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Designing Divisions
By admins | September 14, 2009
With New York Fashion Week in full effect, giving much deserved attention to talented contemporary runway designers, we can’t help but think of the hundreds of non-famous, in-house designers working in our neighborhood. While certain big names in fashion become media darlings, the many people working on their lines behind the scenes get little recognition. More than that, the everyday brands most of us (and our mothers, fathers, children etc) wear have thousands working just as tirelessly, designing and producing each and every piece.
This time of year also prompts many acquaintances, friends of friends, and random strangers to suddenly channel their inner fashionista. “Oooh, you’re in fashion? I want to be a fashion designer.” For industry professionals, if we had a dollar for every time we heard that, well, we could probably retire from the shmatah business altogether. The person in question almost always wants to go into couture ala Galliano or women’s wear ala Marc Jacobs. Why? Because they have, “a passion for fashion” of course. Now, an excellent sense of style and a love of fashion are necessary to succeed in the business, but there is far more to it than that. Fashion is not only a talent, but a business and a skill.
One interesting fact, that is often unknown by even the most devoted fashionistas, is how design departments actually work. For us in the industry, it’s a no brainer that it takes many designers to produce a full collection, especially for large brands. Regardless of the name on the label, unless it is a small indie brand or the occasional high-end designer, you can bet there are several designers responsible. For example, Liz Claiborne the clothing line, is not designed by one person as a full collection. There are many designers who handle specific divisions. There are separate divisions for sweaters, wovens, denim, outwear etc, with designers who are experienced in that particular field. Often in large companies each division has a team of assistant designers, associate designers, and designers, all overseen by a design director. And of course, this does not even count the technical designers or graphic designers that are often an integral part of completing a line. For instance, a sweater designer who has years of experience with knit-downs, gauges, and fabric mills, will have in-depth knowledge and ability in that category. However, she most likely will not be familiar with the wash techniques, hardware vendors, and woven fits that are crucial for a successful denim line. The idea that many consumers have of a women’s wear designer that is an all purpose expert is often unrealistic.
For our readers not familiar with this aspect of the field take a look at the image below taken from WWD’s latest job postings. We didn’t post the complete details, but enough that you can clearly see how specified the industry is. For those contemplating entering the field, it is a good idea to have a specialty, not necessarily to limited yourself to one, but because expertise in an area is often expected. As a matter of fact, even fashion schools like FIT and Parsons have students take classes specifically devoted to their category of design. For our Garment Center co-workers looking for work, here’s the link to their jobs page (it seems there’s been a bit more action out there lately).
Additionally, we are always shocked to find that people are not aware how corporate the fashion industry is. Back to the Liz Claiborne example, if you tell an industry professional you work at Liz they will ask, “What division?” However, anyone else will reply, “Oh yeah, I know that brand.” Because the truth is Liz Claiborne, like many Garment Center companies, own several brands. In their case you could design for Lucky Brand, Juicy, mac & jac, Kate Spade, and many more, but still technically be working for Liz Claiborne. When you add in the whole concept of licensing, things get even more complicated. In a discussion the other day regarding Donna Karan, we were surprised to speak with a friend who shopped DKNY and actually believed Donna personally designed her clothes. We sadly explained that not only had Donna not designed those pieces but DKNY was barely even “NY” anymore, as they had been bought by the French company LVMH a while back. To make matters more confusing DKNY licensed out their denim division to, none other than, Liz Claiborne Inc! So, there is a denim designer out there, who no doubt, worked very hard with her design team to create DKNY Jeans, but guess what? Her name is not Donna or Liz.
Here is more related scoop;
Topics: designer, fashion industry | 9 Comments » 
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September 14th, 2009 at 11:23 am
Ha Ha!! If I had a dollar every time somebody asked me that I’d have enough to launch MY own label!
Great post, thanks!
September 14th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Brilliant post! Its amazing that with people becoming more and more savvy in their knowledge of how other areas of business work but are still in the clouds when it comes to fashion. Perhaps ignorance is bliss, and they don’t really want to know that the “name” behind the brand isn’t really the designer for every division? I mean, it *does* take away some of the fashion mystique.
Cheers!
Suzanne
September 14th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Bravo! I’m so over everyone wanting to be a “designer” but having no clue what that means. And yeah, knowledge may kill the mystique a bit but we don’t all live in Anna Wintour’s world!
September 16th, 2009 at 1:18 am
This is so good. I think it’s time you write a text book! And don’t forget — each division/fabrication also works with specific factories (knit factory, woven factory). Another great post. Thank you!
September 16th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
GREAT post. I wish I could make it mandatory reading before people approach me with a stupid question. It’s like, “Is your mouth opening to ask me a stupid fashion industry question? Please read this first.” Can I do that?
September 16th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I remember when I first figured this out about DKNY, when a friend was talking about how much she liked the designer of the division! And that was a really long time ago, I swear!
September 17th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
[...] 39th and Broadway – Designing Divisions [...]
September 30th, 2009 at 4:33 am
thanks for the good info…very good blog site.
November 21st, 2009 at 9:19 am
It is not just with fashion industry that people come up with stupid comments, they don’t have enough knowledge. There should be a detailed post like this for every industry :)