Emma Grace Gerrard

I enjoyed the fabric sourcing task to London I was set. Before I went I was a little anxious about the idea of fabric sourcing because it was not something I have done before where I would be choosing the fabrics for a client. However I found it quite exciting going around the fabric shops, which I have never been to before and to explore their fabric ranges. To prepare for our sourcing trip myself and another student researched the fabric shops and their locations so we would know where to go. Most of the shops where in or around Shepards Bush Market apart from the trimming shop which was off of Oxford Street. During the tutorial we were giving the task of sourcing a gold brocade for the bodice which had a budget limit of £12m and Spanish Gold Russia Braid about 3mm wide.

The first couple of shops I went into on Goldhawk Road I didn't find anything suitable. I was worried that we might have came all that way and not find any fabric remotely like the bodice fabric. We got as many gold brocade samples we could find (and were allowed to have) which could have been suitable for the bodice fabric. It was difficult as gold brocade seemed pretty limited in most shops but we did the best we could be visiting all the fabric shops we could find. All the samples we got were well under the budget the most expensive being £8m. I thought Shepards Bush Market was the best place for the fabrics because they had more fabrics which were suitable for what we were looking for.

From this experience I have learnt a great deal, in particular what it is like to source fabric for a client. I have learnt about new places for fabric sourcing/shopping, which will come in useful in the future. I have also learnt that it is good to use some initiative in that there was not any fabric exactly like the original but I brought back as many samples as I could which would enable the client to have more of a selection to choose from. With a couple of the fabrics that had a pattern on I took a photo of on my phone but if I was ever to do fabric sourcing again I would take my camera with me as it takes better photos than my phone and try to remember to take photos of all fabrics so the client can get an idea of the pattern which cannot be shown on a small sample. I thought we did well on recoding the information for each fabric sample and hope it was useful when it came to ordering the fabric.