I just want to start out by introducing myself--even though most of you know who I am already: my name is Victoria and I am a junior Design and Merchandising student starting my first, and only, round of co-op! I received a job offer from A Wish Come True, a dance wear/costume company, located in Bristol, PA. I work as a full-time design/pattern room assistant.
My days start off very early, with a 5:15 am wake up. This is because, as I like to say, I am a turtle in the mornings. I need to be there at 8 am. Since I live right off of Drexel's campus, I leave for work at 7 am. My commute is only a thirty minute drive, but I never know when I will run into traffic on I-95 N. My day ends at 4:30 pm.
The first day of my commute went very smoothly until I was about to turn on Ford Road, the road that leads to the company's location, and it was closed! I had to find the detour and, luckily, made it there without an issue.
Upon my arrival, my boss walked me to my cubicle and then introduced me to all of the other employees in the office. We then took a tour of the factory again, since everything is made in-house, so I could become familiar with the different departments. I had never seen so much tulle in my life! But everyone was very friendly and I felt really welcomed! Also, I noticed that everyone dresses casual. I can wear jeans to work!
In order to not bore you with the overwhelming details, I will skip ahead and just summarize the people and tasks that I encounter daily! As a design/pattern room assistant, I work primarily with the pattern makers. They are the people who design the patterns for every single costume so the pieces can be cut and sewn correctly. They have to make sure that the costumes can also be proportional in all the available sizes. I have to file all of the designer's sketches and swatches, along with the paperwork that goes along with each style. Another task that I really enjoy is filing the samples! I have to put each sample costume away in the sample room, which is filled with costumes, by category-- dance, team, color guard, dress-up, etc-- and numerically. It allows me to become familiar with each style number and design. It is incredibly impressive how different each sample is!
A task that I have just recently become introduced to is costing and doing yields. I was told that most fashion design students learn about this. I measure each component on a sample and record its measurement and size into the costing record. From there, I calculate the usage, which helps designate how much of the fabric is used. Yields are a bit more complicated because I need to take each of the pattern pieces for each component-- such as tulle or tricot-- on a style and calculate the smallest amount of yardage. It is so the price and amount of fabric necessary for creating the costume can be recorded. I realize that my explanation may be confusing, but I promise it is important! It is also kind of difficult.
There are a lot of other things that I do such as invoices and creating care labels. I record the sizes for each style into the database and then select the correct sizes and print them using the label printer! It is a pretty cool machine! Then I hand them off to the woman who sews the tags into the clothing.
This summarizes everything I have done my first week! I never thought I would learn so much so fast! Co-op will definitely be a great experience, especially working with very friendly people!
I will keep you filled in on the more interesting things that happen, but for now, I wanted to give a brief summary of my first week!
Stay tuned for more!
- Victoria
It sounds like what you're doing and what I'm doing (production) has quite a lot of overlap! How large is the factory? Also what is the typical number of garments made for each style?
ReplyDeleteThis job sounds great! Do you have prior dance experience or is this all kind of a new world to you? I never did dance, I know I would be very fascinated by all of the costumes.
ReplyDeleteJust like Anna's job, it sounds like there's a lot of data tracking and analysis involved. Did you expect that with your job?
ReplyDeleteHeyy guys!
ReplyDeleteYes, there are some overlaps, I'd say! I use Excel spreadsheets every day! The factory is the size of a large warehouse. Only a little less than half of the warehouse is filled with people sewing or using the cutting machines, the rest is filled with fabric, trim accessories, and other various components. I do not know the number of garments for each style, but I know that the garments are made most usually by the orders. We are a wholesale company, so we only sell to dance studios. For example, I only print the labels necessary for the sizes that the woman who sews them needs them in.
I actually used to do dance when I was younger! I really am curious to know if any of my old dance costumes are from there! Also, one of my best friends is a dancer, so I have always had the exposure. It is even more interesting though to see how many different styles there are for different types of dance like jazz, ballet, lyrical, and so on. There are almost 1000 styles created for each year!
I knew I was going to be in an office space, for sure! However, I was not entirely sure what to expect! It sounds silly, but all I knew was that I would have to do some computer work, some filing, and some swatch work. I actually have learned a lot more than I thought I would already!