A Day in the Fashion Industry

      I always want to have a job in the Fashion Industry but have never really had any this kind of work experience.  In order to have an idea about how a job in the fashion industry looks like, I interviewed Debby George from Japanese Weekend Maternity.  She is the production manager of Japanese Weekend Maternity and has been working in the fashion industry for about 22 years.  I thought she must love her job very much because she has been in this area for so long.  Surprisingly, she got into this industry has nothing to do about fashion.  “Actually, I got my first job in a fashion company as a merchandiser back to Hong Kong many years ago, was not because I love that area. It was because that company needs somebody speaks Japanese and I was just come back from Japan and looking for jobs.  I was happy to have a job that can use the language that I learn from Japan,” Debby said. What a nice coincidence! That sounds like your college councilor will tell you, “go get into a major that still can get you back to something that you like, if you cannot get into a program that is impacted.” Right?   

            Anyway, let’s back to our business.  I was curious about how Debby’s work day would look like. Debby starts her day by checking with her boss to see if there is anything special that her boss wants her to take care of first, if there is nothing special; she will then check emails, and her assistant will check with her and report to her with things that need her attention.  And then she will start to work with everything that is production related; such as answer phone calls from their vendors, problem solving, follow up things that are production related, analyze what style should keep in the catalog for the season and what style needs to get rid of; prepare materials needed for production; budgeting, decision planning, decision making, and operating management.  “Basically, my job is to keep the company operate smoothly,” Debby said. That’s not easy because that involves a lot of details.  According to Debby, Japanese Weekend Maternity is one of those San Francisco based companies that committed to keeping their production in the U.S. as much as they can. But keeping every single material that is needed for production domestic makes the production cost very high, Debby is trying very hard to keep everything that is made in U.S.A. and the cost as low as she can. That gives her a lot of stress. Also, because Japanese Weekend Maternity wants to keep their products’ quality, Debby needs to make sure all materials fit their standards before sending materials out to their contractors for final mass productions.

Debby said, “If I can lower the cost of goods sold and can shorter the production time, I think I’m doing a pretty decent job as a production manager.”  She pointed out that teamwork is very important. As a team leader, she always treats her team members and other members in the company as a big family.  I asked Debby what quality was required for her position. She concluded that candidates don’t need to have a degree but needs to have work experience in garments manufacturing and that’s a very crucial qualification.  And that’s because if a candidate lack of work experience, it will cause the company lost a lot of money.  “Other required quality of being a production manager includes details orientated, supper flexible, work well with others, can work under pressure and have a sense of humor. For me, having a sense of humor with others will make the working environment in harmony,” Debby states.

            When I think about Debby’s responsibility of being a production manager, there are a lot of budgeting, decision planning, decision making, and operating management involved.  Those business terms sounds very familiar to me because I learn those in school with my business program. I think going to school to have a business degree is really very helpful for having a job as a production manager.  Even though Debby states that no degree is needed for gaining her position in the fashion industry, I think with those business skills that we learn from school may help smoothing the process of the job.

            I think I need to rethink about having a job as a production manager in a fashion company since I don’t have any work experience related to the industry.  If I really going to start my own business in the fashion industry, I might just hire a production manager or subcontract the whole production process to contractors and I just deal with marketing and sales.

            Thanks to Debby for providing so much insightful information about a production manager in the garments manufacturing area. If you want more information about their products, please check out their website at (http://www.japaneseweekend.com/) or Nordstrom’s website on maternity section at http://shop.nordstrom.com/c/womens-maternity-clothing?origin=leftnav .