Exerpt from Textiles: a handbook for Designers by M. Yates

 

The Modern Textile Industry: Organization and Trends

Organization of The Modern Textile Industry

 

The companies that constitute the American textile-related industries can be categorized in several ways.

First, these companies can be grouped by the organization's products and the way in which these products are manufac­tured or processed.

Fabric is made from yarn, which is, in turn, made from either natural or man-made fiber. The natural fibers cotton and linen are produced by plants; wool and silk are produced by animals. Man-made fibers are synthetically made by chemical processes. Nylon, polyester, and acetate are examples; and these fibers are produced by large chemical companies, such as E. I. duPont de Nemours & Company, Hoechst-Celanese, East­man, and Monsanto. These various companies produce no fab­ric but may specialize in the production of certain types of fiber, which they sell to fabric or yarn manufacturers in the raw fiber state or already processed into yarn.

Yarn producers buy natural or man-made fibers and spin them into yarns of different sizes and characters, which fabric manufacturers then weave or knit to produce a fabric.

Companies that own the necessary equipment and use it to produce fabric are called mills. Mills do not produce fiber but often spin their own yarn, which is woven or knitted in an undyed state to produce a fabric. This colorless fabric, before being further processed, is termed griege (or gray) goods. Color is next added to these griege, or unfinished, goods by printing or dyeing (called piece-dyeing). Fabrics may instead be constructed of already dyed yarns; thus, once woven or knitted the yarn-dyed cloth is already colored and will not usually be dyed or printed.

Finishing-the final process before the textile is used,­ removes excess dye, sets the color, and also fluffs the yarns that make up the fabric to complete the structural aspect of the fabric. When desired, special finishing processes may be used to soften or stiffen the hand (the way the fabric feels when touched), make the fabric stain resistant, or add a sheen to the fabric.

Many large mills perform all of these processes; but small print plants, dye plants, and finishers may perform one of these functions, usually on a commission basis.

Because mills function on more than one of these manufac­turing levels-that is, they produce yarn, griege goods, and finished fabric-these mills are called vertical, or vertically integrated operations. Most vertical mills (such as Burlington, J. P. Stevens, Milliken, and Dan River) sell fabric directly to manufacturers of clothes and furniture. They may also sell fabric to converters. A converter buys griege goods and "converts" it into finished fabric according to his own speci­fications by having it dyed, printed, and finished on commis­sion by a third company. Whereas a mill owns specific equipment, which must be kept in operation to maintain profitability, the fact that a converter does not own any equip­ment allows broad flexibility in the types of fabric he can pioneer. Although he may be under contract with his suppli­ers, if a converter has an idea for a new fabric that he believes he can sell, he has the option of finding a new resource to produce the new item without compromising his existing converting operation. A mill, on the other hand, has all oper­ations under its own roof, thereby maintaining more complete control.

Fabrics are produced by the piece, which usually ranges from 30 to 80 yards of fabric depending on the weight and difficulty in production of the goods. Piece lengths of 60 to 70 yards are most common. Mills and converters sell by the piece to manufacturers of clothing and furniture as well as to large retail stores, which sell to consumers for home sewing pur­poses. In the area of fabrics for interiors, both mills and converters sell to jobbers. By definition, a jobber buys a prod­uct in quantity and without changing the product sells it in smaller quantities to a new customer. A jobber may be a middleman who buys overruns and close-out lots from man­ufacturers and sells them to retail stores or smaller manufac­turers. In textiles, the term jobber usually refers to a company that buys upholstery or drapery fabric by the piece from mills and converters and sells cut yardage (less than a piece) to the end consumer through architects and interior designers. Most of the well-known fabric houses that sell expensive fabric to interior designers are called jobbers.

A company may fall into more than one of these classifica­tions. For example, a domestic mill produces fabrics, but may convert a fabric, from a foreign mill, that is complementary to its domestically produced line, but which is uneconomical for the mill to manufacture. A jobber may buy fabric from converters but go directly to mills to convert other types of goods. Some jobbers even own small mills that produce a portion of their lines. A textile company is usually labeled by the function for which it is primarily known to its suppliers and customers.

