[TC]² Bi-Weekly Technology Communicator
Next Steps in Fast Fashion at FIT, New York City
January 14, 2009
UK’s Industry Forum, [TC]² and AlixPartners are joining together to present a Fast Fashion workshop January 14th at Fashion Institute of Technology’s Reeves Great Hall, Seventh Avenue at 27th St., New York City. In an uncertain consumer environment, speed to market and flexibility are critical. Fast Fashion companies in Europe have demonstrated that their model delivers higher return on capital employed with higher inventory turns and better same store sales growth figures.
• Understand in more depth the principles behind the Zara and fast fashion business models and the key steps to reduce time to market.
• Gain insights into how to achieve a fast supply chain cycle, and deliver better products with lower risk.
• Learn how to improve the critical path, re-engineer the supply chain, and manage the process more effectively.
• Learn what processes enable the Fast Fashion cycle from design to point of sale to be achieved in 4 to 6 weeks and the company culture required to support the processes.
• Understand how financial performance can be improved through Fast Fashion.
The presentations will include Fast Fashion examples of tools and techniques which have been successfully applied in Europe. [TC]² will show how Fast Fashion meets the sustainability agenda and how advances in digital technology will make processes even faster. AlixPartners will explain how to translate product development enhancements into improved financial performance.
This workshop is a must in understanding the management processes and behavior required to achieve speed and low cost - two key criteria in a recessionary market.
Registration fee is $200 for the one-day program (9 a.m.-4 p.m.). For more information or to register, contact Debra Gill at 919.653-3501, or complete our contact form.
This program has been endorsed by the IAF (International Apparel Federation).
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Upcoming Seminar at [TC]²
Pattern Development – January 13-15, 2009
Improve product quality and customer loyalty with consistent fit.
Brand owners, retailers, quality specialists, and manufacturers are seeking ways to improve product quality and customer loyalty. Improved quality depends upon patterns being correctly matched to cutting and manufacturing techniques so that style features and critical seams can be executed without error. The results will be fewer recuts and lower costs for quality products.
Pattern development bridges the perceived chasm between design and manufacturing. Understanding core concepts and terms can greatly reduce sewing problems and ease the transition from basic block patterns to fashion patterns while maintaining consistent brand fit. Attend this class to learn the underlying principles even if automated systems are used to do most of the pattern work. Hands-on activities include flat pattern manipulations and drafting.
This seminar will be held at [TC]²’s facility at 5651 Dillard Drive, Cary, NC.
A complete description of this and other seminars can be viewed at http://www.tc2.com/what/seminars.html
To download or print a copy of [TC]²’s seminar schedule for 2009, click here (pdf).
For additional information or to register, contact Debra Gill at 919.653.3501, or via our contact form.
Sustainable Fashion
By Kim Anderson, [TC]²
For the past 25 years Americans have consumed more clothes every year than the year before and as much as 85% ends up in the landfill. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that in 2006, Americans threw out more than seven million tons of clothing.
This wasteful trend is not confined to the U.S. Between 2001 and 2005, the consumption of clothing for every man, woman and child in Britain rose by more than 30 percent. Almost 900,000 tons of clothing and shoes were thrown away in the UK in 2006.
According to a recent study undertaken by the Australian Institute, Australians spend approximately 1.7 billion dollars annually on fashion garments they never get around to wearing.
Today, sweaters and t-shirts often cost less than a sandwich. A dress can cost about the same as a cup of cappuccino. Many apparel companies are practicing an unsettling strategy—sell cheap garments that are used and discarded without a second thought. This type of strategy is appealing to many apparel retailers because it allows them to economically update styles with speed.
Teenagers love the concept but they’re not the only culprits—everyone expects to own large quantities of disposable clothing bought at low prices. But is this sustainable?
Tamsin Lejeune, the founder of the Ethical Fashion Forum, a network of designers and businesses focusing on socially and environmentally sustainable fashion, believes that the biggest issue facing the fashion industry today is sustainability and the way the industry is moving is unsustainable.
One eco-friendly solution is to buy less clothing—but that is a difficult attitude adjustment. Liz Jones of the U.K.'s Daily Mail, offers another solution—buy more expensive clothing—“if we all spent a little more on clothing that wouldn't fall apart in the wash after one season, we'd find ourselves returning to the mall less frequently, decreasing the demand for and shipping of clothing…besides well-made clothes are often seasonless and trend proof.”
The concern is prevalent among sustainable thinking minds in the fashion industry. A number of other solutions have been put forth including trading, leasing, and recycling.
Trading
Green Uses for Waste encourages people not to throw away their clothes. They suggest having a Swap till you Drop Party instead. On the Green Uses for Waste website there are detailed instructions on how to hold a successful clothes swapping party.
Leasing
Others have suggested leasing clothes and returning them at the end of a month or season, so the garments can be leased again to someone else. Retailers could lease clothes (just as wedding stores rent tuxedos). The key to successful leasing would be to use enduring designs and fabrics.
Recycling
In 2008 The Exhibition at London Fashion Week hosted the fourth season of Estethica.
Estethica is known in the industry as the platform devoted to promoting the best in eco-sustainable fashion. Two of the main criteria are:
• Slow Clothes—fashion that is not time based, but is about producing, designing and consuming better.
• Recycling—Using only pre-existing materials.
This year some designers showed collections crafted from recycled antique fabrics, lace and silk. Others created apparel lines utilizing pre-consumer waste such as proofs, swatches, production off-cuts and lengths of fabric that manufacturers had discarded.
