New Intern

We are welcoming a new member to our Campus Couture family today...

welcome Alex!!!

Looking for the Perfect Holiday Gift??

Campus Couture is your one stop holiday shop! Get a great gift for your daughter, sister, or best friend! Go to www.campuscouture.com now!!

Looking for Interns!!!

How would you like to intern at Campus Couture? See below for details.....

Job Description:
Campus Couture is looking for 2-3 fashion merchandising and design interns for fall/winter 2009 and/or spring 2010. As an intern at Campus Couture you will gain industry experience in categories such as design, product development, sales, and marketing. We believe in a very hands-on environment where interns will participate in daily activities and have legitimate responsibilities within their realm.

Start Date:
December 2009 or January 2010
The position can either be a part time or full time internship, available for class credit or for personal experience.

Requirements:
• Must be proficient in Microsoft Office and Adobe Suite
• Must be a self starter and be able to take follow direction
• Must be responsible, organized, and motivated
• Must be in studying fashion merchandising or design
• Must be at least a Junior in college

Recommendations:
• Proficient working on a Mac OS
• Training or Experience with Garment Construction, Pattern Making, and Textiles
• Retail, Wholesale, or Sales Experience


Please email your resume to ashley@campuscouture and include why you would like to be an intern at Campus Couture.

The College Store Magazine

Our clothes are featured in the "Hot Stuff Guide" in The College Store magazine! Campus Couture is very excited to be attending CAMEX in Orlando, FL in March. CAMEX has a long history of being the collegiate retailing industry's meeting place. For more than 80 years, volunteers and staff of the National Association of College Stores (NACS) have worked together to create and grow this premier industry event. Today CAMEX is the industry's largest trade show and educational event attracting attendees from more than 1,100 college stores and more than 700 exhibiting companies.

Ready for Christmas

We are ready for Christmas at Campus Couture! Our pink and purple tree is up and fully decorated. Other decorations are sprinkling the studio. We are listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate as we are finishing up the day and anticipating the chance of snow tonight!

Welcome to Our Studio

Are you curious about what our studio and warehouse look like? Well than today is your lucky day because you are about to get an inside peak of where we work!

This is the front entrance to our studio and is the first thing that you see. There are chairs if we need you to sit and wait and pictures from our photoshoots on the wall.


This is our warehouse. We use the warehouse for a variety of functions. The main one is to house all of our inventory. We use the big table in the middle of the room as our worktable if we ever need to make patterns or cut out fabric.


This is a closer picture of all of our current inventory. All of these items are listed on our website.


This is our shipping and receiving area. We ship out all store and online orders from our warehouse.


This is our fitting room. When we have fittings with the patternmaker (like this one)the model will use the fitting room to change into each outfit.


This is our showroom. When we have buyers or any other visitors come to our studio we sit on the sofa in the showroom and show them our line hanging on the racks in front of us.


Now to the other side of our studio space...this is another one of our work areas. We have a mini version of the rack in the showroom where we usually keep current samples and items we are working on. This desk is usually where the interns work.


This is our main work space and it's where our office computer is located. The bookshelf behind the desk houses all of our fabric swatches and trim books as well as various office supplies.


Hope you enjoyed the tour! If you are in the area and would like to stop by and see it in person e-mail info@campuscouture.com and schedule an appointment!

Check Out These Styles....

...on www.campuscouture.com

We're Getting Organized

Since we are working on our Spring Collection we thought it would be fitting to do a little "spring cleaning" at Campus Couture today.



With some help from our three awesome high school "job shadowers" we organized all of our fabric inventory by fabric type, folded it all nice, and placed it back in the plastic bins where it was before....but now we will actually be able to find what we are looking for! : )

Attention All SMU Girls

Girls, no need to steal your boyfriend's undershirt any longer! This super soft v-neck tee is made of our favorite Rayon Spandex Jersey. "SMU" is foiled on the side along with some cute scroll designs.

A Fitting With the Patternmaker

Here is what happens during a fitting with the patternmaker at Campus Couture:



We have a fit model ready to try on the samples...in this case it was our lovely intern Jessica. Jessica has on a bandeau bra top that we are doing for our spring line. It will be going under a dress similar to the grey top she has on as well as another top. The fit of the bandeau top was good and didn't need any adjustments so we moved on to the next item....




These are a pair of shorts that we are also doing for spring. We didn't like how they were fitting so we are examining them closely and offering suggestions to the patternmaker on how she can improve the pattern to get a better fit.




We have two fit samples so we had the fit model try on both shorts in order to compare fit. In the above picture we are comparing the length of the side seams for both samples to see which one we liked better.




After we finished the fitting we discussed two new patterns with the patternmaker. The next two styles she will be working on are a crop top and a baseball raglan tee. We went over the tech packs with her (which are instructions for fabrication, sewing, and measurements).



Here we are double checking a measurement that the patternmaker had a question about. All the measurements for a garment go into the tech pack and are called "specs".

So, the patternmaker will make the changes we requested on the shorts and then start on the two new patterns we gave her.

New Tops Added to Website

Are you a fan of Texas A&M?

What about Texas Tech?

Or maybe The University of Texas?

Check out all three of these tops and many more at www.campuscouture.com!!

Attention All Baylor Girls

Would you like to own this outfit? It is very warm and cozy and perfect for these cooler football games! The thermal top is printed with bear paws and comes in yellow and green. The vest is lined with fleece so it will be sure to keep you warm and cozy. We have several different prints of Baylor scarfs so go check these pieces out on our website www.campuscouture.com. Order by tomorrow and you can wear it to the game this weekend!

The Design Process

Here is a sneak peek at our Spring 2010 inspirations. When we start designing a new collection we start with  trend and fabric research. After the direction we want to go is established we pull tear sheets out of magazines and do research on the internet.Then we pool all of our inspirations together and pick our favorites. From there we design the collection. I can't give to much away yet as we are still tweaking some items but I can tell you that we will be offering several very cute dresses that we are already predicting to be our customer favorites.

After the design is established we have to order fabric. Most of our fabric comes out of Los Angeles. We have tons of fabric swatches from our fabric manufactures. We go through each piece in the line and discuss what fabric and color we want to use. Since we are working with colleges and sororities we are limited with the variety of colors we can offer since we have to use the school colors for the most part. We work primarily with knits and a rayon/spandex blend is our signature fabric. Once we pick out all the fabrics we place an order with the fabric manufacturers to get sample yardage. Sample yardage is a small quantity of fabric (usually under 5 yds) that we order specifically for our sales samples. We don't place our large order of fabric until later in the process.

Welcome

Hi all! Welcome to the brand new Campus Couture blog. This blog will be a place where you can find a sneak peek into how an apparel manufacturer runs day to day. We will feature our products and promotions of course but the goal of this blog is to show you how the whole process is handled. We are just starting the process for our Spring line so you will be able to follow us over the next several months as we finalize the designs, get samples made, attend market, start production, and ship out to all of our stores.