We are SO excited to unveil our Spring 2014 Collection!
please visit: www.quorestudio.com !
Woohoo!
Below is our Merchandising Strategies and Textile Detail Presentation!
Quore Business Plan
Also, take a look at our Editorial Lookbook and our Line Sheet Lookbook.
When we started out collection, we had a clear vision of who our customer was: a professional with expensive taste an expendable income which she enjoyed spending on clothing. However, she also values great design and materials.
With that in mind, we knew that all our materials had to be quality! So while we did what we could to make sure our cost we’re as low as possible, we did not scrape on quality for the sake of cost.
We were successful in estimating our Retail Cost of our collection. We said that our customer would be comfortable in a contentemporary price similar to lines like Tibi, Elizabeth and James ect. Our line ranges from $175-$800. Our formula was standard on a cost of materials and labor X 2.3 for wholesale X 2.3 retail.
Below are the PDF forms cost sheet for each of our garments!
As you can see, our garments were not cheap to make, so Wendy and I had to sit down and consider our budget several times. We both came into our project understanding that this project is the most important project of our college career and we could not limit our imagination by being cheap. While we knew that we couldn’t financially afford a multi-thousand dollar production, we did give ourselves a $1,000 budget, dividing the cost evenly. This is a 50/50 project. We are splitting the work evenly, so we should split the cost evenly as well.
Thus far we have spent a total of : $806
Not including print cost for our lookbooks, we are budgeting $125 for models and $50 for Hair & MUA for our fashion show. However, we are hoping to stay under budget so we will do whatever we can to get those services for free without compromising quality.
With these factors in mind, we are hoping to land right at the $1,000 budget.
We’ll keep em’ crossed.
With large milestones underway, we are inching closer and closer to our finished portfolio of our collection.
On Saturday we shoot our lookbook shoot and our line sheet with the talented ladies of Down to Your Skivvies at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles.
With the photoshoot under our belt, now most of our merchandising work is underway. This week we are focusing on printing our lookbook, business cards and letterhead.
With most of Wendy’s work done, she is focusing on perfecting all her embellishments and laying out her detail shots for her portfolio.
This week is going to be a very busy one as we work on all our final touches of our collection!
Love and Marriage, you can’t have one without the other. And producing a collection is much like a marriage.
In the collection’s inception you are filled with excitement and deep lust and love. Your collection is perfect and you just know that you’ll love your collection forever. IE. The Honeymoon Period.
Well, then the realization that your collection is not perfect! But rather super challenging and consistently testing your patience and your wallet! Your patterns wont line up and material cost are quickly adding up. You’ve had to make slight changes to the original designs. This is also the time in the marriage that you realize communication is really key. Communication with your sample makers is vital. Sometimes it can feel like you are speaking different languages, and in Quore’s case we did! While I speak understand Spanish, our sample makers and I had several misunderstandings about our sewing expectations.
Lastly, and hopefully we are entering this stage, Compromise Compromise is really what makes marriages last. You can not have a long lasting marriage without compromise. As we’ve learned, we must compromise with our collection on what is financially and logistically possible.
Regardless, there has been lots of progression and heavy inspiration
Wendy and I have accomplished so much within the last week. We have several garment construction completed so Wendy can now focus on her fiber embellishments, which will be a surprise even to me! So excited.
As we inch closer to our photo shoot we are becoming avidly consumed with inspirational videos, and editorials.
Here are some examples of filters and ‘feelings’ are are aiming for.
I’ve also finalized our logos and icon!
Similar to many luxury brands, we’ve decided to have a few interchangeable logos as well as a stand alone icon that can immediately identify the brand.
Be sure to check out our newest website tab, Spring 2014 where we have posted our collection’s artistic statement.
“Well, I’m a sweet smelling, truth telling, city dwelling kind of a woman.
Looking for a slow walking, sweet talking, hungry kind of a man.
Well I’m a wine drinking, fast thinking, eye winking kind of a woman.
Justa lookin’ for a cool headed, unwedded serious kind of a man.
Well I’m no man’s lady if you’re no lady’s man, so come and get me baby…. If you can, hmmm… If you can…”
Lidia here! Our search for understanding out customer is never ending. Every decision that is made, is done with our customer in mind. “Would she appreciate dyed lining?” -Yes! “Would she gravitate toward a brand that had embroidered label verse a print label?” More than likely. These are the questions that we answered for our customer within the last week.
This is our customer:
Within this week, we have one garment completely sewn and will be taking the rest of our garments to the sewers by the end of the week. Our custom print fabrics should be arriving from Spoonflower at the end of the week as well. Wendy aims to have all her embellishments completed by middle of next week as our photo shoot is scheduled for May 11th.
