STUDIO / PRODUCTION MANAGER
KRISTINA FIDELSKAYA
Total years of experience :6 years, 10 Months
Accountable for the whole production and sampling process, including fabric sourcing and product development.
Management of a complex team of in house production and sampling, while working with external suppliers providing effective and comprehensive support through 4 seasons per year. Ensuring all deadlines were met and producing garments of the highest standard.
Key player in the development of the brand across all departments. Including production, development and PR. Due to my work in all areas, I was Instrumental to the development of the brand. Building it from a local Dubai based entity to an international brand.
Key achievements:
•Introduction of all external factories across Europe, including knitwear and accessories. Managing all relationships and communication. Ensuring requirements and quality standards were met. This allowed the company to open two new stores in Dubai, produce stock for the Paris store and expand the wholesale business.
•Expansion of company pricing structure, developing critical price points in line with competitors. Introduction of production software Zedonk, setting company mark ups and margins allowing the company to launch wholesale business and have clear visibility on direct production costs.
•Introduction of key luxury fabric and trim suppliers which allowed the company to reach a more prestigious level. Developing a fabric pricing structure and merchandising plan allowing the brand to have a balanced collection in line with current market trends.
•Introduction of key pattern rules and measurements, setting standards for KF fit and production standard patterns. Implementing detailed technical specification sheets for sampling and production. Over three years, building key growth in pattern maker’s ability having a direct impact on quality and fit.
•Setting up and running of the company’s in house production. Hiring and training all tailors, steamers and cutters. Analysation of production capacity and utilisation. Ensuring deadlines were met and standards adhered to.
•Developing and management of company calendar, allowing the full company to have a clear understanding of all deadlines. Introduction and management of detailed production and sampling critical path, giving clear visibility on workflow and allowing the introduction of KPIs.
•Introduced and implemented the brands ‘Made to measure’, ‘Made to order’ and ‘Bespoke’ services. Growing the visibility and profitability of the brand within the region.
•Played a huge role in the launch of the brand across Europe and Paris fashion week shows. Played a vital role in the organization of Paris fashion week shows and look book shoots.
Beer and cider music festival in kings cross London. Responsible for the admin and correlation of information in regards to all aspects of the bar.
Responsible for the management of a five-star chalet providing leadership to the in-house chalet staff.
Welcoming 20 guests on a weekly basis making sure guest were catered to the highest standard whist running the chalet smoothly and efficiently giving five-star customer care.
Cooking and serving breakfasts, afternoon teas and evening meals for guests in accordance with dietary requirements, including aperitifs, canapés and a cheese board where applicable.
Ensure the chalet was kept clean and tidy and that health and hygiene standards were met throughout.
Acting as a source of information for guests, being the first point of contact for any guest queries, providing a high level of customer service at all times.
Ensuring chalet budget for food and beverages was adhered to on a weekly basis and responsible for the organizing of laundry services.
Working across all areas of production and sampling from bespoke client work to product development with a focus on wholesale production.
Responsible for the complete management of all company calendars including, bespoke, sampling and wholesale production. Providing an effective and balanced work schedule whilst ensuring clear visibility on delivery dates.
Working directly with the creative director on product development for each department, developing, ordering and monitoring all raw materials ensuring a balanced collection
Complete management of the production cycle and team ensuring all delivery dates and quality standards where achieved whilst ensuring company margin was adhered to.
Accountable for the studio budget, monitoring any freelancers/ stylist etc. booked, reporting directly to the CFO.
Key achievements:
• Introduced key UK and overseas factory’s allowing the company to grow the wholesale accounts by 40% in one season.
• Every season increased margin by 5% by complex negotiation with factory’s and fabric mills to secure better prices.
• Worked directly with the CEO to create a pricing structure for the company.
• Introduced the first sampling / production critical path, allowing the company to have clear visibility of deliveries and manage cash flow.
• Implemented first specification sheets in the company with full measurements and detailed comments sheets.
• Implemented the first out of house sampling for LFW - within one year 60% of sampling was done out of house saving the company significant cost.
Independent production company creating content and advertising for brands and agencies.
