Product Development | Malika Mascoll | TEDxEF Academy Youth
Our last speaker, she's a guest speaker, Malika Mascol. Uh she's a product developer. Uh she has experience for eight years. So please welcome her with me. Her topic is Potter development. Please give her a round of applause. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] My name is Malika Mascll. I am a product developer in the fashion. Um, I've worked for a few big companies like Rag and Bone, Kith, Ralph Lauren, and most uh recently Alexander Wang. I don't know familiar with any of those brands, but today I'm here to talk about product development. Right. So, a little bit about my background. I started my career essentially in high school. So you guys are all in high school. This is always a good start. Um I went to the high school of fashion industries in Chelsea, Manhattan. I studied fashion design before moving along to the fashion institute of technology. There I spent my first two years also studying fashion design before moving along to production management for my bachelor's. I as they mentioned before have eight plus years in product development. Uh starting with production I realized that production was a little bit too much numbers for me. Um but fashion design I didn't want to design for another company. I wanted to design for myself. So I figured product development kind of mixes the two. Let me try that. Right. Um a little bit about what product development is. So this is actually live sketch to first proto of a fit two chino from rag and bone that I've worked on in my past. There are five stages of a garment, right? So, you start with concepts. So, you have your mood boards, your colors, you pick your fabrics, you pick your trims, um you figure out what the trends are, you sketch into it. Then you have stage two, which is fabric and trims. And then you have stage three, which is sample and fit. So once you have your fabric, you have your sketch, you have your trims, you launch it to your factory. The factory works on it usually two week lead time to four-week lead time. They turn around a sample, they ship it back to you. Once that sample is in house, we then fit it on models, right? We fit it. We make sure that the armhole feels good, the length is great. You know, we like the fit. We like the shape. We send it back. We get a salesman sample and SMS. We go through market, something called market or what you guys might be familiar with, fashion week. Merchandisers come in, they do some buying, they choose what they want for production. Then we go into step four, production. We go out to the factories. We say, "Hey, we love this swimsuit. we're going to order 500 units. They go into work, they create the 500 units, we do all of the final approvals, and then we get it ready to go to stores, right? So, when it goes to stores, we do our final launch. And that's what you guys are usually familiar with, our ecom launches, which is like the website. You might see a really pretty photo shoot. Uh you might see, I don't know, in stores, a big like display for anything new coming in. That's your final life of a garment. That's the launch. So this is how we make it, right? So we start with that sketch in that corner and then we pick our fabric and our trim. So this is an actual yarn card, right, of a quality. From fabric and trims, we move to our protos and our fittings. So that is that same sketch on an actual person. Then we go into SMS and market week. So here we have that. It's a little hard to see here, but we have that same garment now uh being photographed for lookbook from SMS and market week. We then go to production and final approvals. So, that's where I'm making sure that the wash looks good. I'm making sure that the thread for the embroidery looks good, everything matches, it all looks good. And then we have our public launch in stores and online. So, what does it take to be a product developer? It sounds pretty complicated, right? But it's not. So, communication is key. You're communicating with a lot of different teams. You're communicating with your factories. Your factories could be in Asia. They could be in Turkey. They can be in Italy. They can be in Mexico. They could be in the US. So, you're learning how to communicate with your different factories, right? You're also learning how to communicate with your designer, your merchandiser, your technical designer, your production. Everyone speaks a little bit of a different language, right? So like our designers, they're a little bit more visual. Our merchandisers, they're a little bit more about their numbers, right? So you're learning how to communicate with different types of people. Then there's creativity. Believe it or not, design is not the only creative uh indust uh role in the fashion industry. Product development actually supports design a lot in bringing their sketches to life. So, we're helping them figure out garment construction. We're helping them choose colors. We're helping them approve colors and approve washes. So, there's a lot of creativity in product development still. Then, problem solving. There are always problems. Always problems. So, you know, the factory might say, "I can't do the seam the way that you want it to be done." Now, that's where product development