We have managed to wrangle up great contacts who have helped set our models, hair, make-up artist and photographers locked down. We are only waiting on confirmation for our ideal location. If that location does not work out, then we have a solid plan B. Check out the call sheet we sent out to Envy Model Management and our Photog team, Down to Your Skivvies. Click Here –> CALL SHEET
I am also really excited to present our logo. Clean, simple, and shows femininity. We are constantly playing with the idea of adding color, so I’m sure adjustments will be made before its final.
Inspiration is constantly being drawn from every aspect of artistic realms. We have been particularly inspired by Nancy Sinatra’s 1972 album, “Woman” We particularly thought that the first song on this album, “Kind of a Woman” clearly describes our ‘woman’. We’ve had this song on repeat while we are working. It consistently reminds us to think of our woman every step of the way.
Lidia here!
We have had a busy week in the Quore Studio. While time has moved quickly, so have we. We have all our patterns and muslin’s in progress. We have confirmed our photographers and models lined up for our look book and runways show and we have several logo prototypes to consider.
Quore’s master textile designer (and co-designer), Wendy has started her felting samples. We got our fabulous and luxurious wool fiber from Mohair and More fiber supply shop which is located in New Waverly, Texas where they raise registered white angora goats, providing high quality and beautiful mohair fiber.
(This is the website that links to the store where we got our fantastic wool http://mohairandmore.com/angora_goats/. Highly recommended! It is shop that where you can find good quality and cheap wool fiber. )
Wool fiber is felted on the surface of the foam. Playing with contrasting color, magenta and peacock wool roving are felted into a free shape as if the infectious skin caused by bacteria on the human body.
The side of the felting wool that has fuzzy effect would be used as the front. The fuzzy effect creates a sense of fur. Small dark magenta color beads are added on the surface to bring some details to the piece and enhance the idea of bacterial infection.
” I was thinking how to make our embellishment look more interesting but doesn’t look too crafty. It is a long process. Each piece took around 1 hour to finish. So far I am satisfied with the first outcome since they look like infectious skin for me. For the next design, I will add more interesting elements and play with different color combination.” Wendy said.
One of our favorite moments this week was our search for the ‘perfect zipper’ and leather piece. Wendy and I found ourselves contemplating over the zipper we would use for one of our garments. Quore prides itself in using only the best possible materials, and we take that seriously through out all aspect of design. The perfect zipper must easily zip up. It must the teeth as much as possible and it must mute ‘zipping’ noise as much as possible. Image our surprise when we found it! After deliberating at Joanna’s for a good 30 minutes, Wendy and I came to the conclusion that the zipper we found met our extensive criteria. Horray!
Secondly, we have been in a constant search for the leather piece that would detail a few of our garments. We are very particular people, who love the look of leather but are also concerned about its impact environmental and ethical impact. While pleather was a viable option, it can quickly look cheap. When we came across a faux distressed suede we became immediately excited! Especially because it was so inexpensive. We were concerned with its immediate excitement because we worried it was simply because of its price and our distress for the search. How ever, we decided we should get a second opionin.
After advice from a few important voices, we decided while these ‘perfect’ finds were in fact great, the zipper and faux suede piece take away from our original inspiration, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. So, we scraped it. Yes. After what was cumulatively hours of searching, we decided to forget it. But that is the production process, I guess. Edit, edit, edit.
Regardless, our look book shoot is set for May 11th, so we have only a few weeks to finish production, these tough decisions must be made. And we are sure it wont be the last of them.
Thanks for tuning in!
DAY ONE Our Spring 2014 Collection is currently underway! Designers Wendy and Lidia (myself) are meeting minds and undertaking the daunting task of patterning the entire collection. Wendy has ordered her textile materials and I making connections with … Continue reading
Collection inspiration don’t come together on the whim of a hat.
It does however, come together in the most random way.
Our Spring 2014 collection is inspired by Microscopic images of bacterial infections and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Coming together through a hybrid of silhouettes derived from the closets of Mary and Rhoda, and prints other textile details conceived through the color and shapes of bacteria, Quore’s Spring 2014 collection will surely be a collection fit for the artistic eye.
Check out some of our inspiration below!
Quore
Commonly Italian misspelling of Cuore; Noun for heart, Pronounced Core
Business Plan
Prepared by: Lidia Alvarez
Contact Info:
quore.info@gmail.com
http://www.quorestudio.wordpress.com
Quore 