It has again been so long since my last blog, sorry. As a perfectionist I am waiting for the right thing to write instead of the latest question I have been asked. As always these blogs are developed as little messages to you, based on what we have seen in our work room and what we have explained to our customers to make their life easier and help them understand a small sections of the technical side of the industry.

Today I stumbled upon a website called 16personalities.com – a free personality test. It does not take very long and was very accurate. I would have been more surprised by this had it not been for the fact it was not my first personality test. I don’t binge on personality tests but I love it when I come across one that opens my eyes.

I know I am in a pretty lucky position. I get to meet hundreds of amazing creative business owners with a wide variety of work history and skills. Every now and then a client comes to us for an initial meeting and they have a skill from a previous ‘life’ that I don’t have, and so I ask away. Today was one such meeting.

I had a new client come in the other day. They have a very successful business in home wares and now are looking to branch out into clothing. With a brief stint a few years ago in fashion they came to me with the need for patterns but no need for specs. They said their manufacturer would do this.

The fashion industry is always changing. Trends in how to design and manufacturer a product change just as often as hem lines. One of the biggest changes I have seen in the last year is that a lot of traditional developers/retailers have started to design. Now this may sounds a bit strange but what I mean by this is, in the past designers have often travelled overseas and purchased samples, come back and designed ‘based’ on these styles.

Whether you are manufacturing locally or offshore there are some consistant pieces of information that are needed so a pattern maker can accuratly translate the picture you are drawn with the picture in your mind. Although we work mainly from sketches, discussions and inspiration images, key measurement points are also something to include in your design brief.

Firstly, I would like to say that I am sorry for the long spaces of time between blogs lately. We have been very busy at Sample Room. We have also been caught up in the employment process, looking for a new pattern maker for our team. It has been long and drawn out process, with a false start.

A few months ago you may have received a post from me about Pre-production samples. In the past few weeks it has come to light that this subject may need to be expanded upon.

I’m not sure if you guys know this but I am a very keen snowboarder. For anyone who knows anything about the snow we get here in Australia compared to the overseas snowfields, we don’t get a very good deal.

This week we met with a lovely lady, Jessica who is a fabric agent for a range or amazing men’s suiting fabrics. These fabrics are some of the finest in the world famed for dressing the likes of Prince Charles. As a long time fabric collector just touching these supper fine wool and silk/linen fabrics made my go all gooey inside. At $300 a meter it is not something I am likely to work with on a regular basis.