The next creative revolution will take place on the factory floor

For designers taught in an art school context, commercial production is often a much-dreaded step. Usually, it’s not until after graduation that students think about how to bring their ideas to market. Charlie, who finished his MA at Central Saint Martins in 2022, remembers being contacted by multiple buyers after presenting his graduate collection. “I sold my first season but we still had to figure out how to actually produce it. There was one quilted textile design that really challenged me. I remember contacting so many mills in the UK and hearing back that it wasn’t feasible. I ended up making it all myself in the studio.” Tech packs, line sheets, or minimum order quantities – art-educated designers usually hear these terms for the first time when they set up their labels.

The absence of practical education creates a gap between design and production that impacts the entire industry.

The absence of practical education creates a gap between design and production that impacts the entire industry, with a disconnect between designer and maker at its heart. Margarida Pizarro, creative and commercial director of the factory, first noticed the problem when she organized a competition for fashion students in Portugal. Participants were asked to send a drawing for a denim design. From the 400 applications, 10 were selected to execute their ideas inside Pizarro. And this is where the problems started. “They had the concept but couldn’t translate it into reality,” explains Margarida. “They’re excited to see their design become reality, but when the machines don’t produce the exact result they want, they become disappointed and frustrated. They struggle to think about budget too. One student had chosen a zipper that costs 200 euros and refused to look at alternatives… Unless you’re Karl Lagerfeld, how do you expect to sell those trousers?”

“The biggest challenge we have is that schools don’t teach technical skills, but unless you’re a creative director in a large luxury house, you need to know how to make tech packs.” – Dio Kurazawa

Dio Kurazawa, founder of The Bear Scouts, encounters the same issues whenever he works with independent designers. “The biggest challenge we have is that schools don’t teach technical skills, but unless you’re a creative director in a large luxury house, you need to know how to make tech packs. Those who don’t rely on other people to survive and that just means extra costs.”

“We undervalue the hand that makes the product because we don’t see it.” – Margarida Pizarro

The problem ties back to a cultural myth around creativity, one where the potential of an idea is considered more valuable than its execution, and where creative skills are innate immaterial qualities, purely imaginative and detached from the real world. “You notice it in the conversations at school and in design studios,” explains Lucile Guilmard, co-Creative Director of Paolina Russo. “Production is seen as the boring part – you’re successful if you don’t have to deal with the process. It’s cool when you have a role that doesn’t involve practicalities.”

Margarida agrees, “We undervalue the hand that makes the product because we don’t see it.” The disconnect and lack of understanding leads to more than just a little frustration. Dio observes an industry-wide undervaluing of product in general. The creative and executive arms of fashion are increasingly siloed, which leads to a whole range of miscommunications and ultimately, negatively impacts the quality of the final result. “How do you expect to create good product if everything happens over email?”

“You don’t know what the potential of a machine is until you have it in front of you.” – Lucile Guilmard

But staying on top of the production process does more than simply improve product quality. For Paolina and Lucile, for example, it guides the creative process. They arrived at Pizarro without specific design requests and instead started the process with a number of visual references – one being a rainbow jawbreaker. Inspired by the layers of colour, they tried different machines, including denim laser and spray paint, until they discovered the right technique to express their vision. Working like this, the designers developed a creative process that incorporates technical and material innovation, rather than treating it like an afterthought. “You don’t know what the potential of a machine is until you have it in front of you,” says Lucile. “I never have a lack of inspiration, because when I’m in the factories, I have this world of possibilities.”

“Knowing the people who make your clothes is so important.” – Charlie Constantinou

In order to work more closely with production, it’s important to create personal connections. Everyone agreed that crucial to approach the process on a human level, rather than thinking of it as an abstract machine. “At the start, factories felt big, grand, and scary,” shares Paolina. “But now I’ve approached it in a more human way, and it helped us make a better product, it helped us assure our manufacturers are happy and proud of the product, and they want to push the product, which gets translated to our relationship with retail.” Knowing that both sides might speak different languages and have very different needs, a personal connection helps bridge the gap. “Knowing the people who make your clothes is so important,” says Charlie. “I know most of the seamstresses and some prefer different tasks and have different affinities with the work. It’s nice to know the person making it actually cares and feels confident to make it.”

Minimum Order Quantity is a set minimum any factory requires you to place before you can become a client. For those who’re just starting out, that is not always a realistic number to reach.

Getting close and personal does not just improve the product, it also allows for smoother financial negotiation. Ask any emerging designer about their biggest challenge and they’ll reply with three letters: M, O, and Q. Minimum Order Quantity is a set minimum any factory requires you to place before you can become a client. For those who’re just starting out, that is not always a realistic number to reach. Having a personal connection can do wonders. Charlie worked for another London-based brand in between his BA and MA before launching his own label, which allowed him to gain the trust of several producers in the city. “When you work with a factory without a pre-existing relationship, you’ll be expected to adhere to stricter terms. But because I know the guy who runs the factory, he won’t expect minimums, even with small batches, he knows that more work will come. They’re very open to taking what we give them because there is the trust that we’ll grow with them.”

“It’s harder to experiment with new techniques when you’re producing in big numbers, so small designer labels are the ones who can bring the innovation.” – Lucile Guilmard

These kinds of in-person, on-the-floor collaborations don’t just benefit the designer. Smaller brands might obtain more flexibility around order quantities, but the factory also learns from discovering new innovative thinking strategies and applying them to machines that have been used in the same way for decades. “If the developer is open to new ways of doing things, very exciting things can happen,” says Lucile. “It’s harder to experiment with new techniques when you’re producing in big numbers, so small designer labels are the ones who can bring the innovation.” Margarida agrees, stating that there are lots of benefits in working with smaller designers, even if they don’t order the same numbers as a larger brand. “What’s great about these young talents, is that they really challenge us, they push our limits. Each designer has their own mind, when you talk to so many at the same time, you really get pushed to the next level.”

Creativity happens hand in hand with execution, and our production processes need to reflect that.

Lastly, there is the ever-growing concern around sustainability, which are fundamentally material issues involving water usage, pollution, waste, and labour. They cannot be solved through conceptual thinking alone. The fashion industry needs to shift its priorities and that cannot happen if we don’t know how to talk about product. Paolina and Lucile also recognized that visiting the spaces where their designs were produced impacted their approach to design. “Seeing the factories shifts your priorities and desires. When you see all these rows of fabric, when you see the physical consequences of what you create, you start to adapt… Maybe I don’t want to make this out of polyester after all.”

Fashion runs on imagination. It’s an industry that sells aspiration, potential, and make-believe. And that is also why we love it so much ‒ fashion allows us to dream and escape. But loving the dream doesn’t mean you need to ignore those who know how to make it come to life. Creativity happens hand in hand with execution, and our production processes need to reflect that. The question is, how do we practically do that? How can we reconnect the increasingly siloed entities of creation and execution in fashion? Our initiative with The Bear Scouts is one proposal. We hope to see many others enter the fashion scene in the coming years.