PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT
Session 2
 Product development is the very first stage of introduction of
new style. The concept of new style or design is developed by
fashion designer which is merely a design or sketch on the
paper.
 Product development is the process where that sketch or design
is converted in to a 3D form garment, with all technical and
aesthetic approach keeping in mind.
 The first stage is of organizing the thoughts and collecting
images (Mood board) from designer. It captures the mood or
flavour of the design project, as well as reflects the target
customer, sometimes designs are developed target costumer
keeping in mind.
 The in-depth study & close examination as well as market
forecasting of the costumer stimulates the ideas about colours
& textures which influence choice of fabrics.
 Colour palette is selected with the important shades and
identifying the market and customer taste, historic data from
marketing team and saleability of the developed product.
 Methods such as dyeing, printing, applique & manipulating the
fabrics convert the stimulated ideas into required textures &
drape of the garments.
 At the stage of developing fabrics for Swatch Board,
practicalities of achieving the effects hardly matters whereas
innovation is highly demanded.
 Designing a collection is concerned with decisions of taste,
choice and sensitivity and relies on the market forecast.
 In present global scenario and fast fashion era product
development becomes the business strategy for the whole supply
chain of the fashion industry.
 Now a day’s product development is done at every stage of the
fashion industry.
 Product development by global buyer

 From the buyers point of view the product development is the creating
individual style within the line.
 Product development process starts after market forecast.
 After the research phase of line development is completed, silhouettes are
developed, fabrics and trim selected, prototypes made, and specifications are
created.
 The resulting styles are analysed to determine manufacturing costs. These steps
are all part of the product development phase of the line development process.
 The first steps of silhouette development and fabric selection are approached in
different ways by different designers and companies.
 Many companies base their lines around fabric and print designs. Their
designers start by selecting fabrics and then create silhouettes for those fabrics.
These designers are fabric driven. Other designers are silhouette-driven. hey
design silhouettes and then select fabrics that are compatible with the
silhouettes.
 This type of product development is done either by buyer along with buying
house. The essential parts of product development are
 Fabric selection: fabric selection is done based on aesthetics as well as
technical demand of the garment. Following things need to consider while
selecting the fabric for product development.
 Fibre content.
 Fabric construction—basic structure.
 Texture and engineered effects created by weave configurations and
 Yarn selections.
 Prints.
 Colour range.
 Performance characteristics—wear factors, care requirements, sewing
 Compatibility and drape.
 Versatility for use in multiple styles.
 Price and terms.
 Availability.
 Minimum order quantities.
 For fabric selection designer visits textile mills, fabric studio, design studio.
 Silhouettes: Silhouette development involves transforming garment ideas
into final garment Sketches or technical drawings, which are hand or CAD
renderings of the front and back of a garment, including stitching details.
Technical drawings usually do not include body silhouettes and are used
where construction and styling details are critical to the design.

 Proto type development: after Silhouette is developed, tech pack is

developed and development sample are developed. Objective is to see the
aesthetic and manufacturing ability of the proposed style.

