Sustainable Manufacturing Trip to Sri Lanka

I am currently in Sri Lanka on part of a Sustainable Manufacturing and Cultural tour with some of the students I teach on the Fashion Buying and Brand Management BA Hons course at Ravensbourne.  I decided to share my experience here on my blog daily to record the visit as a reference for the students as well as for my own readers who will also hopefully find it of interest.

We are here visiting factories and learning about producing fashion from the very first stage of picking the cotton bud through to printing and production.  We are based at MAS Fabric part situated about an hour and a half north west of Colombo in an area called Thulhiriya.  Sustainability is one of the key ethics on the agenda at MAS and they have created the worlds first purpose-built green manufacturing plant within the apparel industry which we were taken to today.

This trip crucial experience for the students who otherwise usually wouldn’t get the chance to see and experience how clothing is produced until much further into their careers.  In fact, through my own career, I have seen friends and colleagues wait years to get the opportunity to visit factories.  Without this experience, their career can often be forfeited on progressing to the next level as most recruiters and employers require their employees to have experienced and more importantly understand this process before they can get promoted within their positions.  Gaining this experience at this stage, as students, will be key in these student’s journeys to becoming professionals within the fashion industry post graduation (and something I wish I had had the opportunity to experience for myself as a student).

We started our day with an introduction to MAS holdings and how and why it was established.  We were briefed on the company which went into detail about their sustainability program including how they transform the sludge produced from excess waste that they have transformed into a brick to be used in building works which is twenty percent stronger than your usual brick!  They also went into their work ethics for their employees including making sure all employees are transported to work and get off site on busses provided with in six minutes of finishing their shifts.  We were then shown a couple of videos of knit production and introduced to the two different types of knit: Welt knit (horizontal) and Warp Knitting (vertical)

After the introduction we were taken to one of the fabric mills within the grounds and introduced to the fabric manufacturing process from fibre to fabric showing the different techniques used to create fabrics such as Spandex and Nylon.  These fabrics were being used to create swim and active wear for brands such as Nike and Speedo.  This particular mill is at the forefront of fabric technology and innovation creating unique elements such as soft seal, 3D bra wires and flocked silicone.

We then went into a factory called Trishel and were introduced to more fabric manufacturing processes.  We were shown knit machinery demonstrating the two methods of knit we were introduced to earlier.  These huge machines were connected up to hundreds of threads to create these fabrics and take a day to be manually threaded up!  One roll of Nylon and Spandex was being spun from 1700 separate threads!  We were then take through the dying process for these fabrics of which there are two methods; Beam dying and Jet Dying.

Just before lunch we went to a factory called Thurulie who are the worlds first purpose built green manufacturing plant in the apparel industry.  Everything is sustainable down to the bricks that are used to build the building being created from waste sludge from production down to using renewable energy and having a green roof which we all got to go up to and see!  It was really inspiring to see and will hopefully be the future for fashion production.

In the afternoon we were taken to another factory called Textprint specialising in printing fabrics.  We were shown demonstrations of the four separate print processes; foil, flatbed, rotary and digital.

Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures from within the factories or share all the details but this gives a good overview of the kind of things we all experienced and learned today.

Tiny Twig - Australia

Last year I helped design some ranges for the Australian babywear brand Tiny Twig.  Click here to visit the Tiny Twig website. Here are some of the designs...

A week in the life of a Freelance Fashion Designer: Friday

Ever though what its like to be a freelance fashion designer?  This week I am recording each days work and publishing it on my blog - welcome to my fifth and final post FRIDAY!

I get up at 6am and do the usual morning routine before setting off at 8am to dash to my printers to pick up some portfolio pages I sent them to print earlier in the week for me.  I am meeting a stationery company today who I spoke to on Monday regarding a Licensing design project and need to show them some work examples.

I get a brief hour to myself in the car and get the change to listen to some of my favourite podcasts and sing my little heart out on my journey to the meeting.  I arrive at the company at 9am and have a really successful meeting.  The company is looking to expand on what they currently offer and possible venture into apparel.  I will hopefully be helping them on some current projects and will advise them when they decide to venture into new apparel territory!  I help launch lots of small (and large) fashion brands in my day-to-day freelance work so my contacts and knowledge should definitely help them out when they decide to expand into clothing!

I have agreed to come up with a small graphics guide and product concept boards next week so I have booked them in my design schedule for my only two days remaining I have free next week.  I know my following weeks filling up with work now so I will need to discuss Alfred’s care with Jamie!

I get back home for lunchtime and sit down with Alfred and Jamie briefly before getting back to my desk at 1pm.  I want to try to get as much done this afternoon as I can so I can dedicate my weekend to fun and games with Alfred as I’ve not been around much for him this week.

