I’d Like To Know…

I know many other designers read this blog; they’ve mentioned it to me on a number of occasions at industry events and whatnot. So, if you’re in a sharing mood, here’s some stuff I’d like to know…

1. How the heck do you store patterns? Is there some sort of crazy filing system I’m supposed to implement? At any rate, they take up a LOT of space and by the time they’ve been graded into six possible sizes they take up even more space. Then there’s the slight variations you make to the patterns for another season, so two extremely similar patterns need to be stored and labelled in such a way they don’t get mixed up.

2. Fit models. Seriously, they’ve been nothing but disasters for me. I dropped two styles from Spring/Summer 11-12 and had to rework several others because I hadn’t tried the toiles on myself. Perhaps it’s just because I’m not formally trained in fashion so I don’t really know what I’m doing, but whilst it felt easier at the time to fit on someone else, it was more difficult down the track. Am I doing something wrong or am I not alone here?

3. Non-paying accounts. What do you do? Some of our ‘best’ and most supportive stockists just don’t pay their invoices. I didn’t start a bank here, I’m not offering them lines of credit. I expect timely payment. But how do you get it without ruining the relationship?

4. Whilst I’m on the subject of stockists… I’ve talked before about the fine line between having enough stockists to keep going but at the same time having the ‘right’ stockists on your books. What do you do when you get interest / an order from an unattractive source?

5. Lookbooks… they all seem to look rather samey. Have you ever tried not following the formula? How did that go? Whilst I’m on the subject, do you necessarily get better results using more expensive components and people? ie. Is a $1,000 a day model substantially worse than a $3,000 a day model? Or photographer? Or stylist, etc.?

Sure, I could work it all out myself, but why try to reinvent the wheel if there’s already a perfectly well trialled solution?