3.Reading

●When Do the Fall and Winter Seasons Start in Fashion

The fashion industry has historically divided the year into two main fashion sea-sons-spring and fall. Each season shows decidedly different colors and silhou-ettes.Within these two seasons, smaller collections（系列）may be presented, such as resortwear（度假装，早春装）.Winter clothing is generally included as part of the fall season.

-Fashion CaIendar

The fashion industry calendar is divided into two major time seasons. Spring gen-erally refers to the six-month period from January to June, and Fall refers to the months from July to December.These are the most traditionally used dividing marks, although individual designers or stores may choose to operate using slight-ly different months or timing.

-Fashion Week

Fashion Week occurs twice a year, in February and in September. This week-long event consists of a series of fashion shows presented by individual designers（个人设计师）and fashion labels（时装品牌）.The most publicized American fashion week takes place in Bryant Park in New York City.Fall clothing is shown in February, and Spring is shown in September.Fashion Week serves two purposes.First, it attracts publicity for the fashion industry.Secondly, re-tailers view designers'latest collections and begin buying next season's merchan-dise.

-FaII

Fall fashion will typically set in stores in July, in time for the back-to-school shopping period. Generally, spring and summer merchandise would go on per-manent sale at this point.Fall clothing often shows a jewel-tone（宝石色调）color palette（色板），long sleeves（长袖），heavier fabrics（稍厚的面料）and light outerwear（轻便的外套）.A retailer may choose to set different weather-appropriate merchandise in stores that are located in warmer climates.

-Winter/HoIiday

Winter/Holiday season clothing is very important-this is the merchandise that is in stores during Thanksgiving and Christmas, a time period which produces a very large sales volume（销售量）.Winter/holiday clothing will usually arrive in stores from late October to early November and will carry through the rest of the calendar year.Regardless of fashion trends（流行趋势），one can usually expect to see velvets（天鹅绒），embellished clothing（装饰服装），heavy outerwear（厚重的外套）and party dresses（宴会服）in stores at this time.

-SeasonIess Dressing

“Seasonless dressing”is a recent fashion movement, describing a trend of wear-ing the same fashions year-round. People are spending increased amounts of time in climate-controlled environments.Air-conditioned and heated cars and work spaces equal less time in natural temperatures, and thus, less demand for heavy winter clothing.This means that fall and winter clothing may begin to appear and feel less autumnal-designers will show lighter fabrics and lighter colors.Summer clothing could become acceptable as year-round clothing-for example, summer dresses can be adapted for fall by layering turtlenecks（高领毛衣）and tights（紧身衣）underneath.

●Organizational Areas in Garment Manufacturing

On industrial basis there are certain areas or sequence through which garments are manufactured.

-Design/Sketch（设计/设计图）

In the garment manufacturing the first step is designing the sketch for the dresses that have to be prepared. For this purpose the designer first draw several roughsketches（设计草图）in the sketch book.The designer does not go for details at this moment but he rather let his creativity（灵感，创新）flow on the paper and he draws many sketches.Later these sketches are analyzed by a panel of de-signers（一组设计师）.They finally select few out of them.These few sketches are rendered in detail separately or in the form of a single collection.The desig-ner also draws working drawings（生产图，款式工艺图）along with the sketch.Working drawings are flat drawing of the sketch and it help pattern maker（打板师）in understanding the patterns involved in the construction.

-Pattern Design（纸样设计）

The pattern maker now develop first pattern for the designs in any one standard size. This is made by pattern drafting method（打板方法）and the purpose of making this pattern is to create the sample garment（样衣）for test fit.

-SampIe Making（试制样衣）

The first patterns are sent to the sewing unit（缝制组）for assembling them into garment.This is usually stitched on calico（白坯布）or muslin（平纹棉布）which is an inferior quality of fabric and it reduces cost.This sample is construc-ted to analyze the pattern fit and design too.After the sample garment is stitched it is reviewed by a panel of designers, pattern makers and sewing specialists.If any changes have to be made they are made at this time.

