Lectra, the world leader in integrated technology solutions dedicated to industries using soft materials—fabrics, leather, technical textiles and composite materials—is pleased to announce that Zhejiang Nali Apparel is adopting Lectra Fashion PLM to streamline collection development.
Founded in 1998, Nali started its original women’s wear and accessories brand Badina, before launching Colove last year.
High quality and design are essential components of Nali’s DNA. Zhang Lifu, Chairman of Nali, is an experienced designer himself and thus remains very attached to the design process of each collection.
Today, the booming fashion brand has hundreds of distribution points scattered across China and plans to increase its domestic presence. Growth over the past few years has been explosive and future development will be equally as ambitious.
Nali‘s current challenge is to cope with increasing activities and expanding teams while continuing to deliver quality collections on time. The fashion brand has decided to integrate Lectra’s advanced technology within its design and product development process to ameliorate communication issues and optimize time, but also as an opportunity to establish a structured, best-practices collection and product development process.
With the business growing, Nali needs to improve knowledge sharing between teams while also making sure that design remains at the center of product development and that product continues to be a core competitive differentiator.
“Thanks to Lectra, we realized we needed to clearly define our way of working and establish strong communication and knowledge sharing. With Lectra Fashion PLM, we are carrying out process development with checkpoints, starting with a first approval meeting with designers, costing and product development teams, before launching a first sample, for example. Now that our volumes are higher, we must improve teamwork for better communication and increased efficiency,” explains Zhang Lifu.
Lectra Fashion PLM offers Nali a platform to protect savoir-faire and best practices while also shortening the learning curve for new or less experienced employees. Because the Badina and Colove brands are based on a very vast range of styles, fabrics and embellishments, easing the development and delivery process is imperative.
A shared agenda, including milestones, reverse-planning and priorities running off of the common Lectra platform will ease their day-to-day work. Nali’s development process will be streamlined by controlling workflow, deadlines and cost.
Nali decided to implement Lectra Fashion PLM due to Lectra’s expertise with fashion brands. The key-deciding factor for Nali was that Lectra is not only a reliable partner for technology, but also an expert sensitive to the needs and subtleties of fashion such as silhouettes, fabrics, colors and patterns.
“We looked at other solutions and they didn’t have the same experience in fashion as Lectra and so the solutions just weren’t as targeted to fashion,” says Zhang Lifu.
“We are pleased with the progress made so far with Lectra, and we feel our ethos is being protected. We created a true bond with Lectra’s team and are confident that Lectra Fashion PLM will help maximize our business value,” he concluded.
About Nali
Founded in 1998, Nali designs women’s wear and accessories. The company began with its original brand Badina, which targets mature women between 35-45 years old. Another brand Colove was launched last year and targets a younger audience mainly between 25-38 years old.
The fashion company is known for their design and quality. Nali is determined to expand rapidly, with growth planned in its women’s wear business while also pursuing men’s and other fashion lines.