I’ve been briefed a swimwear range for a UK department store for teen girls wear that I need to get completed by mid-next week.  This afternoon I need to get as much done towards this as I can.  Earlier in the year I created a full swimwear trend report for older and younger girls for Spring/Summer 16 so I get these boards out for inspiration along the way.

I don’t do a huge amount of swimwear so I start by drawing up shapes from scratch and get 4 bikinis and 3 swimsuits drawn up in illustrator before the end of the day.

At 4.30pm I open up my blog and prepare and schedule my blog posts for the following week.  While I am there, I brainstorm some posts for the week following week and set titles up in my drafts ready to look at some point next week too.

After attending to my blog, I check my google calendar and make sure I've recorded all the different days and projects I've been involved with during the week in my diary.  I invoice companies at the end of each month and it's important I log all my clients and work to make life easy (and because I can remember most of the time what I did yesterday let alone at the beginning of the month!)  Invoicing and accounts is the most tedious part of being freelance but you have to stay organised and work it all out yourself - no PAYE or last day of month paycheque in my world!!!   Finally I dig out all my recipes for the the week and log them onto my expenses part of my annual accounts excel sheet which brings me to the end of my day and week!

I finish work FOR THE WEEK (!!!!)at 6pm and spend an hour bathing and getting Alfred ready for bed.  Tonight we have some friends over for a BBQ and I looking forward to enjoying it with a glass of wine or two.  Tomorrow we have plans to take Alfred out on our little boat to the coast near Ipswich, which is about an hour away form us – I can’t wait.

I hope it’s been interesting reading my schedule for the week and gives an insight into freelancing?  I love to hear any comments or questions you may have?

A week in the Life of a Freelance Fashion Designer: Thursday

Ever wondered what its like to be a freelance fashion designer?  This week I am publishing a post each day recounting what I did last week on a daily basis.  Here is my Thursdays editions...

I wake up as usual at 6 am and go through and get Alfred and bring him into our room to play until 7am.  I have a meeting in London today and don’t need to leave the house until 9am so this morning, for a few hours, I do my favourite job: play Mum!  I make Alfred porridge and mix it with freshly picked cherries from our cherry tree in front of our house.  I have my morning tea wile he makes a mess getting porridge everywhere while my little Jack Russell Tilly waits underneath his high chair waiting for scraps!

We then play for an hour before I go off and get dressed into ‘proper clothes’.  I say proper clothes because quite often in the chaos of everyday life my morning consist of getting dressed in the dark and pulling on whatever’s clean and closest to reach – REAL life as a (freelance) fashion designer is no The Devil Wears Prada Scene!  In fact it more like The Sleep Deprived, Overworked, Multi-Tasking Designer wears Primark (if it’s clean) if not stick to the Pyjamas (if there’s no conference call today!!!)   But I love my job – seriously!!!

I jump in the car after saying my goodbyes and head down to London to go to one of the University’s I teach at for a planning meeting for the fast approaching academic year 15/16.  I teach on a range of subjects relating to my everyday work experience including branding, fashion management, marketing, design and so on.  My schedule quite often gets very chaotic so it’s important for me to plan my teaching days way ahead of schedule to avoid last minute stress!

I nip to Starbucks before my meeting and grab a snack for lunch (I know this meeting will run through lunch) and a Grande Earl Grey tea to take away.  In the meeting we discuss the units that I will be teaching on in the coming academic year and roughly plan what I will deliver in each session.  I teach across all three years of the degree programme so I can be teaching ‘Introduction to InDesign’ to new first years one day followed by advanced Fashion and Trend Forecasting to third years the following.  You can see how it can all get a little confusing if you don’t plan ahead!

I really love my teaching work and find it really helps compliment my day to day freelance work and vice versa.  Working alone at home each day can get pretty lonely – having one or two days out each week teaching helps keep me up to date with the next generation of fashion entrepreneurs!  It also gives me a grown up and more interactive day of work which I always really look forward to.

I try to keep all my lectures really up to date and fresh!  Any real life project that I take part in my day to day freelance work which I think may be interesting for students to hear I present back to them in my classes.  I think it helps a lot when teaching to refer to (up to date) personal experiences and project examples to give students a real insight into what their future careers may be like.

My meeting finishes mid-afternoon and I make my way home in time to feed and bath Alfred.  Once he is in bed I go back to my computer and answer e-mails I have received during the day.  I have some small urgent amends to the baby layette ranges I created earlier in the week and get these done in an hour.  I then quickly write some notes up from my earlier meeting before heading off to bed at ten!