will step in and say, "Okay, if you can't do a flat fell seam, maybe do a French seam. Maybe add a binding, maybe do a clean finish." Right? So, we're helping problem solve with both the factory and with the designers. And then time management. we have to keep to calendar. So your first proto your second proto is usually a two week uh lead time turnaround. Your SMS is probably four weeks. Then production usually takes about three to four months sometimes five depending on your technique your fabric lead times. We have to make sure that everyone is moving on at a proper pace. Right? Time is money. Then technical knowledge. This is something that you get with experience. So I started off in fashion design. I kind of knew how to, you know, make a top, sew a seam, things like that. But then with years of experience, I learned about, you know, denim wash process, what resin is, what bleach down does. You know, if I have an indigo versus a sulfur black denim, those are going to wash down completely different, right? But those are things that you learn as you go. And then it becomes very helpful when design is asking, hey, can I get this dark gray wash from this indigo blue? No, you can't. Right? So technical knowledge is really important. With all of that, you can still learn and start today. So if fashion is something that you want to pursue, if product development sounds really interesting to you, you can still start today even though you're in high school moving on to college. I did. My co my friends in high school became co-workers. My prof became references. They became job opportunities. In college, I had a lot of professors who were already in the industry. I had professors who worked at Marc Jacobs. I had professors who were really good at domestic production and helped me find a lot of my opportunities. And even now, to this day, I'm still using my network and the people that I've met along the way for future opportunities. So, what you can do to start now, learn garment construction. YouTube has everything. I didn't have YouTube when I started and you guys do. Um, even Tik Tok, you can find people who work in the industry who are sewing on, you know, their own little uh, sewing machines. Learn garment construction. Take internships. My very first internship was in a a store, an annuity store in Soho, and that helped me get my first retail job where I did sales, but I also did visual merchandising. And then, how did that help me once I got into product development? Well, I kind of knew how men bought. I worked at a men's store and so I would work with my merchandisers on men's product and say, "Hey, I don't think this bright red is going to sell in stores because men gravitate more to navy and black and tan, right?" So, every little experience that you have, it's a stepping stone. Take internships. My very first production internship led to my very first full-time job in production. And then be open to different roles. I work with a lot of product developers and I have worked with a lot of product developers but not everyone had a start in production. Some had a start in design but then some also had a start in fabric research and development. Some had a start in trim development. Right? So once you choose one role it's not like you're stuck. You can always move and shift as time goes on. So take different roles and be open. And then most importantly start building your network. As I said earlier, you're sitting next to your network right now. Your friends, your classmates, they become co-workers. They become people that you can call on when you want an opportunity or you, right? Your teachers are your resource. They are very knowledgeable and have had a life that you probably don't even know about. They are your resources. They are your references. They are your opportunities. So, start building your network from now. Look at, I don't know, different events that are happening in the niche that you're interested in. If you're interested in fashion, look at different events that are happening around the city when fashion week is happening. Sorry. Um, but it's really important to start your network now. And that's it. [Applause] Oh, well, thank you guys for being here. Thank you for listening to the amazing talks and topics. Um, well, a special thank you to Mr. Simon, Miss [Applause] Fissson. Okay, hold up. Mr. Suit as well, Miss Vicki. And thank you for every Tethers member and the speakers and everyone that helped. And thank you guys for being here. And the special thank you for our guest speaker who she came here and this phenomenal job. Thank you [Applause] everyone. Please come here. Mr. Simon as well. Mr. Suit, Mr. Person, please come on stage. I hope you enjoyed. Was it good? I can't see all of you, but fine. Thank you so much. Enjoy your picture. So, Mr. Simon, Mr. S, Miss Brson, Miss Vicki, please come on stage. Sign, what are you doing? Is Miss Vicki here? She left. Oh, is she coming? Yeah. Please come out of the booth. It's done. Stein, have some patient, please. Thank you, Miss Renee, for inviting our guest speaker. Thank you, everyone. Guys, just hold on a second. Like, it's not even 320. Oh, no. It's 35. Thank you guys. Stein Nutendo. Yeah. Yeah. Stutendo. Can the TEDex team TEDex club come here please? Tax.