-Production Pattern（生产用样板）

The pattern design is now taken for creating the production patterns（生产样板）.The production pattern is one which will be used for huge production of gar-ments.The pattern maker makes the patterns on standard pattern making paper.These papers are made-up of various grades.The most important component, the tissue（薄）paper pattern, is made from the lightest and thinnest paper commer-cially available（it is not made at the pattern companies）.It is called 7.5 lb（3.4 kg）basis paper, meaning that a ream of it（500 sheets）only weighs 7.5 lb（3.4 kg）.

Garment patterns can be constructed by two means：manual（手工）method, CAD/CAM method.Today many companies have developed CAD/CAM because of the ease of designing patterns, fluency and precision involved which cannot be guaranteed with the manual method.Investing once into the CAD/CAM unit is worth in itself.Many buyers around the world prefer manufacturers who are using CAD/CAM methods.The production patterns created in CAD/CAM can be stored easily and they can be modified at any point of time.

A garment sewing pattern or garment fabric&patterns draft is developed by cal-culating, taking account of the following measurements：

a. Direct Sample.

b. Specification Sheet/Measurement Chart（尺寸表）.

c. Actual body size measurements（实际人体尺寸测量表）.

d. Ease Allowances（人体放松量）.

e. Sewing Allowance（缝合量）.

These allowances are different for different type of fabrics and patterns.

-Grading（放码）

The purpose of grading is to create patterns in different standard sizes. Grading a pattern is really scaling a pattern up or down in order to adjust it for multiple si-zes.Pattern sizes can be large, medium and small or else there are standard pat-terns of size 10，12，14，16 and so on for different figure and statures sizes.This is generally how we get S, M，L, XL, XXL sizing.Pattern grading by manual method is a cumbersome task because the grader has to alter the pattern on each and every point from armhole（袖窿），to neckline（领围线），sleeve cap（袖山）and wrist（腕围）etc.by using CAD it is much easier and faster.

-Marker Making（排板，排唛架）

The measuring department determines the fabric yardage（码数，长度）needed for each style and size of garment.Computer software helps the technicians create the optimum fabric layout to suggest so fabric can be used efficiently.Markers, made in accordance to the patterns are attached to the fabric with the help of ad-hesive stripping（粘贴条）or staples（U形钉）.Markers are laid in such a way so that minimum possible fabric gets wasted during cutting operation.After marking the garment manufacturer will get the idea of how much fabric he has to order in advance for the construction of garments.Therefore careful execution is important in this step.

Computer marking is done on specialized software. In computerized marking there is no need of large paper sheets for calculating the yardage, in fact, mathematical calculations are made instead to know how much fabric is required.

-Spreading（铺布）

With the help of spreading machines（铺布机），fabric is stacked on one another in reaches or lays that may go over 100 ft（30.5 m）long and hundreds of plies（fabric pieces）thick.

-Cutting（裁剪）

The fabric is then cut with the help of cloth cutting machines（裁剪机）suitable for the type of the cloth.These can be band cutters（带刀裁剪机）having simi-lar work method like that of band saws；cutters（圆盘式裁剪机）having rotary blades；machines having reciprocal blades which saw up and down；die clickers（冲压裁剪机）similar to die or punch press；or computerized machines（电脑裁剪机）that use either blades or laser beams to cut the fabric in desired shapes.

-Sorting/BundIing（分包）

The sorter sorts the patterns according to size and design and makes bundles of them. This step requires much precision because making bundles of mismatched patterns can create severe problems.On each bundle there are specifications of the style size and the marker too is attached with it.

-Sewing/AssembIing（缝制组装）

The sorted bundles of fabrics are now ready to be stitched. Large garment manu-facturers have their own sewing units other use to give the fabrics on contract to other contractors（承包商）.Stitching in-house is preferable because one can maintain quality control during the processing.On the other hand if contractors are hired keeping eye on quality is difficult unless the contactor is one who pre-cisely controls the process.

