Fashion Business Inc. and Oakley

1. Fashion Business Inc. and Oakley SOCCCD Collaborative 2008-2009 CTE Grant Funded Externship by Malia Hill Fashion Department Saddleback College

2. Fashion Business Incubator Fashion Business Incubator is located in the center of Los Angeles’ fashion district. The center includes a co-op showroom, computer lab, seminar room and general office space. FBI started in 1999 the FBI and recently moved from the New Mart to the California Market Center.

3. Frances Harder:Fashion Business Incubator Founder Frances Harder is the President & Founder of the Fashion Business Incorporated (FBI). The company provides important business development and job training and retraining to the workers in the fashion industry.

4. FBI has become a key resource for apparel companies. All training at the FBI has been recognized by the state of California’s ETP program, which allows manufactures and employees to attend training and receive state sponsorship.

5. Fashion for Profit Frances has also self-published a book called Fashion for Profit which discusses the nitty gritty aspects of starting your own apparel company.

6. ETP Program Employment Training Panel (ETP) is a business and labor supported state agency that assists California employers in strengthening their competitive edge and employability. FBI has a contract with EMP and offers training courses for employees of qualified companies on the latest versions of software such as Photoshop, CAD, Retail Pro, Gerber and AIMS as well as a variety of sales, management, and marketing courses.

7. FBI Memberships Members benefit from the FBI resources in the area of product development, sales and marketing, promotion, discount market space and co-op showroom opportunity. Members have access to the FBI’s consultants, attorneys, professional photographers and models at a major discount. They are also able to be shown in a co-op showroom, take advantage of marketing opportunities, such as a link on FBI’s website to the company’s website and other promotional events. Members also get discounts to workshops offered by FBI.

8. FBI Memberships As part of my Externship, I worked on contacting companies that had memberships with FBI. Here are a list of different memberships: • Business Member/Annual California $250.00 • Business Member/Annual Out of State $150.00 • Student Membership - $35.00 • Non-profit Organization Member $250.00 • Industry Partner $750.00 • College Chapter $750.00 • Corporate Membership $1,200.00 which would allow their employees to get member benefits and take classes at the FBI with discounted rates

9. What I learned… FBI has helped me network with many companies in the industry as well as see how a non-profit fashion business operates. They work closely with companies to find out what skills are lacking in the apparel industry and offer classes to meet those needs. Many of the classes offered brought light to what students need to learn to be successful in the industry.

10. Application FASH 130 – FLAT PATTERN: FBI teaches a computerized flat pattern program. Saddleback College needs to add a class that involves designing patterns digitally, such as PAD, Gerber, Lectra, or Tukatech. FASH 145 – INTERNSHIP: Companies networked with can work into internships for students. Students can attend seminars. FASH 150 – FASHION APPAREL AND PROFESSIONAL TECHNIQUES: Curriculum has been added to include a digital Efolio. FASH 154 – FASHION ILLUSTRATION: FASH 260 – COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN FASHION: Many skills are needed now in Photoshop and Illustrator. FASH 289 – DIGITAL PORTFOLIO: FBI offers a similar class but only several days and for 5 times the cost. FASH 289 – TECHNICAL/SPEC SHEETS: Saddleback Fashion department has just added a special topic course that provides students with information on how to build a technical sheet, something FBI also offers. FASH 289 – AIMS: Saddleback has a partnership with FBI and AIMS to provide a AIMS software training to Saddleback an apparel information data system.

11. Oakley Externship To complete my hours I worked in the research and development area of Oakley located in Foothill Ranch, CA. Oakley is known for their high-tech eyewear, however I assisted in the textile and fabric division under Textile Engineer Tony Fella.

12. Tony Fella – Textile Engineer • Tony started his career in the military working on textiles of parachutes. • He has been working for the Oakley company for 8 years. • He works with the fabric coordinator to test fabric to see if it is suitable for it’s design. There is a lot of performance fabric used at Oakley. • Oakley has very high standards they keep by testing the textile and apparel goods.

13. Corporate Oakley Oakley is set in Foothill Ranch CA and looks very much like movie set from a Sci-Fi movie. All of Oakley’s sunglasses are made here and are produced 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The apparel, on the other hand, is outsourced to China to be produced. Oakley has a fully equipped textile lab to do all of their apparel testing to meet their high standards.

14. Testing Equipment Abrasion Resistance Testing Color Fastness Testing Pill Testing Equipment Oakley has equipment similar to the pieces of equipment above to test their fabric. The pill testing equipment tests fabric for how much pilling will occur on the fabric after snagging. One box is lined with Velcro to reproduce the effect of a Velcro closure. The color fastness testing machine tests fabric for how much the color may wear off on other surfaces or fabric (such as indigo jeans on white underwear). There was one issue with red swim shorts that rubbed off on a customer’s tan leather seats in his boat. Testing for this prevents issues such as these. The abrasion resistance machine tests fabric for how much a material can hold up against rubbing and normal wear and tear. If the fabric has poor abrasion resistance, Oakley will not use the fabric in their apparel line.

15. Testing Equipment Eyeglass Testing Equipment Water-resistance Testing Laundry Machine Simulates 1 Year of Wear Oakley also tests their ski and snow jackets with the water-resistance machine. This machine can simulate water pushing against the fabric Oakley chooses for their snow line with the force that mocks someone standing in Hurricane Katrina and not getting wet. The laundry machines that they have in their lab can simulate 1 year of customer washing in six hours. Oakley uses the laundry machine to test fully made garments to see what the appearance of the garment will look like after 1 year (hopefully still really good!) Also in the Oakley lab, is the eyeglass testing machine. A BB gun is shot at their sunglasses to make sure they do not shatter. Indeed, when a BB is shot at a pair of Oakley sunglasses, only a small dent is made. Other competitor’s sunglasses, however, shatter when a BB is shot at it.

16. Competitor Wear-Testing Oakley will soon be adding a yoga-wear line to their apparel. Part of my externship experience at Oakley was wear testing competitor’s yoga apparel. I spent one month working out in garments from Lululemon, Adidas, and Nike and wrote reports like the example to the right. I rated the garment on pilling, shrinkage, appearance after wear, snagging, color fading, etc. Oakley will use these sheets to determine what textiles may be successful in their yoga line. The bonus to this assignment was I got to keep every garment I tested!

17. Oakley Class Trips Oakley has been kind enough to host several class trips to their testing lab for classes such as FASH 31 Textiles and FASH 254 Fashion in Southern California. Application: The students see how the industry tests textiles that will be made into apparel products.

18. Thanks for viewing my presentation! -Malia Hill