Behind the Scenes: Fashion Production Revealed

While I was away from the blogging world, I caught up with a friend who works in fashion production, Mercedes Kerrison. It was the perfect opportunity to ask for an interview. The production side of fashion is an amazing world of costing, working with vendors, agents and, in house staff of designers, merchandisers and technical designers to make sure that the product that design envisions is executed to meet quality and fit standards and most importantly, you guessed it, the company's margin goals.

Mercedes is a young professional who is taking New York City by storm. She's helping companies meet their margin goals with her expertise in fashion production. She knows the business side of fashion and what it takes to succeed in this part of the industry.

Have you been wondering about the many possible careers in fashion? Enjoy this interview as Mercedes gives her insights as a fashion production associate.

Kali: Mercedes, how did you first become interested in fashion?

Mercedes: I remember wanting to pursue fashion during my senior year in high school. As a teenager growing up in the 90's, I loved hip hop fashion. I have always been interested in the latest fashions as well as just loving to shop overall.

Kali: Did you have a fashion major in college?

Mercedes: I have a Bachelors degree in Fabric Styling as well as a Masters degree in Fashion Merchandising.


Kali: What led you to choose to work in the production side of fashion?

Mercedes: Actually, production is a sector of the industry that had just fallen into my lap. However, I had always known that I had wanted to pursue a career that centered more around product development along with the challenge of making strategic decisions in which production entails.

Kali: 
Mercedes has worked for companies such as Russell Newman/Will Creek Sleepwear Division, Spiegel Brands, Inc. and is currently at Calvin Klein.


Kali: Mercedes, tell us about your role as a fashion production associate. What is it exactly that you do? What are your daily tasks from when you start in the mornings to the time that you leave?

Mercedes: As a production associate, I interface with all in-house departments (merchandising, buyers, technical design and designers) to ensure that all product is being developed in the right place (i.e. country of origin), at the right cost and most importantly is being delivered on time to the warehouse. Daily tasks include working with overseas offices by approving fabric for bulk production. I attend fittings and work closely with technical design to ensure all samples are fitted in a timely manner to meet garment production delivery dates. I also attend fittings to make sure that any changes made in the fit session does not impact production delivery or increase costs to where our margins are not met.

As a production associate, I am also responsible for new seasonal developments, working on costing to determine whether all pricing is competitive to meet buyers current target margin.

Kali: Mercedes, your job seems pretty involved. What hours do you work as a fashion production associate?

Mercedes: Hours as a production associate fluctuate often. However, this is not a 9-5 job. During a busy period I am leaving work anytime between 8:30pm-10:00pm on a daily basis. When there is a slow period (which doesn’t happen often!) I will leave around 6:30pm or 7:00pm.


Kali: How important is the role of the production associate in the fashion design process?


Mercedes: Production/Sourcing is very important within a company overall because we are primarily responsible for making sure that the company does not lose any money. We are responsible for making sure that any fabric or trims that are being developed are affordable for our target customer. It is imperative that a production associate is aware of current events around the world because this affects where we will develop our product as well as determining how cost will be affected.

Kali: Mercedes, do you have any advice for those considering working in fashion production? What's the best way for someone to enter this field?

Mercedes: The best way for someone to enter this field is to pursue product development. There are a lot of companies that are always looking for production associates; therefore, it is not a hard segment to break into. You can also check the classifieds in WWD and also network. Join professional organizations like Fashion Group International.

Kali: Mercedes, what last words can you leave our readers with regarding working as a fashion production associate?

Mercedes: In order to become involved in production, one must have dedication and motivation because it is a very stressful job. It’s stressful because you are basically in charge of making sure that all departments are giving you all of the information needed to maintain on-time delivery of the product to the stores. You're holding the entire company together. As a person who works in production, you must be extremely detail oriented as you will be working on many different projects all at once. It’s also good to build strong working relationships with vendors because it will make the product development process a little easier to manage.

What I love about my job is trying to meet everyone's expectations. I see the business internally and externally. I have a big reputation to keep up!

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Want to discuss further? Have any questions for Mercedes? Leave a comment here and she will be glad to respond.

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