Shanghai University, Businesses Tap FBI's Apparel Acumen
A group of apparel manufacturers and design-school faculty from China will be in Los Angeles later this month to meet with representatives from local nonprofit Fashion Business Inc.
The Los Angeles event is a follow-up to a trip FBI founder Frances Harder and Henry Cherner, an FBI consultant and the president of AIMS Technology, took in December to meet with members of China’s design and manufacturing community at the Fashion Institute of Donghua University in Shanghai.
“I found it interesting to see their perspective of dealing with the American market,” Harder said.
Harder and Cherner were invited to China to talk about FBI’s training program for up-and-coming designers and apparel manufacturers, as well as how Chinese companies can enter the U.S. market with their own brands. But the two never got to the second topic because of a keen interest in FBI’s programs for training incoming apparel workers, as well as retraining workers from other industries, Harder said.
“They have a problem with the technical skills in China,” she explained. “[Many workers] never had formal training; they picked it up as they went along.”
Some of the attendees had specific concerns about working with U.S. and European clients, Harder said. One brought a rejected sample made for H&M and asked Frances to determine why she thought it was not approved by the fast-fashion retailer. Harder said the sample, made from a sketch, should have been draped, rather than made from a flat pattern. Plus, she thought the provided specs were incorrect.
“They hadn’t the draping ability to do it,” she said. “And they didn’t have the expertise to recognize the weird specs.”
The Shanghai group was originally planning to visit MAGIC International in Las Vegas, but the massive trade show’s dates conflict with Chinese New Year. Instead, they will meet with Harder and other FBI representatives in Los Angeles in late February to discuss how to implement a similar training program in China, Harder said.
“They are interested in having an affiliation with the University for some kind of FBI partnership,” she said.
—Alison A. Nieder