There are what is called sewing stations for sewing different parts of the cut pieces. In this workplace, there are many operators who perform a single opera-tion.One operator may make only straight seams（缉直缝），while another may make sleeve insets（绱袖子）.Yet another two operators can sew the waist seams（缝合腰缝），and make buttonholes（开扣眼）.Various industrial sew-ing machines have different types of stitches that they can make.These machines also have different configuration of the frame.Some machines work sequentially and feed their finished step directly into the next machine, while the gang ma-chines（机器组）have multiple machines performing the same operation super-vised by a single operator.All these factors decide what parts of a garment can be sewn at that station.Finally, the sewn parts of the garment, such as sleeves or pant legs（裤腿），are assembled together to give the final form to the clothing.-Inspection（检验）

Open seams（开缝），wrong stitching techniques（缝合工艺错误），non-matc-hing threads（线不配套），and missing stitches（跳针），improper creasing of the garment（不正确的褶皱），erroneous thread tension（线迹张力不对）and raw edges（毛边）are some of the sewing defects which can affect the garment quality adversely.During processing the quality control section needs to check each prepared article against these defects.

-Pressing/Finishing（熨烫、后整理）

The next operations are those of finishing and/or decorating. Molding（成型）may be done to change the finished surface of the garment by applying pressure, heat, moisture, or certain other combination.Pressing（冲压），pleating（起褶）and creasing（起皱）are the basic molding processes.Creasing is mostly done before other finishing processes like that of stitching a cuff（缝合袖口）.Creasing is also done before decorating the garment with something like a pocket, appliqués（贴花），embroidered emblems（标志）etc.

Vertical and form presses（垂直式熨斗）is automated machines.Perform sim-ple pressing operations, such as touching up wrinkles（褶皱）in knit shirts（针织衫），around embroidery and snaps（按扣），and at difficult-to-reach places on garments.

-FinaI Inspection（终检）

For the textile and apparel industry, product quality is calculated in terms of quality and standard offibers（纤维），yarns（纱线），fabric construction（面料组织结构），color fastness（色牢度），designs and the final finished gar-ments.Quality control in terms of garment manufacturing, pre-sales and posts sales service（售前、售后服务），delivery（发货），pricing（定价），etc.are essential for any garment manufacturer, trader or exporter.Certain quality re-lated problems, often seen in garment manufacturing like sewing, color, sizing, or garment defects should never be over looked.

a. Sewing defects（缝合缺陷）：Open seams, wrong stitching techniques, non-matching threads, missing stitches, improper creasing of the garment, erroneous thread tension and raw edges are some of the sewing defects which can affect the garment quality adversely.

b. Color defects（色差）：Variation of color between the sample and the final garment, wrong color combinations（色彩搭配错误）and mismatching dyes（染色错误）should always be avoided.

c. Sizing defects（尺寸误差）：Wrong gradation（放码）of sizes, difference in measurement of various parts of a garment like sleeves of XL size for body of L size garment can deteriorate the garments beyond repair.

d. Garment defects（服装缺陷）：Broken or defective buttons（破损或有缺陷的扣子），snaps, stitches, different shades（色差）within the same garment, dropped stitches（漏针），exposed notches（豁口）and raw edges, fabric de-fects, holes, faulty zippers（有缺损的拉链），loose or hanging sewing threads（缝线虚浮），misaligned buttons and holes（扣眼和扣子位置未配齐），miss-ing buttons（缺扣），needle cuts or chews（断线和线迹不全），pulled or loose yarn（拉纱或松纱），stains（污点），unfinished buttonhole（未完成的扣眼），short zippers（拉链短），inappropriate trimmings（清剪不当）etc.all can lead to the end of a brand name even before its establishment.

-Packing（包装）

The finished garments are finally sorted on the basis of design and size and packed to send for distribution to the retail outlets.