Unlocking the Secrets of Apparel Manufacturing

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Business can be a lonely game, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to Boutique Chat where we explore community over competition and how to scale your company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek. We'll hear from product based businesses of all types, retailers, E commerce and wholesale brands, along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry. I'm your host Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub and and I can't wait to chat.

Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast this week. I am so excited for this conversation. Pippa, you and I have nerded out behind the scenes many times on the industry and where it's headed and I can't wait just to get to pick your brain about all the design and behind the scenes things that most people don't know go into this industry. So welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm actually so excited to be on this podcast. I was really looking forward to it to just, you know, talk about the industry, answer all your questions. I think there's so much misconception about things and also what really goes into a garment is so underappreciated and once you start it on your own, you really will know what goes into that, you know. So I hope we get a chance to talk about that.

Absolutely, we will. Well, let's get started here. Take me back to how you got started in the industry. What led you here? I know you have some family history that plays into it, so bring me up to speed until this point in time.

Yeah. So I make a long story short because so I was born and raised in Germany and I graduated when I was 19 and I had a year between university and college and. And I got the opportunity to come to America because I had some extended family here and it was a German American family. And so they wanted me to talk German to the kids. And then in order to stay in America, I had to go to college for a student visa. So I thought to myself, so what am I going to study? You know, my mom, she was a costume designer in a seamstress in our local theater and that was her absolute dream. So I, you know, got to see a lot of that and a lot of sewing at home. And I remember every single costume we had going to school she would make for us. So she was some sort of definitely my role model. And then my dad, he was very into interior design. Furniture. He was a furniture designer. And it was funny, the other day I was in Europe and I posted a picture of his house and Everyone was like, who lives there? Who's this person? I was like, well, my dad is kind of like an Andy Warhol kind of person. He's a little crazy. He's an artist. He paints. And then my. My parents got a divorce early on, and my uncle actually took care of us a lot. And he was an illustrator, so we got to doodle with him all the time. And I got to spend my summer vacations at his atelier. We call it Atelier. It's like. And there were so many artists in there, and I was just always inspired by that. And that's how I, you know, when I had to make the decision of, like, what do I want to do? My life, where do I want to go into? I pretty knew already it was fashion, you know, or something, like something artistic, some illustrator classes. But really it was just, in the end, it was fashion for me.

What a perfect storm for you. That's incredible to be surrounded by so many artistic people. Did you feel like when you were growing up, like, even in your own sense of style, in your own wardrobe, do you feel like that led you to experiment more than others just because you had an appreciation for it?

Definitely. I mean, if you would ask my mom, you know, there's pictures of me at home. I would always wanted to wear the same skirt or the same hat, and I was always into it somehow, you know. And my mom actually made her own clothes. They did to this day. And that really inspired me too, you know. Yeah.

That's incredible. So when you started, you decided, right? So then you started to go to fashion school. You went to a couple different schools, if I remember right. Tell me about that. And then your first jobs out of school as well.

