NYC Study Tour: Create-A-Marker

Briefly, research and describe the company/brand.

Create-A-Marker is an NYC based marking and grading company. His company is one of the best in the business, and one of the only companies of its kind left in New York, and the United States. Paul Cavazza, the owner, has been in the fashion business for a very long time but in a way, we don’t really think about a lot. Pauls family has been in the garment manufacturing business for generations. So he grew up knowing a lot about how to sew, and basic garment construction. He actually ended up going to the Fashion Institute of Technology for design but soon discovered it wasn’t the right fit for him. He changed his major to production management and started to learn about CAD (Computer Aided Design) programs that could really help with marking and grading. He went on to start Create-A-Marker and was one of the first marking and grading companies to use CAD. Paul now owns and operates both Create-A-Marker and a design paper and muslin company.

Observations:  Thoughtful observations and reflections made during the appointment itself.  What did you learn about the fashion industry?

I think this was a great company for us to visit. It really gives us an inside look at the steps that it takes to make a garment on a large scale. These are the kinds of decisions that buyers and merchandisers make all the time and Paul and his team are executing them. My favorite part of the appointment was seeing the laser cutter and talking about how to make markers for leather. At my previous job, I worked for a leather company and I was basically manually marking the hide. Since leather has no grain line and often has imperfections that we want to hide you almost have to. But Paul showed us this amazing machine that can scan the hide and maximize the efficiency and then laser cut out all the pieces for you. So basically my entire job, that takes me hours to do, this machine can do it twenty minutes! It was a really cool experience. I really enjoyed seeing that machine in action.

Briefly, describe the difference between marking and grading.

Marking is the process of moving around the necessary pattern pieces for a garment in a way that utilizes the maximum amount of fabric. This task is a super important step in apparel manufacturing because it can really effect the cost of a garment. If you’re using more fabric the cost of your final garment will be higher because you’re paying for fabric waste as well. The second part of this business is grading patterns. Which is basically the process of taking a base garment and making it into a range of sizes. Which could be taking it into a size run like, 0 – 10 or from XS – XL. This is also a really important step in the apparel manufacturing process because you want to make sure that the garment looks consistent through out sizes. There are grading rules but a lot of the times you have to communicate with the designer exactly what they want so that it when it goes into production you’re getting the product you want.