So what’s a typical day like for an independent fashion designer?A typical day for me varies widely depending on the season – if I’m in the middle of production, I’m running back and forth dropping and picking things up from my grader, cutter, and factory. Since I am currently in the throes of developing my fall collection, a lot of my work has revolved around that. In a few weeks, I will be heading to pre-production for fall…which seems crazy, since summer has just started. The traditional, fast moving fashion seasons make me insane- I’ll save that for another blog post. But I digress…
Let’s look at what my work day looked like on Tuesday:
Check e-mails, social media-ing. Pet my cats. Caffeine!
Spin workout
Prepare inventory to deliver to boutiques
Do publicity for upcoming events – web listings, design postcard, social media (while eating lunch)
Work on fall collection – patternmaking, sewing and editing prototypes, fabric selection. A few minutes of cursing while ripping out seams and fixing sewing mistakes.
Cut fabric for limited run of new tops
One hour late afternoon break to run errands in the neighborhood
E-mails and more social media
Dinner break
Plan for upcoming events – apply for fairs, research businesses to collaborate with and research fabrics for fall
Work on blog post!
Wine. (But not every night. Seriously. Maybe on a Thursday, or on Wednesday, because you know, #WineWednesday)
Ripping out seams. I try to get zen with it but sometimes you just have to curse.
Exciting right!? Some of the tasks can easily be a time suck if I’m not careful (I’m looking at YOU social media). I kind of enjoy Instagramming, but Twitter gives me a headache. I tried Snapchat and frankly, I am just too old for it. Facebook is like an old friend who is there, so I use it. And if there is a cat video in my Facebook feed…there goes the next 5 minutes of my life.
I will sometimes go work at a cafe for a couple of hours at the end of the day to focus on lower priority but still important tasks, (like writing blog posts, reading articles, website updates, etc.) I am usually super productive for about 2 hours, and a cafe is a nice change of scenery since I am usually at my home studio. And bonus, no cats coming to “cuddle” on your keyboard while typing.
Any comments or questions? Leave them below or on our Facebook page – until next time!