Yeah. So, you know, when I became an au pair here, I started at Santa Monica College and I had a. Actually really great program for fashion design. It was fashion design and merchandising, actually, so both perfect. So I finished after four years. I took my time because also, you know, me and the family got along great. They were like, well, how can we keep you a little longer? So I just studied two semesters a year. You know, the long one, spring, fall. And then by the fourth year, I was done. So the question came around, like, how do you keep your visa? I tried, actually. California State University. I hated their fashion program. Don't go there. It was nothing, hands on. Like, it was so far off. And now that I work in the industry, I was just like, what was I doing there? So that's why I left early. Anyways, my Dream was always to go to New York. And it was. My mom talks about this to this day. I was like 6 years old. I drew this picture of the Statue of Liberty, a little hamburger on the side and something else. So that was my idea of America. But. But, you know, I always had this dream of, like, New York is the fashion capital and one day I want to go. So my visa expired. I actually landed back at home in Germany. I was super depressed. I was like, my dream just popped. You know, I never got to work in the industry. I just did all this for what, Nothing. And I actually just quickly. In between. I lived in Switzerland for a year. I was doing an internship there in the fashion industry. I worked for this tiny little boutique and had some vintage stuff. And then I worked in a restaurant to save up for college. So I finally got accepted to New York. And, yeah, so my mom, you know, in Germany, I come from such a village, so she had pretty much no money. And she gave me anything, everything she had. And she was like, the best investment I could do is for my. My kids. And I said, goosebumps, talking about this. And she gave me, I think back then, €20,000. And my semester itself at FIT was like 8,000 a semester. And I was like, well, how long will this last me? You know? So anyways, I had this dream, I had this mission. I was like, I want to accomplish this mission. I. You know, and I wanted to do it for my mom and for, of course, for myself too. But I absolutely enjoyed my time there. I learned so much. I got to intern for Micah course. Then when I graduated, I. I got my. You have to take this opt. So you work in the industry for a year. I got to work at Theory and Helmut Lang. I learned a lot there. But it was very, you know, when you work for someone big in the industry, you have a very small role. So you don't really get to see everything. You're just like, this is your little job. You know, you're doing tech packs all day. And that's. That's that. And I got to go to a few fittings, but that was it. That year went by really fast. And then I moved back to Los Angeles in 2014 because back in the day, me and my husband already had started dating. And then I had to leave. And then, you know, he contacted me back while I was living in New York. So I moved back 2014, I was back in LA, and I remember I interviewed for is now my business partner. And we go way back. It's been now 10 years. And I started to work for him as an assistant designer in. Actually I work for him domestic. So we had an in house team there. We had a 40,000 square foot warehouse, we had our pattern room, we had our sample sewers, we had fabrics everywhere. And here I am. I was like, wow, I. I get to do this. I get to design. So from quickly being an assistant designer, he's like, okay, so we are doing. Sam is the biggest dreamer and he, he get. But he gets it done. So he was like, so we're going to have all these lines. I want you to take on this line. I feel like you would fit in perfectly. It was called Etheria and it was more like the modern contemporary one. And then also on top of that, he was like, well, this is how you do production. I was like, wait a minute. I thought, you know what I learned from theory in Helmut Lang, you have like a production department. You have a fabric department, you have a department for everything. No, no, no. He was like, this is how you do it. You know, he taught us. But then he let us run with it. And that's the best thing he could have ever done for me because I was so. I was first afraid. I was just like, is he crazy? He lets me do this, you know, Like, I remember we got an order for a little bit, let's say. Yeah, yeah, it takes a little bit of craziness actually to be in this industry, right? So he gave. I will never forget, we had this order, it was like 250, 000 pieces for TJ Maxx. And he's like, so this is how you calculate your fabric based on this pattern. So you calculate the yield. And I was like, wait, you let me order this fabric right now.

Like what?

You know, so I got to really learn the ins and outs. And then I did the domestic part of it, I did the import part of it. And then soon, soon after he. We started just like more brands and we opened up an office in China. You know, we realized that once you go to a factory and you, let's say in the wholesale world, you produce a lot of samples because you want to see what sells. So you take them to a show, you get a count on it, and then you see, well, do we drop this style or do we move forward with it? Have we created a bestseller here? And once you have, you know, you go to your factory and you start asking them to make samples, they're expecting an order. And you want to make sure you're not losing your relationships because they're like, wait a second. We put in so much work into, let's say 15 or let's say a total of really 50, 60 samples a month. And then you just move Forward with maybe 30. You know, they're like, this is a waste of our time and you want to make sure you have great relationships. So we started having our own China office and that helped a lot with. And we still have it there. We have a sample room there. They're excellent at sourcing because, you know, we trained them to a point where like, they knew exactly what they were looking for in terms of fabrication. They knew exactly what we were looking for in terms of the aesthetic for each line we had. And yeah, that's pretty much how this whole thing came together. Yeah, that's where I learned.

It's incredible. And for those of you who are listening, who don't know who Sam is, who she's referring to, Sam was also recently on the podcast, so you guys can check out his episode as well. And, and those of you in the Hub who have been a part of our mastermind and retail boot camp, you've had a little bit of access to Sam and to Pippa as well. So love to see that full circle. And it just goes to show, like, the relationships, the power of relationships in our industry as well. Okay, so of all of this process of you learning hands on. Right. And kind of getting thrown to the wolves to figure some things out, you have a massive appreciation, like you said, for what goes into a garment. What are some things you wish more people knew about overall, how the industry works that you think would give them more of an appreciation for what goes into all of it?

Absolutely. Honestly, that's my favorite question to answer because, you know, as I'm working with clients, just in general, I see their idea of how things should be. Right. They. Everyone comes in with a certain expectations and expectation and they're, they're thinking they have this idea about it that is. Oftentimes I have to prove them wrong. And it's a little bit of an uncomfortable part because, you know, from the pre production to the production phase, it really takes you six, I would say four to six weeks. And just that understanding that it takes that long. They don't know why, you know, and they're, they might think, well, is, is she slow or, you know, how is that? But there is so much that goes into it. You know, I have to send the same. I, I spec the sample, which is the measuring part of the sample before I send it to China. If we do have a reference sample, if not, we have to create this tech pack. That tech pack is super detailed. It's your blueprint that will run you through the entire production part. So there can be nothing wrong there. You know, so, and then once it goes into production, it really, you know, you really have I would say three to four samples and I would say two pp samples. If not, if everything goes great and you know, your top of production sample. But even that sometimes they don't understand why do you have that many samples? And then it could also be that sometimes they're overly giving comments. They're finding every single meticulous measurement that needs to be fixed, that doesn't really need to be. I mean there's ways to say like hey, we can approve this with comments, but because they don't have the relationship or the trust behind that, it will go right. They're just over commenting on things and then it takes longer. But then they're also not taking in consideration that every time they ask for a new sample it will add on three to four weeks. So if you're on a tight timeline, how, how are you going to finish your production, you know, or especially if you have already sold that style and you're just doing the finishes and getting this into production, you're running late. And so I actually recently besides from, you know that we did the course together, which is so incredible because we got to pass on all the knowledge we gathered or you know, Sam and I. Sam has been in the industry way longer. He has made way more mistakes. I was just there to witness and learn from him and then all the successes he had, you know, but just the appreciation of what goes into this process and you know, what, what the cost that a garment, you know, costs to make, the time you're investing in it.

