What is a Tech Pack and How to Create One…

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Anybody looking at the fashion industry from the outside sees a lot of creativity and glamour. But behind the glitzy glamor and the creative capabilities lies a tremendous amount of hard work and effort. Those of us who enter the world of fashion entrepreneurship soon realize this. Fashion design does not just start and end at the drawing board. Just like a beautiful monument without plans detailing every minute element, or a race car without an exact engineering drawing, garments cannot move from the concept to the production stage without a tech pack.

What is a tech pack? It is to a fashion designer what a building plan is to an architect – a complete map of the product to be created. A tech pack essentially converts your design from a dreamy concept into a practical piece of clothing that can be produced, in small or large quantities. It tells a garment manufacturer what elements need to be included and where, the type, quality and dimensions of the fabric and other elements

Tunic techpack for a women’s casual wear brand.

A good tech pack consists of a combination of images and measurements, made in such a way that every detail of the garment is captured. It usually consists of:

• The flat sketch of a garment from front and back, with close-ups of the complicated sections
• Details for the stitching, fabric, trims and embellishments. This may include details of the suppliers as well, and can include a swatch of the fabric as well as samples of the embellishments such as lace, buttons, etc.
• Measurements of all the important dimensions including the size of any added portions or cutaways.
• Details of the embroidery, print, patterns and labels to be used.
• Packaging instructions

With a tech pack, a designer need not be present during the entire manufacturing process, and the garment manufacturer can execute production of the sample and final order to specifications. Be sure to include as many details as possible. A good tech pack will help you with grading, pattern making, calculating cost and yield of the material and determine your approximate cost of production.

At times, modifications may be required due to technical constraints in the production process. These changes are incorporated in the tech pack and the new one is used, just as building plans may change marginally when construction is in progress to account for unforeseen obstacles. Keeping the tech pack updated ensures everyone has a clear idea of what needs to be done.

Unlike fashion design concepts, tech packs are purely technical tools with strict guidelines. However, it is essential for any designer to be able to create a tech pack, so that you know the intricacies of the design. This makes it easier for you to guide the factory and ensure that the garment created meets your requirements. You can create a tech pack using tools like Adobe Illustrator, or work with a technical designer like Fuel4Fashion, who will convert your sketches and concepts into production-ready tech packs.

With a tech pack, you are now armed and ready to convert your concepts into a physical garment that the world can wear and flaunt. If you need any help, do get in touch with me at here with your queries.

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer, Sourcing and Manufacturing Consultant helping fashion brands to plan, design and develop new collections with small quantity garment manufacturing. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest Instagram

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The Fashion Design Process

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“To me, fashion is like a mirror. It’s a reflection of the times. And if it doesn’t reflect the times, it’s not fashion. Because people aren’t gonna be wearing it.”  – Anna Sui

Sometimes, it feels like quite the uphill task to design based on themes, preferences and moods, and do the whole thing over and over again every few months. For any process to succeed, the key determinant is empathy.

Consumers look at fashion as wearable art. For most people, a style is a form of expression. Even those who claim not to pay much attention to clothing are still making a statement- with the clothes that they do wear.

The Design Process

Let’s look at the fashion design process from scratch. Integral to success of the process is also how an understanding of your audience can set you up for superior results.

Step by Step explanation of Fuel4Fashion’s Fashion Design Process we religiously follow to ensure quality deliverance to our clients.

1. The Brief: Failing to plan is planning to fail, they say, and so it goes for the brief. The fashion brief includes everything from identifying the target customer, understanding their needs, the season of launch, the price points and size ranges.

2. Trend Forecasting: This is the part where you give consumers what they didn’t know they wanted! This is how new trends are born, and sustained. Understand data from prominent fashion houses and forecast reports from all around the world. Adapt to suit your needs.

3. The Basis: Once you have a list of trends for the upcoming season, you need to drill down to the trends that you do want to focus on. For example, it may not make sense for a bohemian brand to suddenly morph into vibrant athleisure. However, this doesn’t mean that they should entirely stay away from active wear either. Trends need to be adapted to suit your business’s promise.

4. Collection Planning: This is the step where you decide the number of silhouettes and the number of designs you want to showcase per silhouette. As a business, this is the step where budgets come into the picture. Too wide a collection can increase sales but eat into your budgets, while too few options can put people off.

5. Mood Boards: Your designs are almost ready to come to life. This is the phase where sketches become fabric interpretations. Observe the play of light on each garment.

Moodboard created by Fuel4Fashion, inspired from Disruptive theme for SS’19 Activewear category.

6. Inspiration Board: Now, you have all the material you need to be inspired from! The Inspiration Board serves as a style guide of sorts to help everyone on the team refer to when in doubt, and draw from at other times.

7. Garment Flats, and Customization: The book of illustrations with every piece in your collection will serve as a reference point for manufacturers and team members alike. Make it comprehensive. If your products have print and embroidered details on them, now is the time to get started.

Fuel4fashion’s creative design process from idea to sketch explaining the fashion design process.

8. The Tech Pack: This is the blueprint for every piece of clothing that you will design in the collection. It has details ranging from the style description, trims and fabric details, size range to the placement of prints.

9. Feasibility: Once the samples are ready, evaluate the pros and cons of taking this collection into production. Don’t be afraid to drop the pieces that aren’t up to your standards.

Fuel4fashion’s Range Plan for SS’19 Activewear segment for the fashion design process.

The Human Element

Oftentimes, in sales, it is easy to forget that all products are being created for a very specific consumer with very specific tastes. As a business person, you must understand your end consumer very well. Use personas, mock interviews and even real interviews to understand what they do expect, and also that which they want but don’t know of yet.

After all, some of the most stunning trends in fashion have come from a house that knew what its consumers weren’t saying- think miniskirts, punk rock and even power suits!

What new trend are you gearing up to start? Are you following due process?

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Supriya Ghurye is the founder and owner of Fuel4Fashion. She is a Freelance Fashion Designer and Brand Consultant helping fashion brands to create great products from idea to launch. Fuel4Fashion social links: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram

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