Skills crisis at fashion's cutting edge

By GEOFF CUMMING

Lights, action, champagne. When New Zealand's fashion wunderkinder unfurl their latest claims to world domination in Auckland next week, expect more hype, froth and backbiting than the skirt-lifting on an America's Cup boat.

But, as catwalk clotheshorses reveal the cutting edge creations at L'Oreal New Zealand Fashion Week, it's what lies behind the fabrics that will vex the industry.

Flattering words by visitors from London, New York and Sydney will open new doors for an industry already enjoying a huge profile. Limelight-stealing efforts at Australian Fashion Week since 1997 and the success of last year's NZ fashion week have positioned this country as a pocket of fashion creativity.

In an industry guided by buyers and media on the lookout for something fresh and different, labels like Trelise Cooper, Kate Sylvester, Carlson and Karen Walker are racking up the orders. Fashion Week gives more than 40 designers the opportunity to build on an export market now touching $40 million.

But as much as our fashion houses crave the attention from Australia, America and Europe, there's an undercurrent of realism at this year's show. As if our isolation from raw materials and markets isn't enough of a handbrake, high fashion is coming to terms with the need to cut its cloth to fit the industry's capacity.

A steady stream of designers with flair and creativity are launching forth from training institutes, but few know how to sew, cut or make patterns.

Skill shortages have emerged. With pay rates lagging and production needs highly seasonal, few school-leavers see sewing and cutting as career options.

The influx of Asian migrants in the past decade has brought new skills and a willingness to work around the clock, and sweatshops do exist. Unionists are showing interest in working hours and pay rates, but fashion houses with deadlines to meet are crying "flexibility".

Designers cite manufacturing capacity problems and quality concerns linked to their intricate designs. The small boutiques which now characterise the sector are having to wait for manufacturers to fit in their short runs.

Even long-established firms like Sonny Elegant Knitwear and Lewis Design Company, which provide on-the-job training, report occasional problems finding staff.

"There's a definite shortage of people on the ground like sample machinists," says Lewis Design managing director Angela Hood. "There's plenty of CMT [cut, make and trim] people and people who can sit behind a computer, but you have to be able to put the garment together.

"The people who do the production are the heart of the business."

Sonny's Tony Milich says most design graduates need at least a couple of years' training.

"They've never made garments for commercial reasons."

Despite Government encouragement for high value export producers, fashion houses struggle to get finance, both to start and expand. In the fickle world of fashion, up-and-coming designers have trouble convincing bank managers to lend for raw materials when payment for the end product may be 18 months away.

It's an issue even for industry leaders like Trelise Cooper, who won a New Zealand Export Award last month after building her offshore business to $5 million a year.

"I've just placed a huge forward order for fabric from Europe for next winter and drawn a deep breath. If people don't like what goes on the catwalk, I own that fabric. But if I don't do it, I can't make it in my delivery window."

Success brings the challenge of financing bigger orders and arranging production runs to meet deadlines. "My retailers in Australia are really strict about delivery."

Cooper says she's holding back from opportunities in New York and California partly because of the industry's growing pains.

"I have to consider how much more I can actually physically get made.

"There's a whole lot of issues to consider with America, but probably the biggest one is the lack of manufacturing capacity."

She's heartened, however, by Government and industry moves to address the issues, with initiatives such as incubators and mentoring for new entrants. "They've recognised that it's the creative industries that bring in the export dollars."

And while she welcomes the exposure offered by fashion week, she says it's vital the industry can deliver on its promises.

Sonny's flagship label, Sabatini, has virtually been adopted by Australians. But like Cooper, Milich is hesitant about broadening the company's horizons until the industry has firmer foundations.

"For the amount of business you do initially, the setting-up costs such as legal fees and insurance are enormous. You have to have someone in there, building relationships.

"We know we could sell easily into America and Britain but right now we are having a very good growth rate in Australia."

Capacity concerns are not confined to women's high fashion. Auckland label Huffer, which exports to Japan and Australia, switched some of its production to Fiji this year because of manufacturing delays and quality issues. The label, which has expanded from the skateboarder/snowboarder set to the wider urban streetwear market, prides itself on a quality, New Zealand-made product. "When more manufacturers can help us, we will be back in New Zealand."

It, too, has pulled back from launching in American stores.

Another flagbearer, Gaye Bartlett, says the industry's future remains at the top-end of fashion. Competition from low-wage countries means local manufacturers struggle to compete with big-run, mass-market clothing. But the industry's niche structure works against apprenticeships and other forms of training, says Bartlett, whose self-named label continues to enjoy steady growth in Australia.

She says cutting is uppermost for her "elegant, sophisticated" look.

"The problem here in New Zealand is we have lost the skills of full garment construction. People with the skills have been absorbed into the sample rooms and there's not enough new people coming through. Full garment construction has become a dying art."

Our isolation from fabric suppliers and markets adds to the difficulties and costs.

"Having to pay out [for materials] so far in advance of production and pay the CMT costs upfront, when the client is able to spread payments, makes financing quite difficult. A lot of us are very small businesses and there's really nowhere to go to get support."

And retailers don't want to know if the fabric ordered from the other side of the world arrives late or turns out to be the wrong colour.

"One of the things that does damage us is producing a beautiful range and then not delivering it.

"When you are young you come out with all these dreams. The practicality of the industry is another thing."

Paul Blomfield, executive director of Fashion Industry New Zealand (Finz), traces many of the problems to the 1980s, when the Labour Government began to hack at tariffs on clothing imports, and manufacturers switched production to Fiji.

An industry which employed over 30,000 was devastated. Closures of big plants by Bendon and Lane Walker Rudkin signalled not only job losses but the erosion of institutional knowledge, specialist skills and training.

While some older hands remain, the boutiques leading the recovery are mainly young entrepreneurs. Most firms are less than 10 years old and employ fewer than 10 staff. Many make no garments themselves and rely on CMT (cut, make and trim) contractors and outworkers.

Finz was launched last month to help form a united front in addressing the sector's concerns. Blomfield says the skill shortages are not yet severe but could hamper progress if not quickly addressed. And with growth averaging between 15 and 25 per cent a year, the potential is huge.

"I don't want to create unrealistic expectations, but we are seeing success stories in the fashion sector all the time. If the infrastructure is in place, we can go further and further."

Designer fashion is included in an ambitious strategy for the textile, clothing, footwear and carpet sector, thrashed out by the industry and Government. It sets growth targets averaging 12 per cent until exports reach $1 billion a year by 2008. Training and infrastructure are among issues identified.

Anne Chappaz, apparel sector manager for Trade New Zealand, says while all companies have problems managing rapid growth, the issues are more acute in apparel "where you may put downpayments for textiles 18 months before you see anything down the track".

Staff training and "upskilling" are included in the industry strategy but Chappaz says the problems should not be overstated.

"Finding cutters and machinists is an issue, but I haven't heard of anybody that's turned down an export order because they haven't got a pattern cutter.

"Skill shortages are a seasonal issue in fashion."

Milich agrees these are not bad problems to have, given the sector's position a decade ago. He says CER has been fantastic and the Australian market still has growth potential.

"We're doing very well in Melbourne because the colder climate lends itself to what our designers are making. But go to Queensland or Perth and there's not that many New Zealand labels."

New Zealand Fashion Week means "showtime" and the opportunity to grow in these markets - but Milich warns against getting caught up in the hype.

"Reality bites when you get back from the heady days of the show and have to start sourcing the raw materials, arranging the manufacturing and meeting deadlines.

"You have to keep your feet on the ground."