Week 8 @ Freedom Rains

This week started out really exciting! One of the fabrics I've been developing came in and I got to physically see it with my floral print for the first time, which was really, really cool. Although I'd love to post pictures of fabric and show what I've been working on, I'm unable to due to privacy reasons. We're using it for a few of our Fall '16 styles and I'm excited to see the garment samples when they come in during the upcoming months. We've been busy sending our sketches and tech packs out to our factories and developers, so we should be getting the first prototypes fairly soon. Also, this week our company decided to establish a ZAC Zac Posen diffusion line, which will offer cheaper versions of our higher end outerwear and will be sold in off-market stores like Burlington Coat Factory. This is a great way of promoting Zac's name and expanding our audience. There may be a lot of people who admire his couture ball gowns or watch him as a judge on Project Runway, but can't necessarily afford to purchase from either of his lines. This is a great way for them to do so!

Tech packs are vital to our design team; they're just part of being a designer. I have to deal with them pretty much every day, whether it's creating them or organizing which ones have been sent out to our factories and which ones need to be sent out. As I've mentioned in a previous post, tech packs are pretty much like instruction manuals and have to be highly detailed but easy to read. They contain a detailed sketch of the garment being created, a complete list of all materials that will be used, measurements, comments on the design details, photos ... the list could go on and on. Although our company is most known for doing the ZAC Zac Posen outwear line, we also occasionally take on private label projects for other brands. This week I was in charge of creating for tech packs from scratch for one of these projects. It was a little different than what I normally do, since it involved leather and suede skirts and tops rather than just coats - that was a nice change of pace! The company sent us samples of the pieces they want reproduced, so I needed to look at them and figure out how they can altered as per the company's wants/needs.

Also, I just wanted to take a minute to say hi to the freshman (I think you're freshman?) that have been keeping up with all of our blogs! Co-op is definitely an exciting and rewarding time and you should absolutely be looking forward to it. Start building your portfolio now in Design I and always remember to save the stuff you've created moving forward!! Your classes will unfortunately only get harder, but they will challenge you to not only think outside of the box but also problem solve - and in my opinion you can't really do one without the other. As you take Design I, II, and III try to think about how the work you're doing could be applied to a garment. I know, at least for me, that made all of those extremely tedious painting projects seem more meaningful.