Senior Project: "alvitre" my own line

[jun3machina]

hi there,
my name is weshoyot. im a senior at a university. although i am not attending a proper fashion school, i am a fine arts and illustration major and am going to take a swing at doing my own line. I plan on making everything on my own, i do patternwork, design, construction, and ad and packaging. i plan on doing accessories, handbags and possibly some basic clothes. This is for a capstone project class, where we propose a project, document it all, and see what happens.

I did some design work for dooney and bourke in the past and so have that as a little backup support as far as legit design jobs go. I went to italy and new york and saw first-hand the methods that go into making and manufacturing handbag hardware, the leather processes from newly skinned hides all the way to rolled up orders of processed leathers for coach and dooney, as well as being part of the advertising after the finished product hit the market.

I plan on manufacturing VERY limited editions of high end italian lambskin and leather bags, and possibly selling them either online or in boutiques in los angeles. I will have to be in charge of my own PR and everything, and have learned and read about so many things here on thefashionspot since I joined a lil over a year or so ago.

I would like to keep this thread open and separate (if that is okay with the mods ) so I can add designs here and get personal feedback from other TFS members. Part of this particular thread would almost be a bit of a test market as well, so I can share designs and minimize my collection partially based on reviews and feedback I get from people either liking or not liking the design. This would be part of my project, in doing internet market research in regards to the opinions of the men and women here on the board, since I consider the majority of the tastes on this board in the demographic I would like to appeal to.

If there is anyone on this board as well that has any experience with starting or proposing/ PR-ing a line of any sort and could offer and suggestions or advice, that would be nice too.

My plan is to update this thread on a weekly basis with improvements and designs of the collection, leading up to a finished project. I hope this thread is okay and can be kept separate from other threads to aid me in my endevors. (Thanks to the mods in advance) and so i guess here it goes!

 

[Lena]

good luck, i'll be following this, feel free to ask for advice

 

[jun3machina]

thanks a bunch lena!!!

if anyone who has been involved with a line or started their own....how did you deal with outsourcing? i was involved with a start-up company and she was having prototypes made by a sewer and her company. I felt a bit weird having this done and eventually left the company because
#1) the prototypes were very sloppy and the sewers had no advanced knowledge of how certain fabrics need to be handled. The woman who was head of the start-up company hadn't a clue about why certain materials work for certain things and why others dont, and i found the communication between us extremly unorganized and difficult
#2) she was trying to get company information and trace things back to china to certain factories to buy right from the factories to get things cheaper.

is it really impossible these days to do things the old fashioned way? i know once a business starts taking orders, then the demand increases and so should the product output....but does anyone out there think it is realistic and possible to NOT outsource to cheap labor???

 

[Lena]

there is only one way to do this on small scale.. find a small atelier and ask them to do the prototypes (samples) and make sure they can follow up with a small production at fixed rates.
i know they may not be perfect but thats why you need to seriously supervise the construction..
try to find different 'ateliers' for different fabrics/types of garments, its very rare to find an atelier able to manufacture a whole line.

China is like impossible to work with for small production, so eventually you must research local workshops and end up with the best (which will also be the most expensive)

for more replies to starting up your own line, browse back the c&e forum, you will find too many -if not ALL- the replies to your questions there..

 

[jun3machina]

thanks!

 

[lucy92]

this is very neat how some of us can serve as a focus group for your project! look forward to hearing all the details!

i think it may be worth investigating how Zara used to produce their clothes. i believe they used small groups of women in northern spain to produce the clothes on the fly. zara apparently has the fastest turn around time for "fast fashion" stores.

i also wonder if other corporations hire the garment women/Sewing Women from American apparel to make things for them also on the fly.

 

[jun3machina]

thanks for the information! i will definately look into Zara....not familiar with them, but i want to learn as much as humanly possible with this project, so i will definately check them out!

 

[lucy92]

http://www.nbc4i.com/money/9753699/detail.html

i think this story on zara will be helpful. cant believe they have a two week turn around!

 

[jun3machina]

thanks a bunch lucy! i should have sketches up about a week or so from now. i am planning on doing a maximum of 4 handbag styles, a vest in different sizes, and a military type hat with brim....i am fine tuning details on construction through sketches right now and was playing around with patterns today.

i am planning on using my last name for the line, as in the title, "alvitre"....i have heard it is basque french and means either "from the glass" or "of the glass"....

 

[jun3machina]

I am planning on doing the bags out of lambskin rather than regular cowhide leather. May i ask, if you do purchase handbags, what type of leather do you prefer? do you consider lambskin a higher end leather than cowhide, or are you equally likely to purchase a bag made of either and the design aspects and visuals are more effective than the type of leather used?

I will post swatches of the hide i will be working with in a few days. I am going with several different treated lambskins that have distressing and burnishing.

 

[lucy92]

oh another thing, you may want to check out the new Built by Wendy book about sewing. it just came out a week or so ago.There's a chapter in there for people not interested in sewing on how to exactly convey to tailors what they want...

 

[jun3machina]

thanks lucy. i read about that in nylon magazine....but i am just as interested in the sewing as i am the designing....

 

[spiralsnowman]

What an interesting project jun! I don't have any experience in this area, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing your designs ; the stuff that you've posted in the past has had great detailing and workmanship...

In terms of leather for bags, I myself prefer lambskin bags when available, but I guess it also depends on your market, as bags out of these materials tend to aim for the more high-end niche.

 

[jun3machina]

i am in the process of ordering some distressed lamskin hides from a company. im getting them in earthtone shades. I am currently working on a prototype in pebbled cowhide, just to see if the pattern works up okay before i use the more expensive hides.

I will post pics of the leather i am currently working on in a few days. I will alo post leather sample shots of the leather i plan to use on these bags. and of course, i will be posting numerous illustrations to get some fedback from members here to see which designs they prefer out of the ones i have come up with so far.

I want these to be high end, but also have an everyday unique functonality about them.

I am working on a moodboard for the collection as well, which will all be posted to document my progress in this endevor.

 

[Luna]

If you are sewing lots of lambskin, a teflon coated foot for your machine will definitely make the day go by a lot quicker and painless.

 

[PrincessImp.]

I don't have much experience in this area, jun, but I really look forward to seeing your creations.
Good luck!

 

[jun3machina]

thanks for the tip luna, and of course for the support, princessimp.

 

[fashion_victim_Q]

I am looking forward for you design as well.
It must be a tough work!B)
Good luck and take care

 

[jun3machina]

here are a few of the lambskins i will be working with for the bags....im half way finished with a prototype out of calfskin, that i will take pics of soon. (pics from leatherwise)

 

[lucy92]

looks like good quality skin. how many yards are you ordering?