Day 3 - Fitting Approvals

The morning started with me attending a final fit session for the few briefs that haven't been approved with a gold seal for mass production. I was in a small room with a fit model who fits the sample size of 34B and size 12. She was dressed in a robe and was waiting behind a curtain.

I was given a list of styles to fetch from the walk in cupboard that I had organized a few days ago. Now that I had a pretty good knowledge of the product, it was easy to find the ones that I had been asked for.

The main item in question had been a novelty short with Snoopy on. The reason that this item hadn't gone into mass production yet was because the small pocket on the first sample had not been in the right place and the snoopy logo on the front had been far too low down, meaning that the bottom of the character had been lost in the crotch area. The new sample was compared to the previous sample and the difference was instantly noticeable, the new sample was approved with a gold tag and comments sent to the supplier to indicate this item was ready to be mass produced and sent for good allocation.

There were a few other items that had previously had a few fitting and shape issues and most of them were approved as well. There was a problem with a high leg brief where the front area of the crotch was much too wide, meaning the garment technician had to make alterations herself. I was then instructed to send the altered sample back to the supplier.

It was an interesting session and I was impressed at the level of detail and attention that goes into the design of each brief. Tiny details or imperfections in the product resulted in a rejection and a return to square one for the manufacturers.

In the afternoon I sat in on a meeting with Irish hosiery supplier Marie Claire. The head designer from the Irish company arrived with a suitcase full of tights that they predicted would be successful for AW10. The head buyer and merchandiser went through the products and made decisions as to which ones would make their way to Debenhams stores. It was an interesting process, and I felt privileged to be able to see products at the beginning of the process, before anybody else.

One of the main issues that was brought up in the meeting with Marie Claire was the new 'cellulite reducing' tights. Apparently, there has been back lash about this sort of product with media coverage claiming that the technology simply doesn't work. The buyers decided not to stock this type of tight until there had been enough clinical trials and positive feedback to make it a viable purchase.

The last part of the day allowed me to be much more creative than I had been previously. Tomorrow is an important sign off day for the approval of all designs for SS11 to go forward into the next stage of production. The junior buyers in my team would present their best and worse sellers to the head buyer in lingerie as well as prototypes for SS11 collections.

I was in charge of organizing the rails and decorating to the room with the first initial products of SS11. Each product had to look like it would in store so I had to tag them and label them and put them on a hanger in order for them to appear professional. The rail of best and worse sellers also had to be organized in order of when the junior buyer would be talking about them, with all the data required stuck on the back of each brief. It was a mammoth task and took a long while to get everything organized and in the right place. Each style was presented in all the colours that it would be available in and any missing prototypes were replaced with life sized CAD drawings that I had to collect from the design department.

As well as this, I had to design a board showing all the products in a creative and interesting way. It was the first chance I had got to show my design skills and I ended up having a lot of fun in creating an interesting and eye catching display.