Our design process

Have you ever wondered what work goes into creating an Alyssa Lloyd garment? Come behind the curtain and learn more about our design and manufacturing process.

Design and fabric selection

All Alyssa Lloyd garments begin with an initial design idea. Sometimes these ideas are inspired by the seasons, fashion trends, travel, or a particular silhouette. Then we’re able to source fabric that will bring that design to life. Other times the inspiration will spark from the fabric itself, and an idea will instantly form in my mind about how to create a garment that will best show off a particular fabric.

At this design stage we always make sure to consider the sustainability of our design concept, ensuring as much as possible that our ideas surpass trends, can be trans seasonal and communicate Alyssa Lloyd’s unique point of view.

Pattern making and sampling

The next stage is to create a flat paper pattern, which will become the template from which we cut out the fabric for our new design. At Alyssa Lloyd this process is done by hand with pencil, paper, and a set of specific rules and measurements that result in a paper pattern piece for every piece of fabric in our garment. Some of our patterns have as few as 2 pattern pieces, and more complex designs can have 10 or more, many of which need to be cut more than once.

From here a first practice version, known as a sample, is cut out and sewn together to test both whether the new pattern works, as well as the fit of the garment on a human body. Often changes need to be made to the pattern at this stage, and sometimes multiple samples need to be sewn to ensure the resulting garment meets our standards. Luckily we’re pretty efficient at this process, and pattern making and sampling inhouse cuts down on both time and fabric waste.

Because all of our garments are made from natural fabrics, we’re able to compost any fabric offcuts, and discarded pattern pieces while our designer keeps most of our samples.

Grading and production

Once we’re happy with the pattern we begin a process called grading, where we take the size our sample was made in (in our case size Small), and increase or decrease the size of each pattern piece according to a set of rules, to create the patterns for the rest of our size range.

And finally we can cut and sew the final versions of our garments. In the industry this is called a production run, and is often handled by a third party, normally in a developing country like China, Bangladesh or India where labour is cheaper. At Alyssa Lloyd we’re proud to be able to produce our limited production runs inhouse in New Zealand.

Creating our clothes in New Zealand is always something that will be important to our brand. The skill required to produce beautiful and wearable garments has in recent decades become underappreciated, as the process of clothes manufacturing has moved overseas and away from our field of vision. A long term goal at Alyssa Lloyd is to help raise the value of local manufacturing, and in turn provide employment opportunities to young New Zealand seamstresses. That way we can create beautiful handmade garments for our customers, while supporting our local communities too. Are you in?