Sustainable fashion is fashion that is designed to be environmentally friendly. It is part of a larger trend known as "ethical fashion." According to the May 2007 Vogue it appears not to be a short-term trend. Many fashion professionals believe that fashion needs to slow down, become trans-seasonal, and be made to last.
“Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents. It was loaned to you by your children.” --Kenyan Proverb
References
A Textile Recycling Company, http://www.usagain2.com/Articel.asp?NewsID=1
From Somewhere (http://www.fromsomewhere.co.uk/)
Green Fashion Meets Trashion, Chicago Public Radio.
Green Use for Waste, http://www.greenusesforwaste.co.uk/holding-clothes-swapping-party.html
http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/09/21/estethica-london-fashion-week-2
Maura Judkis, Fast Fashion's Effect on Planet Isn't Pretty, November 21, 2008
Minna (http://www.minna.co.uk)
Suzy Menkes, Moving beyond fast fashion to sustainable styles. Published: February 14, 2008
To read more articles related to Sustainability and Environment, visit our newsletter archive.
[TC]² Activity
Supply Chain Leadership Committee Meeting
By Jim Lovejoy, [TC]²
The AAFA Supply Chain Leadership Committee Fall Meeting was hosted by Milliken & Company in Spartanburg, SC at the end of October. Several Milliken speakers presented the history of Milliken’s ongoing quality journey as well as the basis for their carbon-neutral footprint as a company. At the end of the meeting, attendees were invited to a tour of Milliken’s award winning Magnolia Finishing Plant where all of the textile finishing by-products are subject to cleaning, recycling and re-use.
A presentation on “What is Happening in China” explained that apparel and footwear exports to the US are growing, but with all the new environmental concerns, increasing costs and several tax benefits being reduced, it was estimated that about 70,000 Chinese factories would be closing by year end. Some US brands such as Skechers, VF and Coca Cola continue to do well with Chinese consumers. The Chinese people love brands, but do not have a high degree of brand loyalty.
The program contained other timely topics selected by SCLC members at the previous meeting in the spring.
• The Payment Card Initiative (PCI) is getting a lot of attention with retailers with new standards for processing, storage, transmission and secure access to payment card records.
• It was presented that there is a “Resurgence in US Apparel Manufacturing” with business coming back from Asia, more interest in USA-made products and repair of imports that contain mistakes.
• A look at the “Energy, Water and Chemicals in the Supply Chain” showed that while 70% of energy, water and chemicals used in the supply chain are in the dyeing and finishing steps, the amounts used in consumer care over the life of the apparel product was over three times greater.
The Committee welcomed 5 new members attending and closed with brainstorming topics to be presented at the SCLC Spring Meeting. More information on the AAFA committees can be found at www.apparelandfootwear.org.
[TC]² Member Profile - Datacolor
By Karen Davis, [TC]²
Datacolor is a global leader in color management solutions and color communication technology. The world’s leading brands, manufacturers, creative professionals and consumers have been choosing Datacolor’s innovative technology and solutions to consistently achieve the right color for nearly 40 years. A Swiss held company, Datacolor’s global presence encompasses a sales, service and support network serving customers in more than 65 countries throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia, along with 13 worldwide operation and production facilities. Industries served include apparel and textile, paint and coatings, automotive, plastics, photography, home theater and others.
The company’s award-winning technology electronically controls and communicates color between retailers, manufacturers and suppliers. Offerings include complete computerized systems for color measuring, matching, quality control and communication to industries who must
manage color accurately from design through production and marketing.
In today’s competitive business climate, companies are facing numerous challenges such as shorter lead times, cost pressure, increased quality and productivity demands, and environmental impact. Datacolor’s proven Color Lifecycle Management™ solutions, including the Datacolor SPECTRUM® family of products, address these critical issues by enabling all partners in a textile supply chain to expedite color development and deliver optimum color management, adding significant value to the complex global sourcing process.
Datacolor SPECTRUM™ provides an integrated suite of software products, measuring systems, and supporting services that enable centralized control of the entire color management process worldwide.
Its SPYDER® line of digital imaging products has become a recognizable and honored color calibration brand throughout the world. Datacolor has created a whole portfolio of digital imaging innovations for graphic designers, creative professionals and professional photographers.
As a valued associate member, Datacolor has supplied [TC]²’s demonstration center with the high precision Spectraflash SF600X spectrophotometer and a Color Matcher light booth to evaluate and communicate color, as well as supporting software including DataColor Tools and Envision. This color-matching technology streamlines the color approval process, resulting in time and cost savings.
Important Dates
December
1-3 |
32nd Annual Conference on the Caribbean and Central America at the Intercontinental Hotel, Miami, FL. For information, visit www.c-caa.org. |
22-Jan 2 |
[TC]² closed for Holidays and Staff Vacation |
January 2009
13-15 |
Pattern Development, seminar at [TC]² . For details, click here. |
14 |
Fast Fashion event at FIT, New York City |
20-23 |
InterModa, Guadalajara, Mexico. For information, visit www.intermoda.com.mx. |
27-29 |
Colombiatex, Medellin, Colombia. To learn more, go to www.colombiatex.com. |
For detailed information about industry events, visit www.techexchange.com
Thanks to the techexchange site sponsors
Apparel Magazine, Gerber Technology, Lawson, Lectra, Methods Workshop and Reach Technologies.
A Look Ahead in the Newsletter
[TC]²’s Holiday Newsletter
View previous editions of this newsletter
[TC]²
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