress is made of two components—one from the late 1970s and the other from the early 1980s. It’s the stretch lace bodysuit made by American designer Giorgio Di Sant’Angelo. Di Sant’ Angelo began his career as a Lucite jewelry designer until 1968 when the legendary Diana Vreeland discovered his talent. From there, it took off,” Hugues explains.
Hugues continues, “We have a skirt in white cotton muslin made by Geoffrey Beene from his designer clothing line Beene Bag. The white muslin skirt takes us to the beginnings of the white dress and white clothing at the beginning and end of every century. It has a classical mix. It has purity.”
“There are a couple of wonderful details when taking a closer look at our Beene skirt. One of them is a cartridge pleating, which we can trace its origin to the 18th century,” Hugues claims and continues, “the hem has a wonderful trapunto stitch hemline which gives a sense of wadded weight to our muslin skirt.”
Hugues explains further. “The wadded hemline is another fashion we can trace back to the early 19th century, something that we can trace back to the early 19th century. It has a sense of romance. It’s almost the end of the white dress, taking us into the age of romance. The age of romance, of course, referring to the time of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Emma, all of those things.”
“While I was making up a story for our white dress, which has a bit of a Gibson Girl look to it, I realized the collar is a high neck with a sense of romance,” Hugues explains. “We place on it, Tibetan beads, glass beads, ceramic beads, a wonderful sort of silver brooch with turquoise stones. and of course, a huge sort of dramatic Marc Jacobs collection sort of raccoon or fox hood to complete the look.”
Hugues claims, “Mixed with this, of course, is also a piece of surplus clothing, or Army and Navy clothing. We find a tremendous amount of Army and Navy clothing after World War II. I believe this is something that the troops will leave behind in Europe, and something that America will export to Europe.”
“This is a time where we’ll see a strong presence of American clothing in Europe. So, this green Army jacket has another level to this wonderful sort of American narrative. When we think about sorts of the white dress, about new dressing—we have a number of narratives to refer to,” Hugues concludes.

[Please embed: https://pixabay.com/photos/secretary-desk-sales-544180/]

In the fashion industry, working with a factory is a day-to-day process for entrepreneurs. That’s why fashion education covers communication.

“I do daily chores as a designer,” explains fashion expert Angela Gao. “To ensure that your samples and products are being produced on time, you need to be in touch with your factories on a daily basis.”

Bigger design houses, Angela explains, usually have a design development department that can handle these tasks. Angela is an entrepreneur, however, and she does this work on her own. Many fashion designers do the same.

For Angela, whose factory is in China, this means figuring out the time difference and choosing the best times to call her factory agent. She makes sure to call during times when both she and her factory agent are working.

When Angela calls her factory agent, she follows up on specific items and designs. She may ask if the factory received her latest design specs, for example.

The agent answers her questions and tells her about any issues with fabric, potential delays, and more. The agent will also tell her when things run smoothly. During this conversation, Angela also asks for updates on production dates and shipping.

In addition to receiving updates from the agent, Angela may also provide some updates of her own, if necessary. For example, if she changes the style of a garment, she’ll let the agent know when the factory can expect her updates.

Other conversations can include email. With email, Angela can send design specs and tech packs. Email also lets Angela communicate without worrying about the time difference.

In any case, direct communication is key for fashion entrepreneurs like Angela. Both phone and email conversations help Angela maintain her success. This way, Angela can avoid surprises and stay up to date on her design production.

The start of the footwear production process comes after you either receive an order from your vendors, your retailers, or your customers. Once you receive an order or a projection, that’s when the production officially starts. Once you have the order in hand, you have the quantities or number of units you’re looking to go to production with and you can start to negotiate pricing.

When you have footwear pricing solidified with the factories and the customers, it then heads into the next stages of production confirmation. At that point in the footwear business, you have a sales sample you’ve been showing and selling to the customer. Next, you need to provide either a confirmation spec or a technical spec of exactly what will go forward to production.

This means, if anything changed from the sales sample, you would have to communicate that to the factory or the supplier prior to them starting production. If you need an outsole to be softer, if you need a lining to be a different color or a lacing to be a different quality, you would have to call that out. The confirmation sample should reflect every change that you have made along the way.

A call out is really something that either comes from the customer or comes from yourself as the designer, the sales team, or someone who has intimate knowledge of the product and footwear education. The call out is something about the sample that you’d like addressed and resolved before production begins. Whether that’s a color, simply a comment that the execution could be improved, if the outsole could be more flexible, or if the padding in the sock compresses too much. Anything that is called out to the factory or the supplier of the footwear should be discussed and confirmed prior to actual shoe production.

In the past, footwear production management meant hand-drawn shoe sketches sent back and forth to Asia. It was a time-consuming process requiring a 16 hour flight from New York to Hong Kong and then into Southern China. Luckily, the footwear business has been working behind the scenes, communication channels are easier, and footwear education has advanced greatly which means increased efficiency and sustainability.

Increased efficiency and innovation means 3D printing, digital design, and sample development often shortens production and lead times. You can now ship tech packs back and forth digitally from designer to developer in Asia to perfect your designs.

These footwear production advances over the last five years also means reduced costs on producing a ton of samples and then figuring out what samples people want to move forward with. From there, placing an order, getting that product in, and trying to ship it across the ocean are the next steps.