Textile companies are likewise known for the end use of their fabrics. Mills may produce fabrics for various segments of the market, but most converters develop fabrics exclusively for one end use.

The apparel industry is a large consumer of textile products. Therefore, a textile company may orient its products toward manufacturers of women's dresses, women's sportswear; men's wear; outerwear (coats), or neckties. Children's wear; active wear; dance wear; hosiery, swimsuits, gloves, handbags, scarves, hats, umbrellas, and uniforms are other apparel mar­kets.

Domestics include sheets, towels, bedspreads, shower cur­tains, "table top" (placemats, tablecloths, and napkins), and decorative pillows. Sheets and towels are usually produced by vertical mills, which weave, print, finish, sew, and sell the con­sumer-ready product directly to retail stores. Other domestic products are developed by converters as well as by mills.

Fabrics for upholstery, drapery, wall covering, and floor cov­ering fall into two categories: those for home use (called the decorative, residential, or home furnishings area), and those for commercial use, such as offices, hotels, or hospital interiors (called the contract area). A mill, converter, or jobber may con­centrate on any combination of these areas-for example, dec­orative and contract drapery or contract upholstery and drapery.

Textiles are also produced for industrial uses. These fabrics are developed to meet specific requirements, and aesthetic value is of little importance for such uses as automobile tires, parachutes, conveyor belts, space suits, typewriter ribbons, and industrial hoses. Textiles are also used in automobile and air­plane interiors, and in some luggage and shoes, and for these uses aesthetics are as important as specific technical require­ments.

Additionally, all fabric sources are commonly categorized by the price range of their product. Companies selling expensive fabric are called high end, upper end, or, in the field of interior textiles, uptown (because these companies are uptown in New York City).

The largest quantity of all fabrics is sold in middle price ranges; therefore companies producing such fabrics are called volume, or middle, market. Lower end, or downtown, fabric houses sell even less expensive goods.

Thus, any textile company will be described using various labels. A "volume drapery converter" and a "mill that produces high-end dress fabrics" conjure up two very different pictures: producers of textile products that operate differently and sell to different markets in terms of both end use and price point.

Textile organizations in other countries can be categorized similarly. The large European mills tend to be very modem and sophisticated but smaller than the largest American mills. On the other hand, after perhaps centuries, craftsmen in small European operations continue to produce items peculiar to their specific area. These products are handled through Euro­pean converters or are directly imported by American con­verters, jobbers, or apparel manufacturers. Similar small operations exist in other countries and export their goods; such individual craftsmen rarely produce on a commercial scale in the United States. Jobbers are less common in Europe; expensive home-furnishing fabrics are usually sold directly from converters through retail stores to the end consumer.

Large volumes of textiles are now produced and exported to the United States by Far Eastern countries. These goods are largely manufactured by modern vertically integrated mills and sold to the United States by large trading countries.

Countries ranging from India to New Zealand and Brazil manufacture and export textiles to the United States. These may be large- or small-volume operations and usually sell to converters, jobbers, and apparel manufacturers through an American sales agent.

 

The Role of Textile Designers

Although aesthetics are obviously more important in some textiles than in others, visual appeal is a factor in any com­mercial product. In industrial textiles, aesthetics are less important than other factors in the development of the prod­uct, but even a company that produces industrial sewing thread must know which colors of thread to produce and how to display the product for the best appeal to its customers. However, in most areas of the textile market, the appearance and the hand of the fabric are two of its most important aspects. Textiles are largely used to decorate or embellish, whether a, person, a sofa, or a window. The role of the textile designer in industry is to guide the development of desirable appearance and hand in fabrics.

The manufacturing facilities of most American textile mills are located in small towns in the North and Southeast but are headquartered in New York City, where the design staffs are usually located. The size of the mill's design staff depends on the company's size, but it usually consists of one design director, a stylist for each division, and several artists.

If a company is large enough to have more than one stylist, the design director has responsibility for all areas and phases of the company's artistic direction. All artists and designers within the company report to him, and he probably reports to the president of the company.

