Annie Masarie

I became a very successful freelancer by having a customer service attitude to this work. Pattern makers are notoriously difficult to deal with, and part of that is because it's my way or the highway. I really hit my stride back in New York when I realized that if I have a level of customer service to my industry, it goes a long way and it's very appreciated. My mantra is the opposite of my way or the highway - I'm here to make your job easier. That collaborative attitude and willingness to work with people, especially the sewers who actually have to construct the garments, has been really helpful along the way.

I don't know if this really came from somebody as advice, but it's what I learned over the years - the sewer is right. Whoever has to actually construct this garment, if they're telling you they want it done a different way, they're the one that has to sew it. Having that collaborative attitude and not being rigid about things has been key. My mantra is the opposite of my way or the highway. It's like, I'm here to make your job easier. So that's been really helpful along the way.

Ask all of the questions. People love it when you're interested. I have interns here and there - some of them, they didn't ask me for an internship, I offered it to them, because I was like, wow, you seem interested in this, you seem dedicated. So just expressing interest and being really willing to learn and eager to learn is so important. And don't wear headphones - you'll learn so much just paying attention to what's happening around you.

There is a big segment of my business that has potential, we just don't quite have the manpower yet, and that is sizing analysis. A lot of brands want to expand their size offering, maybe they're going into plus sizes, and if that's not done strategically, it's a real disaster. I've done this work where I come into a company and they tell me they have a really weirdly high return rate on a particular size, and I go in and analyze why is that happening and what can you do to make sure your brand is more in line with the rest of the industry. That's a fun and exciting challenge because it's ever-changing. Every two years, I go screenshot the size guides of every big denim brand like Wranglers and Levi's, and sizing changes as humans change. That whole realm is very fascinating, and because it's so math-oriented, a lot of people in the fashion world don't really see that as a career opportunity. But there's just so much potential for things like writing accurate customer-facing size guides and analyzing where a company may fall in the sizing world. I had one company that did 18 million last year, and their size guide on their website had a picture of someone measuring themselves, but it was actually garment measurements. Their return rate was surely skyrocketing just because of that. I proposed to write them a great size guide for a low upfront cost, and for every one percentage point their return rate lowers over the next year, I get a kickback. Win-win!

I didn't actually really intend to create a company, but here we are. I had a moment of realization back in 2022 where I was like, wow, I have an opportunity to give these talented people around me a career that they're not bored in and that they can move up in. So I'm really passionate about making sure people are getting paid fairly, and also having the opportunity to continue to grow and learn as they evolve in their career. As my team grows, I want to make sure that they are supported.