Elegant, impressive, fashion–forward — the Jhane Barnes line of high–end tailored menswear offers clothing for the man who wants to make a statement. Operating for nearly thirty years as the first woman to build a major menswear business in the United States, Jhane Barnes maintains a focus on quality and distinctiveness that's earned her some of the fashion industry's most prestigious awards, as well as a loyal customer following around the world. And now, FileMaker Pro fills a vital role in the behind–the–scenes production process.

Business Challenge

A fine suit begins with fine fabrics — and at Jhane Barnes the attention to detail carries right down to the warp and weft, with a line of fine, custom woven Italian textile designs. Production of those fabrics is a meticulous, carefully supervised process. "We needed a way to track our fabrics alongside our garment orders, in order to ensure that we have enough fabric to fill those orders," explains vice president for merchandising Sal Giardina. "Since we merchandise our own fabrics, we're responsible for buying them, and that can be a daunting task — most of our mills are in Italy, and we need to make sure the fabric is delivered by a certain date."

Until recently, textile inventory and manufacturing were tracked in a series of Excel spreadsheets — a cumbersome, labor–intensive system that could delay completion of orders and make accurate inventory of fabric stocks difficult. Clearly, a better system was needed — and that need brought FileMaker Pro developer Jeff Cohen of Blue Engine Solutions on board. "Jeff sat down with production manager Patti Feinman and me," Sal relates," and came up with a database to cover our needs."

Successful Solution

Jeff developed an efficient custom–designed FileMaker Pro database to track every step in the textile–production process. "Jeff designed a system which is practically foolproof and airtight," Sal comments. "No major accounting and inventory errors will occur due to his exceptional database design."

Orders are documented, production orders generated, inventory is tracked, and reports are generated — all from within the database itself, with hundreds of specific records created and stored for each fashion season. "We generate our reports right in FileMaker Pro," notes Sal, "telling us what fabrics are in inventory, along with the status of pending orders. We also track all our contacts and all the companies we deal with." And not only are the reports comprehensive, they're also pleasing to the eye — with an easy–to–read, easy–to–follow layout that earns plaudits from discerning designer Jhane Barnes herself.

FileMaker Pro is great for us. We have all the information we need right at our fingertips for tracking orders and production. It's very easy to learn — everything's basic and hands–on, so we don't have to worry about constantly updating our files. It's all very simple — and it's even kind of fun!

— Patti Feinman, Production Manager, Jhane Barnes Tailored Clothing

The system also allows integrated tracking of "swatch requests," the major tool for indexing the popularity of a given fabric design. "Customers pick the swatches, or fabric samples, they prefer," explains Sal, "and we have a tab for swatch requests in the database allowing us to track what fabrics are more or less popular — and that helps us decide whether or not to buy more of that particular fabric."