Yeah, yeah.

There's sort of an under appreciation and a weird expectations about things. So I started learning from my clients because I wrote down pretty much when they came back to me with questions, I wrote it down and I have, I almost wrote like a handbook for them that will answer all the question of why things can happen, you know, and production is like such a, it's such a process. It's no linear line. There is so many ups and downs. The most unexpected things are happening, you know, and in the end you just see that, that product on a hanger, you don't know what goes into it, you know.

Yeah, there's definitely a misconception that fast fashion, that it's so fast. And so yes, when you're somebody who comes in on the other side, whether you've been a retailer or you're developing a brand, whatever. And you think it's gonna happen fast for you, too. I mean, there's a lot of slow that goes into it to make it look fast at the end of the day.

Exactly.

Something you mentioned. And I'll link this up in the show notes for you guys, in case you aren't aware, but Sam and Pippa and myself put together a masterclass all about apparel production. And this is really whether you're just trying to have a greater understanding and appreciation for the industry to make you a better business owner, or whether you're looking to do some private label work or you're deciding like is white labeling and then doing some private cuts with an existing vendor. Right. For me, or am I ready to go create my own capsule collection? We try to, you know, pack all the details in so you guys can learn from everyone's collective knowledge. But I do specifically want to speak to that question. Pippa, you and I talk about this a lot. If I'm. Let's say I'm an influencer and I'm wanting to create a brand, or I'm a retailer, you know, with a pretty substantial customer base, and I'm looking to create my own pieces, how do you think the decision is made of when do I private label versus when do I go to a vendor I have an existing relationship with and ask them to do a few cuts for me versus when do I go all in and say, okay, I'm going to work with Sam and Pippa and create all of my own pieces for a capsule collection? How do I make those determinations?

Yeah, I feel like, you know, you will know once you know the risk you want to take, because starting your own brand is very. It's very risky. There's a lot of money that goes into it. Right. So I would. For somebody that doesn't have the entire background and knowledge yet of how to create a brand new, I would say, why not starting with white labeling? You know, you, you. You're going to be the. The buyer of your own. I would say when we. When. When I go shop, for example, I know exactly what I'm looking for. Right. I'm the buyer of my closet, of course. So if you know you have a certain style and you know your target customer who you're buying for, but you don't want to dive into the absolute deep risk of doing your. There is a lot of mistakes that can happen along the way, then I would definitely say you're the candidate that should first try out working with just, sorry, buying and then white labeling it, you know, and see how that sells to your target customer. Like, do test, test runs of styles of, am I targeting the right group? You know, start with that. You don't have to dive in this deep and do your own production. And, and then if you done that and now you have built relationships with your vendors because you bought from your vendors, your, you know, white labeling, then I would say, you know, slowly dive into contacting your vendor and say, hey, could you produce this style for me? Can I piggyback on your order? Is it possible that you could produce the style for me in a different color or in a different print? You know, I realized that would be better for my target customer. Yeah. So I feel like it's. And then, you know, if you're fully ready and you have done all that you've experienced, the white labeling, the working with your vendor, and then you're saying, you know what? I think now I'm ready to dive in this deep that I want to do my own production. That's when, you know, you would either come to us or you would get our course, because then you would understand. But, you know, overall, I would always say knowledge is key. You know, knowledge is wealth and knowledge is power. So whether you, you are unsure if you even want to start production, you should, should still take this course to find out what really goes into this. If, if that means, are you, you're ready to do this, you know, or not. And then you're like, you know what? That seems so overwhelming for me. You know, I, I don't think I can handle all these tasks that go into it. And that's out of this necessity of I, I understood that fear of people of starting their own, own brand and, you know, thinking, I need to hire a designer, I need to hire a fit technician, I need to hire fit models, I need to hire a production person. I need to hire, you know, like, this whole, whole overhead thinking of who you need because you don't have the knowledge yet. That's kind of why I created Creative Culture Consultants.