How A Fabric Release is Born
A week or so ago, I drove to New York City for the first time since I moved to my new home. I definitely didn’t get off on the right foot as the drive was three hours. Yeah, I don’t think I will be driving back anytime soon.
When I finally got the office, it was time for a design meeting. I thought it would be interesting for you to hear about our design meetings.
On October 1st, our new October 2020 quilt collection samples will be shipped out to our sales reps and distributors all around the world. As such, it was time for us to review, critique and finalize our next release.
If you don’t know, a release is a term we use for when we are launching new collections. Most of our companies have four releases per year, but Henry Glass has five. This is as compared to a rollout. A rollout is when the line is finally here from the mill and ready to “roll out” of our warehouse to quilt shops all over. Then it goes to the ultimate consumer or what I like to call my customers’ customers.
The first part of the meeting was spent with the Lead Stylist of The Blank Quilting Corp. (BQC), Diana Mancini. She showed me a lot of different lines and we discussed them in detail. Here are some of the things we do when we review the lines:
- Determine which specific designs make it into the final collection.
- Review the delivery schedule keeping in mind that most of our October release lines that ship in April are Harvest & Halloween. Designs for May are Christmas themed and designs for June are winter-themed i.e. no Santa.
- Confirm pricing and line details.
- Discuss the layout of the sample card.
- Decide which basic SKUs compliment the line to be included on the color card for increased visibility of our basics.
- Select which lines will be offered in precuts. Decide how many cuts will be in the bundle and how many bundles per package (or ‘put-up’ as we say).
- Choose the manner of printing (digital or traditional). If traditional, we print in Korea. If digital, we usually print in Pakistan.
After we went through the October lines, we moved on to going over some future lines for our January and April/May releases. When we look at the future lines (which were more recently submitted or created) here are some of the things that we focus on:
- The colors.
- The designs. The scale. The clarity.
- Whether we like the collection and think it will sell. Should we go forward with it?
- The size of the collection in SKUs (# of designs).
- We need to be cautious about the lines overlapping with any of the lines that we are producing for the other companies. We actually do think about this so we don’t flood the market with similar themes at the same time. We want to avoid competing with ourselves.
After finishing reviewing the future lines, I then moved on to spend some time with the Lead Stylist for Studio E Fabrics (SE), Megan Downer. We went through the same process that I did with Diana while keeping in mind that the BQC and SE lines need to be especially different because they are carried by the same sales reps.
One thing that was done differently among the meetings was that I reviewed some of the SE basic collections with Megan. We wanted to determine if we should add more color selections to any of the basic groups. For example, on this day, we decided to introduce 10 new colors to the very popular pearlescent collection called Snippets. This is always fun because there are a ton of colors to choose from and it’s interesting to see how the ultimate group looks all together.
Reporting to the Lead Stylist is a CAD (computer-aided design) operator. The CAD person executes the majority of the changes to the designs. She cleans up the design work so it is sharp and crisp and ready to send to the mill for engraving. The CAD operator is the one who would create all the different color combinations for the Snippets line I mentioned above. In a lot of cases, the CAD operators are the unsung heroes of this process.
Over the last several years, we have started to promote CAD operators to Junior Stylists. This role could also be viewed as having a stylist in training aspect. In fact, the Junior Stylist is trained by a Lead Stylist. I love this because I like to promote people in our companies, but oftentimes that is not so easy. It’s not like we have a large pool of people working at a single office so there is not a ton of opportunity to move up. Of course, we try to when we can.
While I did these reviews with Diana and Megan, the Henry Glass team had a meeting as well. That meeting included my dad, Robert, Larry Reichenberg who runs Henry Glass, two Lead Stylists (Karen Junquet and Lisa Loessel), as well as two Junior Stylists, (Marlen Lopez and Maria Russell). They went through the same chores that I did with the BQC & SE design teams.
From there, everyone moves to execution mode. That means each stylist needs to finalize her collections and move towards having sample cards made. The sample cards require a lot of back and forth with the sample card maker. There is often a lot of color-correcting and editing. This is similar to the strike-off process for fabric.
Today, we are in the throes of this and so much more preparation. Our cards are on schedule to ship to our reps on October 1st. We then release the lines to our customers on October 2nd. Consumers should watch for the new lines being released to the entire world on October 16th. We spend a lot of time reinforcing the message about our new collections by using social media, newsletters, videos, sales calls, lookbooks, zoom meetings, and of course, the websites. It’s like announcing the birth of a new child to the world….a beautiful child!
On a sad note, during this time of year, we would be preparing for the Quilt Market in Houston. I really miss not having Quilt Market this year. I miss seeing my work friends. I miss seeing my customers face-to-face. I miss the comradery. I miss the socializing. I miss seeing how our customers react to our gorgeous lines and all of our hard work. Now it is all virtual, which isn’t quite the same. Having said that, I hope you will do me a favor and seek out our October launch this fall so we know you are feeling the love.
P.S. If you want to make sure you see all the new lines, please follow me on my Facebook page, @jaftexpresident, or subscribe to this blog, and I will make sure you are in the loop.