 Costing: Costing is done at the stage of sample development to see the

market feasibility of the product for sales and to decide the profit margin.
Advantages of product development by
buyer/ buying specification
 Buyer makes the market forecast, hence the understanding of
market is better.
 The recent trends are decided by buyer.
 The colour, prints and patterns are developed by buyer which
is based on market forecast.
 Buyer is totally responsible for the success of developed style.
Disadvantages product development by
buyer/ buying specification
 The process of product development is long and tidies process
for buyer; If buyer doesn’t have in-house production
capability.
 Buyer needs to depend on either buying house or
garment/textile manufacturer for development of lab-dip,
strike-off, and samples.
 The cost of product development at this stage is higher.
 Though buyer does the market forecast but buyer may has
limitation on technical knowledge and production feasibility
of the style.
Product development by garment
manufacturer
 Product development is the business policy of the organization which
includes the development of the new designs and styles within the
organization.
 This activity brings the more business to organization, by showing pro-
activeness in design development buyer also impress.
 Production merchandiser must keep update to buyer time to time about
the product development done by organization.
 Motivate the buyer to give the design development to the organization
instead of doing themselves.
 Whenever buyer visits to the organization, presentation of new colour,
prints, embroidery patterns and desk loom developments is done by
production merchandiser.
 Presentation of new designs developed by PD department. Try to
convince the buyer to select the designs from presentation. 
 Role of production merchandiser in
product development
 Merchandiser not only follows the export order but, he/she must be aware of the new
trends in market related to fabric, colour, patterns, style, designs etc.
 Cost calculations are the main role played by the merchandiser. At product
development and sampling stage only cost is calculated and quoted to buyer.
 Merchandiser must insist in-house design studio(if available)or product development
team to come up with new ideas and designs and style.
 At the same time merchandiser should convince buyer to give development to the
factory if capacity is available.
 Merchandiser knows what buyer wants hence at the time buyer visit to factory,
merchandiser can present the new developments i.e. desk looms, lab-dips, strike-offs,
newly developed design in garment in front of buyer or send to buyers office for
selection purpose.
 Merchandiser must use convincing ability to make sure that buyer will accept some
designs.
 The important role of merchandiser plays is follow-up of buyer as well as sampling
department to make sure that development should go smoothly.
Advantages
 Production merchandiser can control product development
process in better way.
 Pro-activeness of merchandiser can bring the more business to
the organization.
 The cost of product development is lesser when it takes place
in manufacturing organization.
 Manufacturing organization may not charge the cost of
product development to the buyer if buyer is regularly giving
orders to the organization that is the benefit to the buyer.
Disadvantages
 Merchandiser may not aware fully about the buyer’s
requirement of style and designs for that particular season. If
it is so then whole work will be wasted.
 The quality requirements of the buyer nay not match.
 There may be capacity of sampling or product development
department to produce the new style, but there may be
possibility that production floor may not be able to handle the
style
 Merchandiser may have limited knowledge of the market,
trends, running style, sales background of the buyer, brand
image.  Hence there are limitations for merchandiser to go for
product development.
Product development by design studio

 In globalization era product development process is also

outsourced by buyer.
 The process of product development is similar to what buyer
is doing but only third party or individual design studio is
involved in the process.
 Buyer asks design studio to develop the new designs,
sketches, style and colour.
 Design studio develops designs according to market forecast
of buyer, by keeping brand image in mind.
Advantages
 Buyer gets the advantage of expertise in design studio.
 Buyer need not to see the sourcing part for the product
development.
 The risk transfers to the design studio.
 With involvement of third party product development sharing
of knowledge is happens. The resources can be combined.
 Increasing the speed of product development process as
design studio does that job.
 Buyer gets the advantage of latest technology in design studio.
Disadvantages
 More cost is incurred for buyer.
 Dependency is more on design studio.
 Design studio may not be able to understand the buyer’s
perception about market though buyer shares data.
 There is reduction in knowledge gain about technology, new
trends and technical aspects of product development.
Stages of PD
1. Line planning and research
2. Design concepts: line concept through
research
3. Design development: line development
4. Line presentation and marketing
5. Production planning: pre-production
6. Line optimization.
Line planning and research
 The initial step of this process is planning a line of products for a
particular season or particular time period, depending on the company’s
selling seasons or selling practices.
 The PD team is generally comprised of several people from designing,
merchandising, research and development (R&D) and/or raw material
development, technical design or product engineering, sales
and marketing, finance, graphic design, sourcing, operations, planning,
and quality assurance.
 The PD team uses the information from research on trends, colors,
materials, previous successes or failures, past sales records, experience
from previous lines, and mark-down reports, etc. to brainstorm a plan for
the new line.
 The information from this effort will assist the designers and the PD team
to formulate a plan for the new line with a positive (brand) image to
influence the consumer segment that the company is targeting for its sales.
 Design concepts: line concept through research