As client services / production assistant I was responsible for the management of content from pitch to production.
Key achievements:
•Maintain existing business with current clients, growing business relationships with current clients and assisting in bringing new clients on board.
•Provided regular updates to clients in the progress of each job and act as liaison between the client, hoot writers, production and post production teams.
•Coordination of internal projects and determining the best utilisation of resources to increase the customer satisfaction.
•Responsible for preparing and providing weekly scheduled of planned activities for all members of the teams ensuring all teams were aware of current jobs and deadlines.
•Responsible for streamlining of business operations to reduce costs. Ensuring production / post production come in on budget. Ensuring all outgoing and incoming invoices and payments were made on time and to the payment schedule.
•Assist in production of content, organizing shoot locations, hiring actors / models / make-up artists.
•Requesting shoot permissions as needed ensuring all paperwork was correct before shoot days.
•Securing accommodation, travel and flights for the hoot team and visiting artists as required.
•Attend and minute production and post production meetings where necessary and give general support the Senior Producer.
Responsible for providing leadership and management to a busy design studio ensuring the organizational effectiveness of the team. Guaranteeing sample collections were produced on time and all departments were on weekly target plans.
Working directly with the creative director to implement the seasonal design direction. Making sure all designs were within the merchandising plan and to company criteria and price point.
Establishing and managing of the company critical path, sampling matrix and budget. Providing suitable communication and updates to higher management through weekly management meetings.
Key achievements:
• Effective merging of old and new design teams whilst providing HR support.
• Implemented the first company critical path combining all departments including design, atelier, press and logistics. Allowing for complete visibility through the company.
• Implemented the first sampling development budget in the company allowing finance visibility on seasonal expenditure and giving the design team accountability for their expenditure.
• Working on projects to develop the brand including the Issa store, website and accessories. Working with clients on project dates and dealing with all finance and admin related to the project.
• Solely in charge of managing manufacture of SMS in Asia. Accountable for ordering fabrics, lab dips, tracking developments, collating prices to ensure deliveries are on time
Provided a comprehensive management of the design studio and atelier including all related projects and collections for MRT, WRT, Knitwear and accessories. Liaising with each department making sure deadlines and budget was adhered to through weekly schedules and meetings.
Management of all fits and styling dates in the calendar including overseas travel for all departments. Working directly with the development team in Italy to ensure sample delivery date were on target for each individual collection.
Providing PA support to the creative director and as well as supporting the design team on ad hoc tasks.
Key Achievements:
•As this was a new role to the company, I provided an essential link between the new creative director and the design team. Bringing more structure to the whole design process, allowing products that effectively met with the company criteria which had not been previously achieved.
•Introduction of a combined and complex critical path including MRT, WRT, Knitwear and accessories permitting easier access to information by all departments. This allowed me to plan interdepartmental communication and introduced accountability to the system.
•Introduction of a seasonal travel and development budget for each department, allowing financial visibility of where money will be required within each month. Giving structure to an already extremely over budget department.
•Management of a new finance software (On Base) requiring purchases orders for all purchases made by each department.
•Managed the growth of the atelier and pattern cutting department due to the needs of a new creative director and admin related to this.
The complete management of an emerging luxury RTW company. Solely running the full sampling and production process from concept through to store delivery. Establishment and management of the critical path and budget giving weekly updates to creative director. Introducing and liaising daily with UK and Overseas manufactures, implementing production schedules, negotiation on price and closely monitoring quality control.
Key achievements:
• Implemented a complex critical path / budgets spread sheet for sampling and production leading to us being a more dynamic and cost effective company. This brought an otherwise behind schedule production back onto target.
• Introduced the idea of technical specification sheets, streamlining the whole manufacturing process. Leaving in place a system which saved time and money.
• Solely managed the recently established software (Zedonk) allowing the company to increase the overall profit of the product due to greater visibility of margins.
• Worked directly with the creative director; designing, sourcing and ordering all components for each sampling and production run whilst advising on price point to have a more balanced collection.
1st class degree
Art and Design – Grade A Graphic design – Grade B Media Studies – Grade C
Grade A- C English – Grade B Mathematics – Grade C Science double – Grade C