In the fast-paced fashion industry, accuracy and efficiency are crucial. A good fashion tech pack acts as the blueprint to transform creative designs into actual garments.
This article will explain what a fashion tech pack is and what you need to create a good one. Additionally, we will discuss the importance of tech packs in the clothing industry and how Wave PLM can assist in this process.
Understanding the Fashion Tech Pack
A fashion tech pack is a detailed document with all the info needed to make clothing. It bridges the gap between design and manufacturing, providing a standardized format for communication between designers, pattern makers, and manufacturers.
This challenge often stems from first-time designers encountering the term “technical” and feeling a sense of panic. While clothing tech packs do include technical elements such as accurate garment dimensions and industry-specific terminology, they are not overwhelmingly scientific. Things get easier to understand when they are explained.
There are many types of those packs depending on the purpose: design, measurement, fabric and material tech pack, pattern and grading, labelling and packaging tech pack, etc. Today we’ll talk about the most general type of technical document for the fashion industry, which includes all the main elements and will help establish the workflow.
Why You Need Tech Packs
Communication Efficiency: Tech packs ensure clear and concise communication between design and production teams, reducing the risk of errors.
Quality Control: By detailing every aspect of the garment, tech packs contribute to maintaining consistent quality across production batches.
Cost Reduction: Accurate tech packs help prevent mistakes in manufacturing, ultimately reducing costs associated with rework and alterations.
Streamlined Production: Tech packs streamline the production process, minimizing delays and ensuring a smoother workflow.
Following this, we’ll detail the necessary information for crafting accurate technical packs and ensuring successful production. Additionally, discover the superpowers that Wave PLM can provide at every step.
Essential Components for Fashion Tech Packs
General information
This is where you describe general information about the product for further identification. This could be a style number, season, division, designer or other characteristics. Typically, this section also describes the future size range of the product and the gender.
Every company has its own set of features they need. When integrating with a PLM system like Wave PLM, the first step is transferring data from the company’s systems. In the PLM system, you don’t start from zero; instead, you pick from ready-made templates or lists of features.
Design details
Detailed design specs help the manufacturing team seamlessly weave together each part of the garment. This includes stitches, where to put pockets, and details about closures like buttons and zippers.
In Wave PLM you can create your own library of design details for each of your customers, collections, etc. This way, you don’t need to explain every button or zipper again if you already know what you need and have used that part before. Just like your team will know all the design details that the tech pack includes.
Colors
The color palette displays garment colors, while colorways show how colors combine with fabrics and materials.
The Wave PLM Adobe Extension allows you to add colors from Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop to the unified library. This makes the color selection process easier.
Size specifications
The measurements segment delineates all size-specific measurements for each garment design, ensuring accurate sizing in later production stages. Additionally, it should incorporate tolerances for each size.
Fitting
Here the product development team can assess the sample, providing comments and feedback for anticipated changes from the manufacturer. This ensures alignment with your vision for the product.
Construction details
The construction details will inform the manufacturing team about how to assemble each part of the garment.
Comments and additional info
Here you can add any additional information you feel is necessary.
Fashion Tech Pack in a Single Click
The time required for tech pack creation varies. Complex clothes take longer to make, with simple ones taking just an hour. Skilled designers may spend 8-10 hours creating detailed plans for ambitious designs from scratch.
Wave PLM seamlessly consolidates extensive product information. As mentioned before, accurate product data automatically generates Tech Packs. Entering the necessary information into the Wave PLM system typically takes about 25 minutes. This streamlined process allows you to effortlessly create multiple tech packs at the touch of a button.
We also offer personalized technical packs depending on your company’s needs. For example, the design details technical pack, which contains minimal information only for coordinating a collection, or a complete one, which includes absolutely all the information from construction details to fittings that is necessary for the manufacturing process in every fashion industry.
The system saves data and generates a technical pack with updated information when you modify a product.
Tech packs are crucial for turning creative fashion ideas into reality. They act as a complete guide during production, ensuring fashion brands deliver clear, consistent, and high-quality products. Recognizing the value of this tool is crucial for designers and manufacturers to succeed in the competitive fashion industry.
Contact us to learn more about Wave PLM and revolutionize your approach to fashion production.
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