Episode 26: Model Management and Merchandise Acquisition | Mastering the Production Series, Part 6

0:01 Hey, hey, hey, we're back with Marketing EdVenture going through “Mastering the Production” for a fashion show. So today we're going to be speaking about part six, which goes over “Model Management and Merchandise Acquisition”. So in this segment, we will go over the various ways to acquire merchandise for your fashion show. And then an outline of what the model coordinator has to do to manage the models. These are essential parts of the show, the merchandise and the models, because without either one of those, there is no fashion show. So let's go. Let's get rolling with part six, and learning how to manage those two major M's.

1:01 You're listening to Marketing EdVenture, the hub for business, fashion, marketing, and other CTE educators who integrate marketing into the learning experience. I'm your host, Jacqué Walker. Each week, I'll cover marketing, education concepts, strategies, tips, trends, frameworks, and other information to equip you to connect your classroom to digital natives while cultivating an engaged learning environment. So come on into the room, where your favorite beverage snacks, and even your cell phone are all welcome.

1:39 Let's start out our discussion referencing the merchandise. There are many ways in which you can attain merchandise for a fashion show. Today, we're going to look at two different ways to acquire the merchandise. One is external, and the other is internal.

2:03 So when we talk about external resources, we're looking at things like: independent designers, college students who are in a fashion design degree pathway. We're also looking at retailers. Maybe you can obtain some of your clothing from retailers. We've done that in the past, where we approach the various retailers in a mall. And we would have our story book about our fashion show. And we would talk to the managers and explain what was going on and ask them if we could use some of your clothes in our fashion show because it fits our theme. So retailers are very keen, a lot of them a little bit reluctant because of theft of merchandise damage to merchandise, but it does give them visibility. And it's a great way for them to have free advertisement for their merchandise. Now, donation is the fourth way to acquire merchandise for your fashion show. Many times I would send out an email to the staff asking them for certain items, especially I believe it was during our decades project when we needed some clothing to fit every decade and we had to. It was really hard to find some things for the 70s in the 60s. So we inquired with the staff if they could donate merchandise to our fashion show. And a lot of them were really happy to do that. It was really fun. It got the staff engaged in the fashion show. And they came out to see the fashion show. So that's one way to get merchandise. So let's go back over those four. There's independent designers, and it takes a little bit of time when you're searching for independent designers in your community. I will tell you that we have used our own designers, alumni designers from the Fashion Design program to come back and spotlight some clothing that they had created once they graduated from high school and really started their careers in fashion design. So we've spotlighted them. We've also spotlighted some other designers, local designers who were willing to loan their merchandise to a fashion show. Okay, so that was the first one. And then college students. We've used a few college students from around the area to showcase their merchandise because they're creating a lot of merchandise anyway as a part of their college program. And so they were willing to showcase their design with our fashion show as well. They did their fashion show at their college campus. And then they did a lot of their merchandise to be showcased in our fashion show at our campus. And then the third one was retailers. And then the fourth was through donation. Those are your external means of acquiring merchandise.

5:16 Now, we did the external for years, internally going to our own fashion design students, we only did that in the latter part of my career, maybe for like the last three or four years of me being a fashion marketing teacher. But we would approach the fashion design class and allow them to showcase their merchandise in the fashion show production that we were doing. So you can get them to create a collection, and then have the fashion show focused on their collection as a showcase. So that's our internal method of acquiring clothing for our fashion show now as a part of merchandising. So attaining your apparel is one part of the merchandise coordinator’s role.

6:15 Now the second part of the merchandise managers job was the fitting of the models to the merchandise. And this involved the merchandise coordinator and the model coordinator. Now, there are a couple of methods in which the fittings occurred based on how the merchandise was acquired.

6:38 The first thing we're going to talk about is the “no size choice” method. And in that method, that means that there are not any options for the merchandise coordinator to choose from, as far as the merchandise is concerned, the merchandise is already available. And it's a particular size already, because maybe it came from donations, or it came from a designer collection who has already created their line of clothing. So there's not a size to choose. So we have to fit the models to the merchandise. So in that case, if let's say we had a college designer or an independent designer in the community who had already created a line of clothing, then we would have to find out what those sizes are, what those measurements are. And then we would find the models on our list. Because we've already taken their measurements, we will find the models on our list to fit the sizes of the clothing. Now this may also involve the designer, taking a look at the models who fit the measurement, and making a selection of those models to say “I’d like for that model to wear my outfit or my clothing”. So that is going to be the “no choice, no size” choice.