Finding distributors follows if you don’t own your own retail space or if you’re not doing direct consumer. Depending on the type of shoe, this could take a year to 18 months to complete all of these steps: your footwear idea to concept, design development, all the way to production, and finally to the retail outlets.

The process of taking a shoe from an idea to the retail floor is more efficient today, but still a relatively lengthy process. There will be constant developments happening and regular communication back and forth with your factory partners in a variety of different stages of the shoemaking process. It all depends on the type of shoes you want to design, the type of customer you want to sell to, and ultimately where in the world you can find availability and capacity on both materials and production.

The important segment when you’re managing production with your design team is the tech pack. In the footwear business, the tech packs are beautiful technical drawings. First started by hand and then finished in Adobe Illustrator, the tech pack is what builds your footwear collection. It’s how you break down your collection and all of the sizes you’ll be offering. In shoes, for example, it’s your mid-soles, outsoles, cushions, labels, and your aglets on the laces.

It’s all in the small details of producing your product, from what material you use for the linings to where your logo goes. Your tech packs, sometimes loosely referred to as spec sheets, is really an international language suited for the factory. The production people will refer to tech pack and are able to understand how the product needs to be made.

The tech packs specify how styles are made and what materials are used – they are like a contract with your factory. You are going to inform the factory of every single detail in that shoe, from material, to mid-sole, out-sole, sock lining, lining, type of stitch, type of thread, logo placement, straps, laces, and fabrication. Is it welded? Is it stitched? Is it molded? All of your footwear education information is in the tech pack and what you don’t put in there will not be added by the factory.

Any information you don’t put in your tech pack, somebody else is going to come up with what’s missing. In online footwear education, you’re taught to make sure that everything’s in there. If you don’t include the thread color, you will wind up with whatever thread color’s on the machine. So you do need to be very specific and thorough with your tech pack to ensure the best results.

Technological advancements are revolutionizing the way we travel. We use technology from the moment we leave until we return. Many of us will think of Facebook or Instagram when considering what motivates us to travel. We’ll recall these lovely destination accounts. They inspire us with photographs of places we’d like to visit.

To begin, we must then arrange our vacation after we have the inspiration to travel. We may use airline or travel agent apps. We may also use apps like Tripit, which compile all of that information into one easy-to-understand bundle, so we know where we’re going and where we need to be.

Next, when we’re looking for the best deal, we might use price comparison websites such as Trivago.

Price comparison websites are interesting models because they don’t book the room for you. They only provide you with a pricing comparison. Then, as you click, you will make a reservation with the company you just selected. Trivago makes money in a variety of ways. Every time you click, the individual who actually finishes your booking receives a commission.

Finally, when we return, we may write a review. Travel reviews are critical since they have the potential to impact others’ future travel decisions. TripAdvisor is by far the most popular travel review app, and it has lately expanded its services to include travel bookings.

The entire wheel of travel, as we call it, is surrounded by technology. It’s with us virtually the whole time. Because technology has changed the travel industry, there are now professional opportunities for people we didn’t have before.

Consider how Instagram influences our travel decisions. Influencers are paid to post specific photographs or posts and videos about properties or places. Google Guides might also be an excellent way for people to review and influence the visits of others.

Another area where technology has helped people develop their own company ideas and become a part of a community is reviews. When you consider Google Local Guides, it’s an excellent illustration of how individuals leave ratings that affect where other people go. Someone may hire you as a result of the reviews you’ve published. This may lead to professional opportunities in the future.

Brand storytelling is more than simply sharing the story of your brand’s history from the beginning to the present. Whether you are trying to renew interest in your company or getting a new company off the ground, brand storytelling is as essential to any business as making sure you send the correct orders to the people who made them.

So, if telling customers or potential ones a sequential history of your brand isn’t brand storytelling, then what makes brand storytelling different? And why is getting telling the brand story in a certain way crucial to the success of any business?

What makes brand storytelling unique from laying out a timeline is that it elicits an emotional reaction and creates a connection with people when done correctly. These people will hopefully turn into new customers.

Most importantly, your storytelling must be authentic if it is going to resonate with others. When you think of David Yurman, of course, you will think of jewelry, but you may also feel as though the artist created the particular piece just for you. David Yurman’s brand storytelling reminds you that artists first and foremost are what leads the brand—designed to be both stunning and unique each piece is a reminder that artists show and care about the brand. That type of almost purely visual storytelling, along with written storytelling, allows the brand’s artistic roots to shine through, resonating with artists and art lovers alike.

As humans, we all need to feel understood, to know that someone out there empathizes with us as we empathize with others. While not every person will identify with every brand, the brands you will remember are the ones that tap into that innate human need to connect. If your brand storytelling is relatable and one that people can identify with, even feel a part of, you are doing something right.

Don’t fret if telling a story with visuals or your words isn’t your first choice of jobs to do within your company. You have options to help ensure adherence to the last aspect of your brand storytelling – consistency. It’s imperative to keep the feeling your brand’s storytelling evokes in people the same across all media platforms, from digital, print, and television to influencers you may choose to enlist to promote your products.

A company can choose who tells its brand’s particular story. If it is your company, you will feel that connection to your story. Whether you can convert that into marketable media or not, public relations (PR) professionals and PR firms are there to help. They will extend the reach of your story, acting as liaisons with media professionals who will put your brand and storytelling in front of a wider audience.

Brand storytelling is multifaceted; enlist help when you need it. As long as it remains authentic and consistent, people will identify with it and with your company.