Apparel Development & Consulting
If you're a designer who wants to have a factory produce your designs, you need a developer.
Because in between your gorgeous flat drawings and a finished garment, a LOT can go wrong.
The job of a developer is to review and understand your sketches and design vision, and then translate your vision into technical documents that a factory can follow to produce your design the way you intended.
I am the perfect person to be your developer for a whole bunch of reasons.
1. I have tons of experience from Guanzhou to Shenzhen to the hinterlands of Vietnam. I have worked with vertically-integrated factories where raw cotton goes in one end and bagged t-shirts come out the other. I've worked with sock factories, bag factories, cut and sew factories, swimwear factories, and everything in between.
2. I understand how factories are set up and how the cutting, sewing, and finishing lines run. I can explain to you why factories may be pushing one technical solution over another because of their set up. I can also spot when they are trying to cut corners, and help you protect the quality your brand stands for by specifying exactly how a garment should be constructed.
3. I'm based in Singapore and can communicate directly with factory staff to save you time. If you're based in the U.S. or in Europe, you won't lose a day every time you send an email due to the time difference.
4. I'm really good at this. I have excellent organization, communication, and project management skills.
5. I have a deep technical understanding of fabrics and trims. I'm familiar with the properties of technical and fashion fabrics, including fabric structures, technical properties, manufacturing processes, print and dye techniques, and quality testing modalities.
My apparel-related expertise includes understanding of product lifecycle, cost and margin estimation, fabric and trim development and testing, garment construction, and prototype fabrication. Understanding of principles of fit, design, and embellishment techniques.
I have exceptional color perception. I'm ranked at the 98th percentile based on professional testing in a color lab. I have the ability to create pleasing color pallets and combinations.
6. My superpower in this space is that I am also a gifted sewist, and that means I can make samples or parts of samples to show to factory staff. Suddenly "it's not possible to sew it that way" becomes "ok, we can do that."
How I can help you:
- Creation of Bill of Materials. This is the list of what exactly goes into making your item and how much of each item. From the fabric to the trims to the correct tex of thread that should be used, it all goes into the BOM.
- Specifications Sheet. How the garment or accessory should be made. This document includes which stitches (and therefore, which equipment) should be used to construct each part of the item, order of construction, placement instructions for any prints or embellishments, labelling and packaging instructions.
- Costing review. I can help you understand where you can save money on production without sacrificing quality.
- Marker review. I can review how the pattern pieces are being laid out on your fabric to reduce waste, and even how to generate new products from your fabric scraps.
- Sample review. I can examine your samples with an excruciatingly thorough eye for detail, and make technical suggestions for how production quality can be improved.
- Fit and Marketability. I can work with you to help develop grade rules that actually fit the members of your audience, and make technical suggestions to make your brand more accessible.
Ready to take your designs to a land of technical perfection you've only ever dreamed about? Let's go!
Reach me at cate@infinitetwist.com.
I look forward to working with you!