8:12 Now the second type of fitting would involve size choices. That means that we probably have gone to a retailer who has multiple sizes in the garments that we're looking for. And that way, we could go ahead and say we would like for XYZ models to wear clothing from this retailer. And then we would take their sizes, and we would go and find the garments. So we wouldn't be limited as to who could wear the garments. So those are the two types of fittings that we could do with regard to the merchandise that we've acquired from the resources that we will be using for the fashion show.

9:01 The third part of the merchandise coordinator and their team assignment would be that they would document the apparel, the outfit, so all of the designers, the clothing acquired from the retailer's donations, all of those things that were assigned to a model. We had three different documents in which we would track that merchandise.

9:29 The ideal chart has all of the scenes on it. It has what type of clothing is in every scene. It has the name of the segment. I'll say segment and scene are used interchangeably. Then it would have more description of what that segment was all about. So the ideal sheet comes before the merchandise inventory sheet we're going to talk about because this is what we wrote out in planning for our fashion show. So it does have, like I said, the description of the merchandise for each segment, so you know what type of merchandise is going to be in each segment. And then some other descriptive things that help set the idea of each theme. So that's why it's called an ideal sheet. And it's generally used in the planning portion of the fashion show.

10:26 The fitting sheet, each outfit had a fitting sheet. On this feeding sheet, we would have the model’s name, their size, as far as dresses or shoes, or hosiery. And then we would have listed the segment that the particular outfit goes to for that model. And then we would have a description, there's some descriptive things that we would put on the fitting sheet so that we would know what the outfit is, all the props and accessories that go with it. So the fitting sheet was designed for one outfit. If that model was wearing three different outfits in the show, then they would have a fitting sheet for each outfit. And generally, we will put that fitted sheet into a sheet protector, one of those plastic sheet protectors that you would normally put into a binder, and we would have a picture of the model on it as well. And then we would hang it on to the hanger of the outfit that the model was wearing so that when we looked at that outfit, we knew immediately who it belonged to along with a listing of all of the accessories and props that go along with it. So that is your fitting sheet. You will have one for every outfit in the fashion show. I'd like to include that we took a picture of every outfit on the model. If the model wasn't present, or we didn't have anyone assigned to the clothing yet, we took a picture of the outfit hanging up, on a mannequin, laid out on the table or whatever way. You just want to make sure you have a picture of the inventory. So we also included that picture on the fitting sheet so that we would have an idea, anyone could look at that fitting sheet and know what garment it should go on, if it's not already hanging on the garment. And then of course, we had the picture of the model so they know what model needs to wear this outfit. It's very key in the whole strategy of planning and managing the merchandise and the models to have the fitting sheet with everything about that outfit, so that there's no confusion.

12:53 Now the other form that we would use as kind of a tracker for the inventory and what the actual model is wearing throughout the fashion show is called the Individual Model Lineup Chart. So what this had on it, it was specific to a model. So there's the name of the model at the top. And then it also had the name of the fashion show just as a part of your bookkeeping to go into your fashion Bible. It also had the lineup of the model so if that model was in position 2, 10 and 25, then it had that listed on there. On each line you list what the model was wearing, all of the props, all of the accessories, everything's listed. It may seem a little redundant but the difference between the fitting sheet and the individual model lineup is that the fitting sheet was for each outfit. So the model would have, if they were walking three times in a fashion show, they would have three fitting sheets. The individual model lineup is like a summary of what the model is wearing. So it's specific to one model, and it will have everything that the model is wearing. So that if you needed to look just to see in your planning, or just in your management of all of the inventory in the models, you can look at this individual lineup sheet and see, “Oh, Mary has three outfits, she's gonna be walking in segment, two, three, and five. And this is what she's wearing.” So that's the lineup sheet. It's a summary. If you're doing a fashion show, you know that you have racks and racks of clothes. So the fitting sheet allows the clothes to be on the rack in the order in which they're going to go out on the stage or whichever way that you decide that you want to hang up the clothes. But it just lets you know that this particular outfit because The individual lineup sheet does not go on the clothing. The fitting sheet goes on the clothing so that you know that this outfit belongs to this model and that it's for this segment on here, all the things that the model needs to have with regard to this outfit. So, again, for management of the apparel, we have three different types of forms that we keep track of, we have the fitting sheet, the ideal sheet, and the individual model lineup chart. There you have it as far as the assignment and tracking of merchandise.