 After planning, the PD process begins with the design, which is a critical
component in the development of fashion products.
 The design process begins with a line concept, which explains the mood,
theme, and other key elements that contribute to the identity of the line.
 To develop the line concept, the designers obtain their inspirations for
designs by conducting research.
 This involves market research and fashion research, from which they
interpret findings into styles considering the brand and the target consumer.
 The market research provides information that helps the company to
understand consumer demands.
 This is done by investigating the target consumers and their behavior, their
preferred product designs and characteristics, and the general market trends.
 The fashion research provides trends for the season as silhouettes, design
details, colors, fabrics, and trims.
 Designers play a vital role in bringing the textile design ideas.
 Textile designers get their inspirations from mood boards from the
design team, catwalk reports, print suppliers, and observing other
fashion manufacturers or retailers.
 The companies that conduct trend research evaluate what has occurred
in the past and project what may happen in the next season, tracking
economic trends, social and cultural trends, technological advances, and
political influences, which may all have an impact on the product design
as well as on consumer behavior and spending.
 Collaborating with the designer, the merchandiser will review the trends,
analyze previous sales, consider the budget allocated and projected sales
for the department or account, and come up with the line plan.
 With the product designs for the line finalized, the design-development
process begins.
Design development: line development

 At this stage the designers interpret the research findings and translate
the line concepts into styles considering the sales potential,
appropriateness for the brand, target consumer, and product line.
 The activities involved in this stage are raw material
development, testing and approval, color testing and approval,
acquisition of sample yardage, pattern-making and fit approval, style
evaluation and approval, wear testing, and preliminary costing, leading
to finalizing sample specifications and translating the line
from sketches to actual product line. 
 Merchandising, marketing, and PD teams will review samples to make
decisions on final line adoption. 
 Merchandising team identifies the assortment, makes volume decisions,
and establishes pricing and gross margins.
Line presentation and marketing

 The styles to be adopted in the line are reviewed in the line review
meeting attended by executive decision-makers from sales, sourcing,
finance, operations, planning, and manufacturing.
 PD team will order raw materials for more copies.
 Production planning and control division will carry out detailed costing
and develop product specs.
 Marketing and merchandising teams will develop promotional materials
for sales reps.
 Line is presented at markets to retail channels using sales samples by
marketing team.
 Marketing and merchandising teams will review retail orders, compare
with sales forecast, and add/drop styles, colors, and sizes to come up
with the final modified line.
Production planning: pre-production

 During the production planning stage of the PD process, sourcing

decisions are made to identify which production facility will produce the
approved styles in the line.
 The functions at this stage of the PD process will depend on what type of
contractor will be used for production of the styles.
 Translating the decided prototypes and first patterns into complete
size range for final production.
 PD team will finalize quality, production, and process standards for
manufacturing.
 Production planning and control division will manage grading, marker
making, planning, and sourcing of both material and production.
 Quality, material, and engineering specifications will be finalized
by merchandising and production planning and control division.
Line optimization
 Merchandising team will review the final line against orders,
drop styles with inadequate orders, and replace with new
styles, colors, and sizes to optimize the line for profitability.
 If changes are made, the model will direct to previous phases
as appropriate.
 This phase will continue while production is in progress.
 Product development process in apparel firms is growing.
 Companies concentrate on improving the cost-effectiveness of the
process by streamlining and shortening the PD cycle using the latest
technologies and improving the market responsiveness. 
 The digital PD process using virtual technologies provides the
opportunity for companies to shrink the product development cycle
time from months to days.
 Communicating the standards and specifications among supply-chain
partners using tech-packs that were developed during PD, provides the
opportunity for quality assurance and control in the garment
manufacturing process.
 The success of a product in apparel industry is determined by the
interaction and integration of value, time, cost and quality.