Interview with Olga Fuenmayor – Fashion and Clothing Consultant
By: Kohan Textile Journal
About SEAMPEDIA history and success story.
SEAMPEDIA is a website where weekly is published content for fashion industry interest. We write popular articles on technical fashion topics. Taking into account all aspects of knowledge that occur in this industry. From how to make a sustainable fashion collection. As is how to make the organization of the sewing room more productive. Or how to improve your work as a quality technician.
We also write about new technologies in the sector by writing about a novelty presented by a company. For example, the digital measurement tape Sample Fit wich automatically transfers measurements to the computer. To Girbau’s low water consumption washers. Or the 3D solution from Optitex.
Different authors who generously share their knowledge with our entire audience write the articles. They are people with a long experience in the fashion industry, as are designer, developing technician, buyers, marketing experts, production engineer, and others.
The website is written in the Spanish language and is mainly distributed in Spain and throughout South America and in the United States. Monthly registering about 30 thousand visits.
The initiative for making this website come up from the need to transmit the knowledge acquired in my many years of experience. I started writing articles 3 years ago and with the passing of time, other authors have been join up.
What kind of services do you offer to fashion brands?
Our users are fashion professionals: designers, quality technicians, production, buyers, etc. who read our articles weekly. So we write about the topics that may interest you to develop your work. Spreading knowledge and news that can give in this sector.
How do you rate the fashion and clothing sector in Spain in terms of production, design and export?
Historically, Spain has been a country in which textiles and clothing have had an important weight. Currently the fashion industry continues to occupy that position within the country’s economy. We have some leading brands worldwide, especially in mass consumption fashion.
Brands such are Inditex, Mango, Desigual and El Corte Ingles. Spanish fashion companies contribute 2.9% of PIB and account for 9% of the country’s total exports. With a total annual turnover of around 5.900 million euros. Although the volume of business is important, the weight that production occupies within the total billing is small. The country has been losing its productive capacity.
Until the present time, there are very few factories that make clothing. In addition, of those that remain, the majority are small companies with low technological endowment. This being the weak point of the industry today. Instead, we can consider design one of our strong points. However, we have a good team pool of designers trained in the country. Who are working in companies around the world. We have good fashion schools, whether they are proper of the country or branches opened by important schools in Italy and France.
COVID 19 shows us we should rely more on sustainability and green products, how we can improve sustainability in clothing and fashion sector? how are the Spanish Textile and garment industry in Terms of sustainability?
he fast fashion industry model has an important weight in Spanish companies. Moreover, this exhausted model is experiencing a moment of revision of its values. The Covid 19 crisis has only accelerated this process.
The industry has fully incorporated the use of sustainable materials in its collections. But how to apply these values at the social level remains pending. How to implement sustainability in the social sphere. Brands are trying to apply it by reviewing how they are planning their collections. In the first step, setting more the objective in its consumer, its costumer. Reviewing the concept of seasonal collection to propose collections according to the lifestyle of its consumer. Either this for their lifestyle habits or their human values.
Another aspect that is changing in the collection conception is to improve the garments adding more value to it. Improving the details that give more value to the model. Reviewing how to improve the making and finishing of the garment. In addition to improving the management of the collection by incorporating digitization tools. Either to bring closer knowledge of the client. Shorten the launch times of new models. Or to reduce stock levels.
How do you evaluate the fashion sector in post Pandemic period?
As do I say fashion was already undergoing a change before the pandemic and this change has only had accelerated. At this time, professionals and companies are rethinking how this model should be. There is a significant movement of initiatives to create new fashion brands, many of them with sustainable values. I have the impression that these initiatives, although they will not have an important economic weight, they will have it as a factor of change that will push the industry.
This impetus has supported by the government with specific actions in this direction.
