Blogs: Cat finds her opinion is starting to count

Cat graduated from her fashion design degree at the University of Leeds and has now secured her first job in the industry, working as a buyers admin assistant (BAA)

September began with our spring/summer 2013 sign off meeting. This involved the buyer presenting the proposed collection to the chief executive officers (CEOs). The merchandiser explained figures such as the units and margins. I took the minutes as the CEOs decided if anything needed changing. Overall they were happy with the collection, so we were able to send out the orders to the suppliers so that the garments could be made.

Each order was put onto the 'critical path'. This is a spreadsheet for the suppliers to fill in on a weekly basis, which includes the expected dates of when we will receive colour dips, prints, bulk fabric, fit samples, and when they will make and send the garments. Every day the buyers assistant and I chase suppliers to ensure that everything is running on time. If the suppliers ignore my emails I have to put on my angry voice and call them to find out what's happening. Once a week we have a critical path meeting, in which I inform the team about any concerns I have about garments being late. This results in more chasing for the next week's critical path meeting!

Once the fabric and colour has been approved, we fit each garment on what we call a 'fit model', who is the size of our age 12 measurements. The garment technologist and buyers make comments about any changes that need to be made and I type this up and send it to the supplier. They will then send a new sample based on our comments and if it fits well, it is approved to go into production.
 
After a couple of months, my opinion is starting to count in these fit sessions. The other day, our model tried on a long-sleeved dress which looked awful. I suggested making the sleeves three-quarter length which went down so well with the team I felt like I had discovered gravity.

Now that spring/summer has been signed off, we are starting to look at autumn/winter 2013/14. This began by analysing the current collection in stores and seeing what has performed particularly well or poorly. Popular styles can be updated for next year, for example by using the same shape but changing the print.

The designer has been researching trends that suit our target market. The buyer and I went shopping on the high street to see how other stores have been interpreting catwalk trends. We have also been to meetings with suppliers who have shown us styles that they are developing for us to buy. What’s more, the buyer and designer went to Turkey to see what new techniques the factories are using, which was great because they bought back loads of Turkish delight…

This month has been super busy. It has been challenging to adjust to such a stressful environment and I have been getting lots of headaches. However, I have found that receiving free clothes and going for a walk on my lunch break helps to calm me down. My advice for anyone thinking about going into retail buying is that you do really have to love fashion to put up with the madness!