Workshop Reference 153 Workshop marks
Project, prototype and run numbers
Three numbers, three questions — which design, which attempt, which one. How they are assigned and how they read together.
Project number — which design
Every design gets a number when it becomes a project, in the order it was started, and keeps it. Project 004 is the Standard Issue Jean now and will be if there is a fifth version in ten years. The number is the one on every project page and card on this site, and it is the first thing on a Workshop Record.
Numbers are not reused and gaps are not closed. A project that is abandoned keeps its number and its page; it is part of the record.
Prototype number — which attempt
A project is made more than once before it settles, and each attempt is a prototype: the pattern was revised, the piece was cut and sewn again, and something was learned. Prototypes are numbered from 1 within a project. The jean's two muslins were fittings rather than prototypes — cheap cloth, no construction to speak of — so the first denim pair is Prototype 1.
A prototype number on a piece says plainly that it is an attempt. That is the intention. A pair marked Prototype 2 is a real garment, worn and used, and also a step towards the next one; both things are true and neither is hidden.
Run and serial number — which one
When a version settles enough to be made more than once without changing, the pieces are a run, and each piece in it gets its place: Run 1 · 03 is the third piece of the first run. A run is small by definition here, and the number is as much for the maker as the wearer: it says which pattern revision and which bolt of cloth that piece came from, so it can be traced.
There are no runs yet. Every project on this site is at the prototype stage or earlier, and the pages say so.
How they read together
On a record or a label the three appear in order — project, prototype, run — and only as far as they apply:
- 004 — the design.
- 004 · P2 — the second prototype of the design.
- 004 · R1 · 03 — the third piece of the first run of the settled design.
The exact notation is not final; it will be settled when the first physical records are issued, and this page will follow. Pattern revisions (Rev. A, Rev. B) sit alongside these, on the master pattern and on the record — see The Workshop Record.