Sample process

Hello friends! It seems like you all are doing great at your internships. It is a lot of fun to read about your experiences. So as I have mentioned in my previous blog entries I’m doing my internship at the design department at NA-KD where I have been working with both trend research and making technical drawings in illustrator. Today I was thinking to write about the sample process and what I have been working with helping out the design technicians. When the technical drawing is finished you make a so-called “tech pack” in excel. Here you show an overall view of how the garment is going to look like, with technical drawing, a measurement list, and an inspiration picture. But sometimes there is no time for this so then you only send out the inspiration picture to the supplier with some guidelines e.g. length and width. After around 4 weeks (depending on supplier) you receive your first sample that is made of a size small. The first step here is to measure the sample to see if it matches the measuring list you sent out before. Then it is time for the fitting, where I sometimes have been acting like a model. Here you take notes and photos on what is going to be changed, both size wise and design wise. When this is done you fill in a document in excel with sample comments, where you follow the whole size and measuring process. In this document you fill in the comments from the fitting, these needs to be written clearly so the supplier will understand. If it is hard to explain you attach photos with drawings showing the changes. It is a long process that is repeated around 4 times until the production of the garment starts and that takes at least 3 months. Everything depends on how clear you have been in the beginning, so there is a lot of a contact going on with the suppliers. The last sample you receive is the shipment sample, these are samples taken out straight from the production. These are sent just for a final check up of the garment and the samples comes in one of each size, at this stage you cannot change anything. As the name says they are ready for shipment.

 When the sampling process is done the products are ready to be sold. 

Have a nice rest of the week everybody!