Textile and Garment Industry
Textile and Garment Industry
This domain tests the supply chain from fibre to consumer and the commercial decisions behind products. Expect questions on sectors, roles, sourcing, costing and the fashion calendar.
Core rules
- Chain: fibre production → spinning → fabric manufacture → dyeing/finishing → garment design → pattern and sample → production → distribution → retail → use → disposal.
- Sectors include haute couture, ready-to-wear, mass market, fast fashion and technical textiles.
- Costing includes materials, labour, overheads, packaging, transport, duty, markdown and margin. Retail price is not cost plus a fixed percentage.
- The calendar drives lead times: traditional seasonal versus see-now-buy-now and drops.
- Roles include designer, pattern cutter, merchandiser, technologist, buyer and sourcing officer.
Worked example
A T-shirt uses 0.25 kg cotton jersey at $8/kg = $2.00 fabric; 15 minutes labour at $12/hour = $3.00; overheads $1.00; total cost $6.00. A 2.5× wholesale markup gives $15.00; retail might be $30.00. The reasoned answer shows working and states that duty and packaging are excluded.
Traps
Confusing wholesale and retail; ignoring labour or duty; assuming low price means low quality; forgetting transport; forgetting markdown and returns.