15:39 Now, once we had acquired our apparel, the outfit for the fashion show for all of the models, the job of the merchandise coordinator, this is like the fourth thing, is to acquire accessories and shoes. If they're not acquiring it, and it was generally a mix of it, if they weren't acquiring the shoes and accessories, they were at least telling the model when they need to have black heels; white tennis shoes; this outfit needs accessories that are bright, or accessories that are gold, or silver or whatever it was. The merchandise coordinator was responsible for ensuring that the proper accessories and shoes were matched to the outfit, and that the model knew what they needed or the merchandise coordinator would acquire that. We had a closet of shoes that had been donated to us. And this is something that we sent emails about all the time when we had our fashion shows. The staff is a great source of resources for accessories and shoes. We would send out messages and say we are in need of shoes, accessories, or if it was a particular outfit, and the staff responded. So they're really good about giving, because they have things they need to donate. So they're very good about donating things that we need. So we had a closet of shoes, all sorts of colors and heels for the models to wear if they needed to. If they didn't have their own shoes that they could wear for the fashion show that were appropriate for the outfit. And then over time, we acquired jewelry, from purchasing it, donations, and all of those kinds of things. But it is the merchandise coordinator's responsibility to look at the inventory that we have, and see if it matches up to any of the outfits. And if it doesn't, then check in with the models to see if they have that in their own wardrobe. And then looking at other options to acquire the accessories and the shoes.

18:08 Now that you've acquired your merchandise, it's time to look at the models. And these models and merchandising activities are happening at the same time. So it's not like we do look for the clothes and then deal with the model management activities, we would have these going on at the same time. And of course, at some point, they would have to meet somewhere as far as the fittings are concerned.

18:40 So with the Model Management, the model coordinator issued a contract to the model. So once the models are selected, we give them a model contract. Every model has to sign a contract that also their parents have to sign because it's a major responsibility to come to practice and to be responsible for the merchandise that they are wearing in the show. So the model contract had to be signed, before they even began to practice.

19:17 And then one of the very first things that the model quarter coordinator would do is to collaborate with the merchandise coordinator and the designers. If we were using our fashion design students, we would do a collaborative meeting where the fashion design students could do the measurements of the models. And also we would have them do the measurements of the models, even if they weren't providing the clothing because it would it's a great collaborative activity for them to be able to do measurements because it gives them practice on measuring models. So we would have that activity where we had to do the measurements so that we could actually begin the fitting process for the models, whether it was going to be from external resources, or form from internal resources, which are with our own fashion design students. So that is the second part. The first part was the model contract. The second part was doing the measurements. We had a model binder that we kept with all of the model information. So we can call that model profile binder, or what have you. But it had all the information from their registration form, practice, signup, attendance sheets, model contracts, measurement forms, even their own model profile form and a picture of the model. So all those things were in the model. 20:57 So after the measurements, the third thing that we did were the fittings. The fittings could be at various places, just depending on where we acquired the merchandise from. So your fittings can be an in-store fitting, we could have a trip to the retailer that we're going to be using for the fashion show. And then the models would be fitted with the clothing there. We could do a fitting in our classrooms, from the donations that we received from various resources, and from the donations or the borrowed clothing. So the third fitting option would be with the designers that we acquired through our external resource. We can either go to their site, where they have their clothing collection, whether that's in the classroom, at their college, or at their retail shop, or at their studio, wherever that designer has their collection. We could take the models there and have them fitted, or that designer, person, entity could bring their clothing onto our campus. And then we would have the fitting in the fashion marketing classroom. So that's if we're using an external resource and we're trying to get the models fitted. Now, the fourth one is when we're using the fashion design students on our campus, then we would just meet in the fashion design room, or in the fashion marketing room just depending on how many people were doing at one given time for the fitting, so that the models can be fitted for their clothing. So those are the four different places in which fittings can occur in-store, at the external resources facility or location, in the marketing classroom, or in the design classroom.

23:08 Now, when would these fittings occur? That's pretty major, because that was something that we had to contend with all the time when we're talking about constant fittings, because maybe there are adjustments that need to be made, or just your even your initial fittings. So we generally would do those after school, because I try to as much as possible, not interrupt a student's day, during the class during their class time. But we did have some instances when we did need to interrupt their schedule and ask them if they could just come out during a certain period, because this was the class period that the fashion designers had. And we needed to get them fitted during that class so that the designer could make the adjustments that they may need to make at that time. So again, it was generally after school, either off site at the external resource location, fashion designers or retailers, or it could be on site in the classroom, design or marketing, during school or after school. So those were the two options that we had as far as when the feedings would occur.

24:35 Now, one of the major responsibilities that the model coordinator had was practice, practice, practice makes perfect. There were continuing ongoing practices. And this was a task that was a major task to manage because we're talking about High school students being managed by high school students. So of course, the teacher, the sponsor, was on site during practices. But I really did my best to not get involved because this is a student-led production. And they need to learn the skills to manage their task within the production. So we, during class, we were talking about what it is that they needed to do. And then they had an opportunity to demonstrate the understanding of those skills that they needed to do in their role. So the practices were managed by the model coordinator, which meant that they had to practice timeliness themselves, and then management, then leadership over some other teenage students.

