University of Rhode Island  
Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design

TMD 402K The Art and Science of Fashion - Speaker Summaries

Tao Zhong: From Concept to Merchandise: Creating a Garment with Merchandise Value 

by Jenny Doucette 

            Tao Zhong was the featured speaker for this week's “Art and Science of Fashion” seminar.  An alumnus of URI, Zhong received his Masters degree in textile science, and is currently the sourcing and costing manager for Travis Ayers, Inc.  Zhong is a highly successful individual with a distinguished background in the textile industry.  His deep knowledge and interest in fashion and apparel were evident throughout his discussion.  Zhong’s intelligence has proven strong in many ways, but it is his passion for the hectic lifestyle that has prevailed.  Zhong’s daily activities deal with the production and preproduction stages of apparel industry.    His lecture, entitled “From Concept to Merchandise: Creating a Garment with Merchandise Value” gave a brief introduction into the crazy world of line production.  The frequent jokes he made throughout his presentation not only brought humor and enlightenment to the crowd, but proved an important point as well.  The apparel industry is one filled with jobs that many consider to be highly stressful and particularly aggravating.   With the passion and drive to succeed in such an environment however, the pleasures gained far out weighs the pressures involved.

            One of the major points that Zhong made about how to create a garment with merchandise value, was to concentrate on the four P’s of marketing.  These are: products, price, place, and promotion.  Because he felt promotion had little to do with his current job position, he then added in a potential fifth P, Personnel.  In my opinion and in conjunction with Zhong’s discussion, this is the most important factor.  Each stage involved in garment production and preproduction involves the skills and cooperation of many different people.  When these stages combine to form one master flow chart, it is the individual jobs of each person that must be concentrated on to ensure the most efficient results. To understand how each of the P’s relate to each of these stages, Zhong provided a brief explanation of the different steps a garment line must go through before it is offered for sale.  First it begins with the design department where the creation of the line takes place.  People working under this department not only design the garment line, but browse and collect fabrics, and create line samples.  They have to deal with issues such as whether or not the design is technically achievable or whether the chosen fabrics will meet the performance requirements needed.  Once cleared through this stage, the garment line then moves on to the production department.  This involves the costing and sourcing, Zhong’s specialty.  At this point workers must prepare a costing chart, as well as research and search for the different materials needed.  As a cost and sourcing manager, Zhong deals with such issues as reviewing and comparing different samples, and figuring out production availabilities and lead times.  This step entails a lot of pressure because this is where the decision is made about whether to keep or drop the line.  If accepted, the garment is then passed on to the technical department.  This is the preproduction phase where workers concentrate on the creation of new patterns, samples, specs, and fittings.   When this step is completed, the work goes through another quality inspection and finally passes onto the final stage, garment production.