Home sweet home

1.10.15

Happy to say that we made it back home to Raleigh!

Thank you to everyone who helped plan, organize, and provide us with this opportunity of a lifetime! We would especially like to thank Dr. Karen Leonas, Kelly Bogan, and the College of Textiles for their support, as well as the numerous companies that hosted us throughout the week. Each of us are more than grateful for this opportunity; we truly gained a true appreciation for the culture and work ethic of the Chinese people. The early mornings and long nights, networking events, seminars, and factory tours opened our eyes to what opportunities lie within the fashion industry and gave us a true taste of what our future careers will be like. 

Again, a big thank you to everyone for a successful trip and we wish for a wonderful trip next year to those lucky NCSU textile students!

Ralph Lauren Sourcing

1.9.15

Ralph Lauren Women's, Men's, Children's and Sweaters sourcing teams hosted us to a day packed full of learning.

We had the opportunity to tour each office and listen to presentations about what their day-to-day duties are. Many of their operational tasks are the same, however each department works on different timelines, deals with knits and wovens separately, and sources their fabric individually. The teams also educated us on what steps or channels they must go through to ensure quality and craftsmanship for each garment produced. Many of the garments have a short turn around of 6 months, which include interpreting the inspiration or sketch, developing that into an approved sample, and then a final garment.
  

Li & Fung

1.8.15

Li&Fung is a sourcing company that acts as a middle man between companies and manufacturers. They work to provide the best service for the customers and have just initated two new programs called CSI (company service initiative) and VSS (vendor support service). They also are in the process of implementing an S-lab to connect technology and universal communication into one interface. As a company, their business model is based around determining platforms for each segment/division of their business, including specialty fashion, Latin America, authentic brands, and children's.

After touring the impressive showrooms, we had the opportunity to view their innovation lab where creativity and ideation take place. That night, LF hosted a mingling event for us to meet industry professionals, Poly technic students and other LF employees.