26:03 So the practices that we held were weekly practices, generally, one to two times a week, leading up to the show. Now the practice would increase to daily, the week before in the week of the show. This is just because at that time, generally, a week before the show, we would have our stage set up in the auditorium, because that's where all of our fashion shows were in our auditorium, we would have the stage set up. And this gave the models an opportunity to practice walking on the runway, we will do the full production in order of the segments, and the models will have that opportunity to really get a feel for the runway, the environment, the changing of each segment, they weren't changing their clothes, not until the week of the fashion show there. We do, like a partial, we never did a full scale run through with all the clothing, but we did partial and some areas. And again, the students got to practice with the runway the week before the fashion show or the week of the fashion show. And the practices were daily, those two weeks, to make sure that everything was in order, basically, to make sure that we had the music together, the lighting together, the walks the coordination, and the transitions, they got to actually, you know, walk from the side of the stage and practice running and being prepared for their next segment that they were walking in. So it was very key to have those daily practices in the actual environment in which the show would be running.

28:02 Now, what did the practices consist of? So in the beginning, the models are learning to walk, cuz these are not professional models. These are students who generally have never modeled before, let alone walk in a fashion show. So during the practices, they're practicing on walking, just walking, we did a lot of walking. And then we would teach them simple poses. And they would, you know, get comfortable and become confident in their walk, and then ability to do poses. And then once we had the walk down and we had the poses down, then we gave them little coordinated routines to do and this was mainly the choreography that the model coordinator and team had come up with. So they were then not only practicing their walk and posing, but they were also eventually learning the choreography that would be used in the fashion show. And then we'd like I said before, we will do full segment runs, we will set up our room as closely as possible to resemble the environment of the runway and the stage. And we would practice segment runs. So this is the models walking in the order in which they'd be walking in the segment. If they had a partner, partnering up with that person and walking with them doing their choreography, and all of those things and then the week before the show up until the final day before the show we're doing full runs of the fashion show.

30:00 In the management of the models, the model model coordinator and team did attendance for practices each and every time. And there was an attendance tracker. So if a model missed this, the set number of practices that we decided on, then that model would jeopardize their opportunity to participate in the fashion show, we would have to have a discussion and find out, aren't you serious about being a model in our fashion show, because you need to be in attendance to the practices in order to learn the choreography and prepare yourself for the fashion show. So we did have an attendance tracker, and there was a sign in sheet at every practice, so that we would extract those names from the signing sheet, put in an attendance tracker to ensure that our models were actively engaged in the role in which they signed up for.

31:06 So that pretty much sums up the role and responsibilities of what's happening with Model Management. As you're listening in, and you're taking notes, I'm pretty sure you're getting the picture that the management of these various roles or responsibilities take on a whole lot. So Model Management merchandise management is a very key component of a fashion show, because they are what make the fashion show. But I want you to tune in next week, because we're going to be talking about the segment development. This is how the show flows. Right. So we're gonna, we have to determine, like how many segments we're going to have in a fashion show, and which model or what apparel is going to be shown in each segment, it has to tell a story to convey the theme of the show. So tune in next week for part seven of this 11 part series. And I look forward to having you to listen in and please don't hesitate to send me a message on Instagram Marketing EdVenture is my tag. I would love to know what you're getting from this series or if you have any questions, or even any suggestions, I'm open for it all.

32:33 I do. Thank you for listening to Marketing EdVenture, and you have a wonderfully blessed day.

32:39 If you found value in this fashion show production series, I have a program that will be available in the fall 2024. It will provide a scope of resources to help you create and implement a successful fashion show. It's something I've wanted to do for years because the fashion show has so many moving parts. And of course, when you're managing students who were responsible for implementing the show, it really is a project management responsibility. Now this program will contain video and audio modules, as well as a project management framework. Proprietary documents for management in all areas of the responsibilities signature, model call framework, an outline for creating your fashion show Bible media kit framework, real examples of my productions, and highlights of my student-led fashion shows and so much more. Now, stay tuned for the early bird invitation to access the program. I look forward to having you access there. And I also look forward to hearing about your fashion show productions and seeing them on Instagram. So be sure to connect with me at Marketing EdVenture so I can see all of the wonderful work that you're doing with your program.

34:16 Thanks for listening to Marketing EdVenture. Remember to subscribe, rate, review and share this episode with someone you think could benefit from the information shared here today. If you have any questions or want to connect with me, find me on Instagram at Marketing EdVenture. All links and resources discussed in this episode can be found in the show notes at marketingedventure.com