Beside fabrics and materials, there are a lot of important factors that can determine if the products will be perfect for the purpose they are made for, or they only look appropriate while being disfunctional. Development process may be the hardest part in a new model’s life and here is, why…
When I decided to begin with the development of a new combat shirt, I immediately came up against numerous difficulties. First of all, you have to determine what you want. You have to know what you want to develop, renew, extend or rebuild from zero while you have to determine the purpose that you want the garment to be created for. Then, you have to draw up your ideas. Sometimes you literally have to draw your ideas on paper. I always did this with our first models, although nowadays it happens to be a little bit more simple to start sketching on PC.
Okay, you have your ideas, now translate them to the language that the tailors will understand and create the pattern that they can work from. Here comes the specialist, who draws things with unbelievable precision by hand. She does the magic…
So, you have the tailoring pattern, what now? Do you know any Hungarian company, where they can understand your needs, make your products, apply necessary changes, adapt to new requirements and is there any company featuring these capabilities at once? Maybe this was the hardest part of the beginning. Fortunately it turned out in the early phase that greater companies do not always provide better solutions, nor quality, but they can even make things worse than by not doing anything. It also turned out that sometimes the best solutions come from a single person, who is very innovative and is ready to solve your problems in a pretty easy way. I have to admit that I also got a lot of help in form of recommendations of excellent specialists and a reliable, professional company, so now I can start the development of new models without struggling with issues of future production.
Okay, you found the appropriate company, now you take your tailoring pattern to them and you attempt to explain your expectations regarding the new model, while trying to show the imagined pockets, straps and other features on the pattern. Obviously they know what to do, because it’s their job, but each and every new development bears a lot of questions and possible failures within itself.
Nicely done, the first sample is ready and you are now able to see if your ideas were good or bad. Sometimes even if the idea is good, the completion depends on distinct factors, so you have to admit that this good idea is not as good as bad it actually looks. No problem, heads up, find the solution!
You go back to the specialist after some days of testing. There you can explain, how stupid you were and how clever you became after a closer insight. Then, the corrected pattern is being made to create the perfect model, so now you can go to the tailory again and hopefully your calculations and modifications were good. Of course they were, but as you take the first look at the garment, you realise that some minor changes are still needed.
To be continued…