Product development services
for your apparel brand

and expert support for the lifecycle of your collection

Design Development

  • We’ll review your sketches, mood boards, and/or whatever inspiration product samples or photos you've collected.
  • If you don’t have sketches or illustrations, we can provide this service, including collaborative creative and technical design input as needed.
  • We can also provide feedback, suggest changes, help edit to tighten up the focus (or budget!) and work with you to evaluate and articulate the design direction of your plan, in relation to your overall brand concept.

  • We can help you evaluate your proposed fabric resources.
  • We can help you understand the types of fabric suppliers (retail, wholesale, mills, agents, stock services, jobbers, and so forth) that are accessible locally, elsewhere in the US, and abroad; and we can explain what the choices you make will mean in terms of price, quantity, timing, and availability.
  • If needed, we can provide clear instruction about types and qualities of fabrics and trims, and help you select materials that will enhance your designs and fit into your budget for development and production.
  • We can suggest excellent suppliers for sample fabrics that will also have reasonable MOQs, prices, and delivery times for buying in quantity, so that you’ll be prepared to produce your line at a scale you can manage, for your eventual launch.

  • When needed, we prepare pinned up half-muslins on a mannequin for your design review.
  • We can also sew up full fitting muslins for you or your designated fit model to try on for further review of fit and silhouette, before making sample up in collection fabrics.

  • We believe an expertly crafted pattern is the foundation of successful apparel production.
  • Elizabeth made her reputation as a patternmaker on her ability to build that foundation for exceptional outcomes, and to also clearly communicate her expertise and goals while guiding other patternmakers and tech designers to exceptional results.
  • As a result, our team understands all aspects of patternmaking: draping, drafting, making patterns “on the table”, and digital patternmaking, and knows which of these techniques is appropriate for each project, representing the best of the next generation of superb apparel technicians.
  • Our patterns accomplish the following:
    • A responsive and sophisticated interpretation of a designer’s POV through style line, silhouette, and design and finishing details
    • Well-engineered construction and finishing details that optimize fit and quality while streamlining production techniques and cost
    • Adapting a style when needed to suit different fabrics, size ranges, and price considerations
    • Using the universal “language” of patternmaking to clearly communicate across language barriers with factories in the US and abroad.

  • We have an in-house samplemaker and also work with factories and samplerooms in the neighborhood.
  • We make beautiful proto samples which are well thought out in advance to anticipate eventual production in quantity
  • We help our customers understand all the ways their samples may need to be used – photography, fitting, sales, production “sew-by” – so they can plan and budget accordingly

  • We review all samples on live models, and typically on brand owners as well, for fit, style line, and “wearabilty”.
  • We offer expert guidance on choice of size range for eventual production, and how sizing is affected by silhouette and fabric
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Domestic Production Support and Management

  • We can review your sample fabric and trim vendors and help you evaluate whether they are the best suppliers for your production materials, suggesting alternatives more suited to manufacturing at the scale appropriate for your brand.
  • We can help you strategize timing, and help you understand how the type of fabric and trim supplier you use will affect your production time frame.

  • Collaborative development of a customized sizing standard and grade rule that is appropriate for your brand and your customers
  • Grading and Marking referral and oversight
    • We can write up POs for grading and marking, or provide customized templates and teach you how to do this knowledgeably for yourself

  • Coaching and educating customers who are new to the market to evaluate and quantify all the costs that are associated with pre-production processes, and true production materials and labor expense that must be calculated as “cost of goods sold”
  • Evaluating COGs as a moving point in time to help customers gain a realistic understanding of the ways each of these expenses is affected by the quantity of items in each lot produced
  • Strategizing wholesale and/or retail pricing to achieve a collection ideally positioned to sell at a price point that matches the expectations of its unique market while also making the brand economically viable and financially sustainable.

  • We have a number of factories in the NYC Garment Center with whom we’ve done business and built great, mutually friendly and respectful relationships over a 35 year period, and we know each of their strong suits.
  • We also have good business contacts in eight other countries, and lots of successful experience doing business overseas. While we have traveled to meet with some of these vendors in person, we are also adept at communicating about apparel design and manufacturing without needing expensive travel to support that work.

  • We have a thorough understanding of the cutting and sewing process, and are able to participate in hands-on instruction when needed, and communicate directly and clearly with all parties in the production process, from cutters and factory owners and managers, to the people sitting at the sewing machines or doing the hand sewing and finishing.
  • This “hands on” skill set gives us a credibility that keeps our relationships with contractors both cordial and strong, and gives our customers confidence that they can trust in the integrity of their manufacturing ecosystem.
  • We can perform in-line inspections, while production is in sewing and finishing, or help our customer learn how to do their own.
  • We advocate for a transparent and win-win relationship between brand owners and contractors.

  • For domestic production, Tech Design is for the most part rolled into the patternmaking process. For overseas manufacturing, and occasionally for manufacturing elsewhere in the States, for instance, LA, Tech Design can be effectively used to shift much of the patternmaking process and expense to the factory making the production. We have a keen understanding of Tech Design, and have excellent experience with achieving top quality results with this methodology, as we are able to use our own expert understanding of top-quality patternmaking to inform the Tech Design process.
  • We engage our customers, brand owners and designers alike, in the decision-making process for every detail of their product, including quality standards, so that they are completely informed and have both high expectations, and realistic understanding, of what to expect from their contractors. This means that whether they do their own QC, or contract with us for that service as part of a larger production oversight package, there will be achievable standard and goals for both the factory and the brand owners.