What type of designer are you?
I wish when I first started out looking for work after I graduated, that someone had told me that it would be hard to cross the lines of designing - not impossible but hard.
DESIGNING FOR SOMEONE ELSE
There are three main types of designers :
Supplier
Brand
Designer
My first job, I fell into the first category, I designed for high street stores, so it was very fast paced and in the week I could work with four different high street stores so had to switch between them quickly. The designs I often did were taken, transferred into cheaper fabric, stitches changed to get it through the factory quicker and embellishments taken off. The two main skills you had to have were being able to work at speed and be able to reduce costs.
When I looked into other jobs to move my career on, because I hadn’t at that point worked on branded lingeire or designer lingerie, my skills of being efficient, or keeping costs tight weren’t needed. Some brands can spend six months to a year ensure their fit and design is right, where as I was use to on average producing 15 designs a week.
Designer brands are use to sourcing expensive trims and fabrics, and I didn’t have any contacts within that area, so couldn’t bring that to the table.
When you’re looking for a job, the employer want to see that you can do the job, so think about that before you enter the industry, or keep your portfolio up to date designing in the direction you want to design in.
On the plus side working in a supplier base for my first job in turn, got me sponsored to work in Australia as they were a supplier based company, designing for many different clients.
But when I first finished my lingeire brand Vanjo, I was in that weird place of having only been a supplier designer and run my brand so I was too qualified for junior positions at brand or designer labels but not qualified enough to take on the role at the entry I should go in.
As an independent designer I have no problem now getting work designing for brands or designer labels, but when I wanted to work solely for one company, for them to employ me full time, I could never make the switch as there was always a designer out there who had the background in what they wanted.
INDEPENDENT DESIGNER
If you are designing for yourself and have your own brand or are thinking about starting your own brand, if you’re unsure about your style ensure that each collection you release sit together. Most people when they start have some clarity on the style of their brand, Vanjo was all about colour and shapes you wouldn’t usually see the larger cup market, however there were still waivers.
In the first collection I did a red Liberty print unicorn soft bra with mint green bows and black elastics, which sold out. By the third collection I decided to bring in a delicate galloon lace, and although it sat with the collection, it didn’t really sell as well as the brighter lingerie. It wasn’t recognisable as Vanjo lingerie, and that is what you want your brand to be - recognisable to your customer. But the feedback I gained from it was invaluable, mostly customers asking if I had a soft bra in this this style.
Don’t put off launching because you’re unsure of style as action brings clarity, and your brand will always evolve. Some designers have changed their style from their first collection to the their tenth and others have built on their first collection. You won’t know until you start. And that’s what this bra did, when I put the lace into a soft bra it sold through, and today that’s still one of best sellers today. But had I not produced it as an underwire bra and then played around with it, I wouldn’t have know.
The more seasons you have designed, the more you get to know about your customer.
If you find something selling well though, keep it going, by updating colours, and don’t feel the need to offer everything to everyone. Otherwise you’ll have a watered down brand.
For more information about Lingerie Design please see below:
