A blog to illustrate and share my experiences and development during and following the BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Technology course at The AUCB. The blog gives particular attention to my 3 month work placement at Jenny Packham and final major project.

Friday, 14 October 2011

Know your Swarovski Crystals! Week 5

I've had another good week completing all sorts of different jobs in both the eveningwear and bridal departments this week and I feel like I've learnt quite a bit.

The head office had a massive clear out of old files full of fabric swatches, beading samples and general information about seasons several years old. I had to riffle through the old beading samples and dry clean tested components picking out anything worth saving, including Swarovski crystals! I have to admit I'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to the Swarovski brand but I found differentiating between Swarovski crystals and glass/plastic ones surprisingly easy - the Swarovski are soooo much brighter and shiny!
The best result of the clear out was that students/interns were invited to take what they liked including exquisite beading samples and excellent quality fabrics! Check it out...










Everything left was chucked, no recycling at all even though there were piles and piles of paper! Such a shame that even a high profile, successful company such as Jenny Packham 'don''t have the resources to recycle' - doesn't set a very good example to the smaller companies out there.

In other areas I spent time fixing the beading (something I find quite therapeutic) on a rather unique wedding dress - example below.



I have been made more aware of production problems such as fabric cost and testing. One dress fabric had to be completely changed as, when steamed, it crinkled. Inevitably this caused all sorts of problems including cost which is, as I understand it, calculated per dress to reach an overall collection cost!

In addition to this, whilst sending out bridal order confirmations, dress sketches and fabric samples I really understood just how international Jenny Packham is, bridal in particular. America, Australia, France, Italy, Spain....

No comments:

Post a Comment