Caryn and Jane have been long time consultants to Evans High Street retailer.

Our mission: To broaden the company’s knowledge of the best features for curvy bodies to be incorporated in the design process.

Brilliant gave a seminar and workshop process to the entire management team across design, merchandising and marketing.

“Without exception everyone said they found the training helpful/ valuable/ inspirational.”

Evans Design & Development Manager Karin Eastough

Giving staff a language to use, to describe the body and the features on clothing was our first goal. So we workshopped the limited word in existence to describe bodies that are not model shaped.  We encouraged staff to suggest more. As you can see their feedback reflects the empowerment they achieved as a result of the presentation.

“Has increased my confidence for when I build and present ranges – a shared language.”

“Has given me more confidence and a wider vocab to pick from when I’m describing garments.”

Our Power Point featured a breakdown of the features commonly found on clothes with obvious points like sleeves, necklines etc but also an outline of the more subtle things to take into account when designing like proportion and horizontal lines.

“Given me a greater understanding of why some things sell and some don’t.”

Some of this information is available in our Ebooks already, which anyone can access for free.

“Will re look at print placements and garment lengths – more appropriate for our customer”

After reviewing the current collection for management and pointing out why some best sellers were working and how other less successful designs needed tweaking or an overhaul to be successful, we then moved into workshop mode.

“Make sure all body shapes are catered for when range building.”

Six separate workshops, where Evans staff members worked in groups to create their own styling solutions for different body shapes ensured that each person understood the tools they had been given.

“This challenged us to decide whether a garment is merely fashion trend led or if it is appropriate for our customer.”

Feedback from Evans evaluation forms.

• Given me a greater understanding of why some things sell and some don’t
• Gives an objective stance when deciding to buy a garment
• Has increased my confidence for when I build and present ranges – a shared language
• Will re look at print placements and garment lengths – more appropriate for our customer
• Make sure all body shapes are catered for when range building
• Use the correct language – describing garments/ trends/ graphics
• Make sure we offer more choice in the ranges to suit different body shapes
• Give more consideration to the product I pick for homepage & promos
• Has given me more confidence and a wider vocab to pick from  when I’m describing garments
• Built my confidence of what I am looking for when working with fit models
• Challenge team as to whether a garment is merely fashion trend led or if it is appropriate for our customer