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Design Department Drama
By admins | April 2, 2010
Unfortunately, taking credit for someone else’s ideas, stealing another’s designs, copying a co-worker’s work, etc are all issues that come up in fashion design offices. In most apparel firms and design houses it takes many designers, associates designers, product developers, trend forecasters, and design directors to create a brand. In the ideal work environment these people would all work together as a “team” to ensure the best ideas (and thus the best products) are what make it to production. The drama comes when a company promotes an aura of divisiveness and intense competition. We all know fashion is a competitive field, and a little friendly competition has been known to bring out the best in people, but when you feel your job is always on the line and everyone is out to get you, the result is failure for the company and its employees. We have mentioned in the past the issues of taking undue credit, here, or the lack of job security in the Garment Center, here, but today we’d like to focus on the common cause of this. So what often causes such drama? Bad management.
When a design department is built on the notion (which many are) that there is only one way up, the person above you must go, you instantly get a culture of negative competition and occasionally sabotage. We mentioned before experiences where a head designer announced her pregnancy and within a day those below her were courting management to replace her. And many of us have missed a day of work due to illness only to return and find our assistants attempted to promote themselves into our positions while we were away. We have even seen some companies where designers are literally afraid to take lunch breaks, bathroom breaks, or leave computers and files unattended for a minute, for fear of what their co-workers may do. What is even more distressing is that in many of the smaller and mid-size companies the owners and execs are fully aware of the situation and encourage it. Sadly, many Garment Center owners see their design staff as a replaceable, rotating pool of talent to draw from. They know that in NYC every year talented fashion grads from around the world flock to their neighborhood in search of jobs. Many owners see the constant employee turnover as a good thing, because it insures every season will have a fresh new look, since the collection quite literally has a new perspective every season. This failure in thinking leads to a very unstable design department where everyone fails to thrive. Most talented designers would actually benefit from working with their co-workers rather than against them.
This backwards management style is not only harmful to the employees, but actually causes the company to lose money. For example, a Women’s knit designer we know designed a lovely group of tops made from some rather pricey organic cotton. Because of the high cost of fabric the company’s profit margin for this line was very tight. Shortly after it went into production the owner realized that the Tween division also designed a line using the same organic cotton, from the same fabric mill, but at an even higher price. Now if the two divisions and their designers had not always been in such competition with each-other and actually worked together, they could have gotten a much lower price for ordering a larger quantity of fabric, and saved each other time in fabric approvals and testing, not to mention, increasing profits for the company.
In another design department we are familiar with, a certain very senior Menswear designer was so threatened by his competition and the fear of being replaced that he often lobbied management to fire younger designers whom he was afraid would replace him. This designer was extremely talented, but he was old school and not very competent or comfortable designing via computers programs which was the direction the company was going. Another younger designer came aboard and while very good at CAD, she was not as experiences in pattern and fit as the senior designer. This would have been the perfect opportunity for them to work together, learn from each other, and use their complimentary skills to further the brand. However, due to the toxic work environment at the company that is not what happened. The senior designer convinced the VP to let the newbie go, but it wasn’t long before management decided that the senior designer’s work style was dated and within a few months he was let go as well in favor of a younger CAD savvy designer. In the end the company lost two talented designers and unfortunately both of them were unemployed for almost a years before finding new jobs that really weren’t close to as good as the original company.
At the end of the day, your employees are your biggest asset and it’s time Garment Center companies wake up and realize this. Within design departments, a good director who fosters an air of teamwork and collaboration is key. Team leadership is often overlooked in the design field to the detriment of everyone. Designers need to be trained, encouraged, and they need to feel that they have a career path within their company. Things that are basic management or HR elements in most fields, like performance reviews and career guidance, rarely happen in the Garment Center. It is time that apparel execs and design department directors step up and recognize the value in retaining talented and effective employees.
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Topics: fashion industry, jobs | 2 Comments » 
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April 4th, 2010 at 9:47 am
This post is why I love this site. Well said! HR, proper management, employee retention, why don’t fashion companies care about this?
My first job was at a company that fired someone every Friday, it was surreal! The key was to quit before it was your turn, ridiculous!
April 9th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
this is why I had to take a break from fashion. Too much unnecessary stress. I started freelancing on my own and that was okay for awhile but came with it’s own different problems. Now I am working at a company that is nationally doing well and is not in NYC-thank goodness and treats their employees better.