A stylist handles the development of the fabric company's line, which is the group of fabrics designed, developed, and edited to be shown and sold to the market each season. The stylist initiates the line, organizes and directs the artists in the development and coloration of intended designs, coordinates with manufacturing personnel to have the samples produced that will be shown to customers, and then edits and finalizes the group of designs to be shown for the season. A stylist may or may not do the actual artwork on paper but is responsible for knowing what product the company should be making at a particular time and must make the product line a reality at the proper time.

The artists who work in the studio of a textile mill do the actual artwork on paper in preparation for production of textiles. These artists may be designers who do complete textile designs, repeat artists who put designs into the size and repeat appropriate for the specific company's needs, or color­ists who do the actual renderings and try different color looks for every design.

A mill stylist is a designer who works at the textile manu­facturing plant to make certain that the first time a new design goes into production it is executed as the head stylist instructed. Very few mills have full-time mill stylists. Usually on a rotat­ing basis, the stylist or the studio staff will travel to the mill when it is time for the first sample run (called a strike-off) to be produced.

These various jobs for textile designers may overlap; or one person may do more than one of these jobs, depending on the talents of the designer and the company's organizational struc­ture.

Design departments of converters are analogous to those of mills but are usually smaller, since most converters are smaller than most mills.

Textile designers may also work for independent studios, which produce and sell designs on paper to mills and convert­ers. A designer is usually not a true employee of a studio but rather produces designs on a free-lance basis for which the studio receives a commission when the designs are sold.

Textile designers often work on a free-lance basis without working through a studio. A designer may show artwork to stylists from mills and converters who then buy them and have their companies produce the designs. A stylist may also contact a free-lance designer to develop a design according to the stylist's specifications or even to do mill styling. A group of free-lance designers may also be represented by an agent who sells the designs to mills and converters on commission. Free-lance designers, producing on speculation, and selling in the U.S. and Europe through studios or agents, seem more prevalently European than American.

Because jobbers do not produce fabric, design directors for these companies usually choose the group of fabrics that the jobber should carry. In small jobbers, this selection is often made by the president or owner of the company. Design directors may be called fabric coordinators or directors of fabric merchandising. Similar positions exist with some cloth­ing manufacturers, although in these companies fabrics usu­ally are chosen by the clothing designer. Some retail stores also employ fashion coordinators who organize presentations to show their buyers what fabrics the store management wants to emphasize.

Many textile designers work in such related areas as wrap­ping paper, greeting cards, dinnerware, tile, and giftware. These are not textile products, but the design considerations in these areas are comparable to surface decoration of fabric.

 

Timing in the Textile Industry

Every segment of textile-related industries plans and pro­duces products well ahead of retail selling seasons. Before fall clothing appears in stores at the time that consumers want to buy such garments, the clothes must be designed, shown to stores, sold, and produced. Before the clothing can be designed, fabrics must be designed, shown to clothing manufacturers, sold, and produced Before that, new yarns and fibers must be developed. The scheduling and amount of time necessary for all of these steps depends on the amount of change that is occurring in the product, the volume being produced, and the efficiency of the companies involved. At a minimum, however, textiles are designed a year and a half ahead of the retail selling season. (Design of fabric for next fall's clothing must begin in spring of this year.) Major changes, such as development of a completely new type of fabric for a mill, will take even longer to effect.

Textiles for apparel are shown to clothing manufacturers at two main selling seasons: spring, in April and May, a year ahead of the retail spring for which the fabric is intended, and fall, in October and November. Holiday and resort are smaller seasons that follow fall; summer follows spring, and fall is sometimes broken into fall I and fall II.

Furniture manufacturers look at new fabrics in June and December, again several months before the furniture appears in stores. Jobbers look at new upholstery and drapery fabrics in April and October, although jobbers tend to be less restricted to specific selling seasons and may add to their lines all year round.

In every segment of the market, the large-volume manufac­turers work even farther ahead; and the higher-end companies work very close to the selling season. This is partly because the leading designers want more time to develop new ideas, but also because their smaller operations do not require the long lead time (that is, preparation time) necessary for large­volume production runs.