All in the Details

The opportunity to work for Gap, Inc., one of the world’s largest specialty retailers, happened by chance for Camille Palmer ’04. While working late one evening at Jones Apparel Group in New York, she received a call from a recruiter and soon found herself as the newest member of the Gap International Technical Design Department in New York. The company operates four of the most recognized apparel brands in the world—Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy and Piperlime.

As a technical designer, Camille works exclusively in the Japanese fit for the women’s woven category, including woven tops, woven outer wear and dresses. She works with an in-house Japanese model to ensure that clothing is tailored to fit the culture’s body frame dimensions. Besides the United States, Gap produces garments for consumers around the world.

Camille spends her work hours ensuring that the visual aesthetic intended by fashion designers and merchants is carried through to production. During her evaluation process, she reviews a garment’s measurements and pattern shape, noting any slight inaccuracies, and critiques details such as buttons, zippers and overall shape and silhouette. She may review the same garment sample up to three times until it is just right.

Although the work is exacting, Camille says that she sees the results of her work within a period of mere months.

“The quicker you can get the products in the stores, the better,” says Camille, who travels to Hong Kong, India and Japan for fitting sessions with vendors to expedite the process. “It’s easier to anticipate what consumers will want two or three months ahead of time than further into the future.”

A recent thrill for Camille has been seeing the Gap Design Editions collection featured on the May 2007 cover of Vogue magazine. The popular collection showcased nine unique interpretations of the classic white shirt by young emerging American designers Doo-Ri Chung, Kate and Laura Mulleavy and Thakoon Panichgual. “The Design Editions products are literally flying off the shelves,” says Camille, who worked on the Japanese fit for the white shirts and dresses. “Who would have thought I would ever work on something that got on the cover of a nationally acclaimed magazine?”

Camille developed her technical skills from the first day of basic sewing class at Stephens. A six-week summer internship at Jerell, a Dallas-based manufacturer of apparel, opened her eyes to the possibility of making technical design her chosen profession. She was immediately drawn to the career that requires attention to detail as well as strong patternmaking, measurement and communication skills.

After graduation, Camille wanted to find a way to give back to her alma mater. Taking advantage of Gap’s charity match program, she has helped fund several scholarships for Stephens fashion students studying technical design.

“There weren’t any technical expertise awards at Stephens while I was a student,” Camille says. “I wanted to start a way for students to be recognized for their technical skills.”

- From The Ideal Connection , Stephens College.