Lakia A. Richardson

• Collaborative as a member of a cross functional team (Design, Merchant, Tech and Planners) by focusing objectives and communicating clearly. • Responsible for monitoring and ensuring that all key milestone dates outlined in the development calendar are met to ensure timeliness of deliverables. • Manages data on PLM line sheets and reporting tools to ensure accuracy of all product-related information. • Participates in Material Strategy meetings to ensure that all fabric selections meet target cost parameters. • Reserves and tracks Proto/Salesmen yardage, handlooms, lab dips, strike-offs with assistance of Regional Office partner and communicates comments to suppliers as needed. • Ensures products are “designed to cost” and helps to find alternative material options, as necessary to meet targets. • Works with the team to determine vendor pre-allocation on each product category. • Attends Design Handoff meetings with Designers and Technical Designers to determine prototype needs and ensure that all initial Bill of Materials (BOM) are complete with all material components required for sample development. • Tracking and logging all proto and salesmen samples for key fit and global market meetings. • Attends weekly garment fittings and communicates any changes as needed to suppliers, costing team and regional office partners. • Responsible for monitoring the completion of the Bill of Materials (BOM) for all phases of development and bulk production. • Daily correspondence with our regional office and all suppliers to address and troubleshoot all problems/issues that arise. • Supports the collection and approval of fabric bulk standards and distribution to regional office partners post product adoption.

• Collaborated with our Merchant and Planning team to discuss strategy, department goals and financial planning for the upcoming and current floor sets. • Partnered with our Merchant team to identify and develop potential styles for production. • Strategized to allocate styles to appropriate vendors to maximize and leverage costing, in order to meet department IMU goals. • Worked with domestic and overseas (China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Korea and India) vendors to trigger buys, negotiate cost and delivery for all styles of interest. This included answering daily re-cap correspondence emails concerning development, costing, purchase orders, bulk production, bulk/trim inquiries, and fit sample status. • Responsible for negotiating, constructing, and updating our department time & action calendar as well as safeguarding to ensure that all parties adhered to production benchmarks and deadlines. • Created and implemented a PO re-cap worksheet system where vendors were responsible for providing all pertinent information concerning styles on order. This ensured that the purchase order entry process was both accurate and efficient. This system has proven to be so effective that it is now a company-wide practice. • Managed style entry and maintenance via Catalyst, a PLM program, which served as a WIP report and database for information including cost, delivery, fabric quality, factory, goods at consolidator, in distribution center and country of origin information. • Utilized PLM to issue purchase orders as well as generate price ticket and size label orders. • Acted as the key contact for all production related issues concerning delivery slides, price ticket delays/issues, unit shortages, production defects and any other QA related issues.

• Sourced and developed new fabric bases for the knit and woven tops division, such as stretch poly charmeuse, poly chiffon, poly yoryu, as well as silk and cotton blend qualities, • Maintained Cache's core fabric data base which included 16MM silk stretch charmeuse, 8MM crinkle silk chiffon, rayon/spandex jersey, ITY(poly/spandex), and venezia (poly/spandex), • Updated team members of all open fabric quality issues, fabric delivery issues, callouts, deadlines and submit status updates, • Negotiated with vendors, agents and nominated mills regarding fabric price, fabric deliver dates, and bulk minimum quantities, • Issued CADs and artwork to various garment vendors and nominated mills for Cache owned print development, • Tracked, logged and forwarded comments issued by our internal design/color team to vendors both domestic and overseas for all fabric samples received, including L/D’s, strike offs, and bulk, into the internal T&A and PLM data base, • Responsible for reviewing all submits (L/D, S/O, Bulk) for color, fabric quality and hand feel approval as well as fabric test reports and all bulk fabric inspection reports, • Ensured that the internal T&A was up-to-date with all pertinent fabric information including fabric price, cuttable width, weight, content, country of origin and x-mill date, • Daily correspondence with local garment vendors and agents, as well as mills in China, Vietnam, India, Korea, and Indonesia, • Coordinated sample yardage from various nominated mills both domestic and overseas to key vendors in New York as well as internationally for tailoring and development, • Assisted in developing the company’s Fabric Detail Sheet (FDS) which included specific and technical details such as quality, fabric price, bulk minimums, fabric production lead time, overall width, cuttable width, fabric weight, content, construction, country of origin, suggested fabric care, and yarn count.

• Developed new fabrics for the Men’s woven bottoms division with all overseas factories, • Reported status, tracked and followed-up on orders, • Ensured the T&A calendar was accurate and up-to-date, • Tracked, logged, and reviewed all fabric samples received including L/D’s, sample pieces, Handlooms and Bulk fabric, for color, fabric quality and hand feel acceptability before submitting for customer review/approval, • Corresponded with customer offices located in New York, Montreal and China, as well as daily international correspondence with factories and mills in China, India, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Thailand, • Entered bulk and sample order information into the company proprietary application/database: E-Progress, and updated information when necessary, • Arranged fabric sample shipments from various factories in New York and Montreal, Canada and overseas in Dayang, China, • Created and maintained a weekly WIP report for customer as well as internal review and tracking, • Tracked approval status of all L/D’s sample pieces, Handlooms and bulk fabric provided for customer review, • Maintained key fabric information including; price, production lead time, ETD/ETA, width, and content information, and • Acted as the point of contact for all customer inquiries regarding fabric and production lead time for the Men’s woven bottoms division.