Last Week / This Week

Phew! Another week down, another ahead and just a week out from the photo shoot for Volume One (Autumn/Winter 2011).

Last week was about doing groundwork for Spring/Summer 11/12 and getting prepared for all the impending deadlines and events for the Volume One collection.

Here’s what went down:

• Wrote the media release for the launch and showed it to a friend who knows about these things. Long story short, this week will be rewriting the media release…
• Interviewed a patternmaker to potentially use on the next collection. I actually really liked her, although I have more interviews to go.
• Collected lots of quotes and investigated options for the Volume One lookbook.
• Did way too much running around between suppliers and manufacturers collecting, fabric, bits and pieces, transferring samples between garment and pattern makers, etc.
• Worked on the financials / business plan for Bento some more. I need to get the final production requirements for some of my garments before I know exactly how much they’ll cost and then I can set wholesale and retail prices.

On the whole, I’ve found that whilst you might think you know how your day is going to turn out, it almost never does. There’s a lot of adhoc issues, phonecalls and emails you get that turn your day on it’s head. I’m currently trying to work out if this is at all avoidable… is it down to experience, or preparation, or is this just part of the gig?

Anyway, this week I’ll be:

• Transferring yet more samples between players.
• Picking up more knitwear samples.
• Picking up all my tailored (cut and sew) samples.
• Finishing the styling of everything for the photo shoot.
• Rewriting that press release…
• Shopping around for lists of fashion/lifestyle media people so I have someone to send the release to.
• Working on the designs for Spring/Summer 11/12.

All in all, another busy week. I swear I work harder doing this than anything I did in my corporate life… The irony of course is that at least then someone was paying me!