26 Comments
Shirley Thomas
I have made a Large Kaffe bag, a quilt with Tulia Pink fabrics, and am in the process of making a Kim Diehl quilt (Henry Glass). I love the variety and quality of fabrics in Free Spirit! I hunt for Free Spirit whenever I enter a quilt shop.
Scott Fortunoff
Hi Shirley,
Thanks for the comments. We appreciate your buying our fabrics. Have a great week.
Scott
Steve maile
Your enthusiasm is infectious.
A very informative and well written piece.
Nice job Scott.
Say hello to you dad for us.
Steve and Debbie Maile.
Scott Fortunoff
That’s so nice steve. Glad you enjoyed. Hope you and Debbie are doing well. Believe it or not, I am headed up to Cheryl’s shop tomorrow. Have a great weekend. See you when I see you. Be safe and well.
Scott
JoAnn Hoffman
Thank you for sharing. It is amazing to see the speed and accuracy it takes to make several lines.
I use to work dowtown L.A. at the apparel mart and gift mart for many years. The creation part is so exciting.
Siobhan Furgurson
Thanks for the glimpse behind the scenes! Think we are all missing shows and markets this year. The social media helps but it isn’t the same…sometimes you just need to touch the fabric!
Pepper Cory
Lovely photos and a clear explanation of the process. Enjoyed reading this one–good info. And terrific to see smiling faces!
Scott Fortunoff
Thanks Pepper. Glad you enjoyed. Hope to have more like this.
Be well.
Scott
sarah dannerbeck
Scott,
Thank you for sharing this. It’s very fun and helpful to get such a complete picture of the process.
Stay Well,
Sarah@CopaGorda.
Scott Fortunoff
Hi Sarah,
Glad you enjoyed a little bit of the insights. I am hoping to share a lot more.
Take care and be well.
Scott
Roxanne Schiffbauer-Sposato
Scott,
That was so interesting and informative. Thank you so much for bringing the what, when, and how to us. I just have to tell you that I really wish there were more leaders in our industry that would take a page out of your book.
Again, thanks and have a great weekend.
Roxie
Scott Fortunoff
Hi Roxanne,
This is sweet. I appreciate it. For now, it’s just me so hang on in and enjoy the ride b/c it’s going to start to get a lot better. I just hired a social media assistant. I want to step things up a notch.
Have a great week.
Regards,
Scott
Camille Sarivole
I love learning about the behind the scenes of the fabric business. I hope you continue to educate us with more info regarding the industry. I’m interested in how each company makes the decision on which designer will make the pick. Also, how far in advance do you follow the trends. And how many lines are chosen for each release. This is all so interesting to me. You do make fabric fun.
Scott Fortunoff
Hi Camille,
It’s coming Camille. I just need to hire someone to help me get my video situation together. It’s going to get much better. stay tuned.
Thanks for being a good friend.
xoxo
scott
Sandy Labby
Thank you for sharing how a design is processed, released, and eventually rolled out! Interesting that the fabrics are printed overseas. Any chance of bringing the printing process back to the US? About missing the Houston Quilt Market, we miss you too. Thank you for your Sunday events and the virtual LookBooks. I love seeing what’s new. The tough part of virtual is that we can’t feel the fabrics or really see the vibrant colors in natural light. You’ve been amazing with sharing the back story of fabric designers, manufacturing, warehousing, inventory, and how the fabrics end up in our shops. You’ve done a wonderful job of keeping this industry moving forward, especially through the pandemic. Keep you the incredible work that you do!!!
Scott Fortunoff
Aww Sandy. That’s sweet. We would love to bring the printing to the US, but it’s just not economical. I don’t think you want to pay more for your fabric. We do have our warehouse in the US. I will keep trying to keep you entertained and educated. As for how the fabric feels, it is all pretty luscious..that’s one thing you don’t need to worry about. Thanks for your support. Have a great week.
Scott
Jan Crane
Thanks Scott. That was interesting.
Scott Fortunoff
Hi Jan,
I am glad you enjoy. You can expect more like this. Hope you are doing well.
Regards,
Scott
Ruth C. Davis
Thank you for explaining the process. It opens up a whole new world of understanding your business and the tough decisions you have to make for us…
Scott Fortunoff
Hi Ruth,
Well, there are tougher decisions in life I need to make. This is actually more fun. Thanks!
Scott
Ellen Cortright
I can’t wait to see all the beautiful new fabric lines!
Scott Fortunoff
Amen to that Ellen. I am right there with you. Thanks for the love.
Scott
Linda Kennedy
Thanks for that “enlightening” update on how a “fabric is born“. Always, always interesting on how this all takes place. Thanks again for keeping us all “in the loop”!
Scott Fortunoff
You are welcome Linda. Glad you enjoyed. Have a good week.
Scott
Katie Wyatt
Another super and very informative posts – thank you for taking the time to pull this together. I believe I met Diana when I popped into your office last year. Wished I could have hung out all day to observe all the great minds work.
Scott Fortunoff
Hi Katie,
When the pandemic is over, you should totally come by. We owe you a rain check. Take care of yourself and be safe.
xoxo
Scott