Nailya Belkacemi, founder of London garment manufacturers CMT Studio (formerly Plus Samples) explains why scheduling all the components for a design is critical to producing a quality product, on time. Nailya is a presenter at our expert briefings; for more information contact us.
I got off the phone with a long-standing client recently. The question was the same one I hear from almost every brand owner, experienced or not: when can you make it? I often don’t have a definite answer and it’s not because I don’t know our capacity; it’s because making the garment was never the problem: raw materials are.
I’ve watched this trip up designers many times: there’s a launch date and everyone works backwards from it to a production start date. Sampling gets scheduled, production gets booked in and it’s only later that someone finds out the textile mill needs six weeks just to weave and finish the order. By then, it’s already too late.
Fabric is only the start of it
Everyone budgets time for fabric, at least roughly. What catches people out is everything around it: zips, boning, lining, buttons, thread dyed to match, embellishment trims sourced separately from the base cloth, each of these can carry its own lead time and they rarely line up neatly with each other. And one of the smallest components can create the biggest delay: labels.
The label everyone forgets
Care labels, brand labels, size labels, whatever a design needs, production can’t start without them. In my experience this is a real problem for eight out of 10 startup and early-stage brands working on their first collection.
The reason is rarely logistics; it’s the decision itself. A label is a small piece of branding, but for most designers it isn’t small at all, it’s the woven mark that represents the whole business – font, placement, material, woven or printed, sizing consistency across a full range, all of it gets debated properly, as it should. The trouble is it’s routinely left until the very end of the process, right when there’s no time left to discuss anything.
Labels should be ordered the same week fabric is confirmed, not the week before cutting starts. It’s a small brand decision that behaves like a big supply chain one.
“Can you make the garment now and attach the labels later?” is another question I hear a lot. While it sounds like a reasonable workaround, in practice, it usually creates extra handling, additional cost and a less efficient production process. For labels enclosed during construction, it may not be practical at all.
“I know what fabric to buy” is only half the answer
Designers need to know very early on whether their preferred fabric and trimmings supplier can produce the items in the quantity required. If the minimum order is 50m and only 15m is actually required that’s a huge cost implication.
This is one of the reasons why we are getting involved in The Luxury Fabric Show as exhibitors offer low minimums, often from just 1m.
For those designers who are purchasing stock lines from UK suppliers delivery could be within days. However, if the SKU is out of stock, or a custom shade is required, the lead time might need to be extended to six weeks for mills in Europe or if coming from Asia it could be eight to 14 weeks or more, once freight and custom delays are factored in. Problems also arise when designers who’ve planned around a local supplier, then switch to an overseas one partway through for cost reasons, yet rarely go back and adjust the calendar to match.
And before any of that timeline even starts, most mills or merchants recommend designers have a swatch or sample length signed off before they’ll cut a bulk order. That can be a week or two round trip on its own, sitting quietly in front of the lead time everyone remembers to count.
Don’t forget the calendar itself
Lead times are only half the picture. Factories close too, and not always when you’d expect. A six-week lead time quoted in June can turn into an eight or nine-week wait if it happens to fall across one of the summer breaks or during Chinese New Year. Suppliers don’t always flag this.
Building the calendar the other way round
Top Tips:
Start with the slowest part of the process rather than the most exciting one.
Not everything has to happen in strict sequence
Many raw materials can be ordered or developed in parallel, so the real skill is mapping dependencies rather than just listing lead times. Ask which items can be ordered immediately, which need approval first, and which genuinely can’t begin until another material has arrived.
Spend time planning
It will make the difference between a launch that happens on time and one that gets pushed a fortnight before anyone’s ready to explain why.
To find out more, join Nailya and her team at The Luxury Fabric Show expert briefings:
3pm Wednesday 14 October
9am and 11am Thursday 15 October
For your free copy of CMT Studio’s Garment Production Lead-Time Checklist click here
For the Garment Production Lead-Time Planner, a more indepth spreadsheet version for designers working with several suppliers simultaneously, email contact@cmtstudio.co.uk
