TIMEOUT Jeans Chapter 2: Moda Makers and further developments

Hello everyone,

It has only been ten days since my last post, but so much has happened already that I feel it is time to tell another part of my journey here at Timeout in Bologna.

Last week was a full-immersion experience looking for suppliers and new ideas for the Spring-Summer ’20 collection. The main part of this research was attending Moda Makers fashion fair in Carpi, a beautiful historical town at about 64km from Bologna. The fair gave us the opportunity to establish contacts with several suppliers who provided a wide range of products: all kinds of patterns, knitwear, shirts with a lot of embroidery as well as other categories, all made in Italy, which definitely made prices for production increase, but with a perceivable added value in terms of quality. Since one of the company goals for SS2020 is developing a capsule collection that will be distinguishable and exclusive, mainly in terms of quality, Moda Makers has definitely been a great source of inspiration and possibilities in this sense.

Another part of the project for next summer collection is being able to introduce new ranges of products with shorter lead times. Since most of the brand’s production is done in China, lead times are often quite long: it takes six months for garments to be delivered since the order is placed. Therefore, we managed to make a deal with some Chinese suppliers who make their garments in Italy and are able to provide new samples within a month. This will definitely ease the brand’s garment rotation in shops as well as reassortment needs.   

The more artistic part of last week’s work for me was creating new prints and patterns for men’s SS20 t-shirts, which I have been super excited for. This was an additional task I was asked to do, in order to try and find something new and interesting for the brand. I am really glad I got to do that and I hope I will be able to see the result on the actual pieces. My design background was really helpful in this case!  

I am looking forward to the upcoming weeks to see what else is coming!

Have a great day!

Cecilia