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Short answer: A trim card is a one-page reference that shows every non-fabric part of a garment, such as buttons, zippers, labels, thread and elastic, with the supplier, article number, color, size and quantity for each one. The factory uses it to order and attach the right parts. The F* Word generates a tech pack in 8 to 10 minutes from a garment design, and its bill of materials (BOM) lists each trim line, so the trim card and the BOM start from the same record.
Trims, also called findings or notions, are every component on a garment apart from the main fabric. A trim card groups them on one page so a sourcing manager, a quality inspector and a factory merchandiser can check the same list. Teams often attach a physical swatch of each trim next to its row, because a photo of a horn button rarely settles a color dispute.
A trim card that a factory can work from carries these fields for each item:
Placement detail belongs on the spec sheet or construction page. The trim card says what the part is. The spec sheet says where it goes and how it is attached. Our guide to the tech pack vs spec sheet difference covers that split page by page.
Buyers often ask whether they need a trim card when the BOM already lists trims. The answer depends on where the record lives and how many copies exist. Table 1 sets out the three usual setups.
The F* Word is not a PLM. It generates and checks the tech pack and BOM, and teams can export them to the systems and factories they already use.
A wrong zipper length or an unapproved button color rarely stops a sample. It gets caught at fit or at the pre-production sample stage, and the fix costs another round. The State of AI Fashion 2026 report from The F* Word, a survey of 250 fashion professionals with a margin of error of plus or minus 6.2 percent, puts a sample round at $200 to $1,500. The same report found that 60 percent of respondents run four or more sample rounds per style.
Here is a worked example using those figures. A brand develops a 10-style collection. Trim mismatches force one extra sample round on 3 of the 10 styles. At $200 to $1,500 per round, that is $600 to $4,500 in added sampling cost for that collection, before counting the calendar time each round adds. The arithmetic is illustrative. Your own cost per round and error rate will set the real number.
Most trim errors start as copy errors. The same report traced how much of a tech pack's meaning survives each step away from the design system: a PDF export keeps about 62 percent, an email attachment about 38 percent, and a cropped screenshot in a chat thread about 15 percent. A trim card that lives as a separate file sits at the start of that chain every time it is emailed.
The book The Machine-Readable Brand (Kumar, Sidhik and Lokam, 2026) describes the problem as artifact liquidity, "the degree to which such an object can move between people, systems, and partners without getting scrambled, outdated, stripped of context, or separated from its approvals." A trim card with no version date and no link to the BOM fails that test the first time a supplier swaps an article number.
Run these checks on every style before the tech pack goes out:
If your team builds tech packs in The F* Word, checks 1 and 6 come from working off one generated BOM. Checks 2 to 5 still need a person who knows the suppliers. Ownership of the final document is a separate question, covered in who owns the tech pack, brand or factory.
A BOM lists every material in a garment, fabric and trims, with quantities and costs. A trim card shows only the trims, usually with a swatch or photo for each one. Treating the trim card as a visual view of the BOM keeps both pulling from one list.
Most tech packs include trim information, either as a dedicated trim page or inside the BOM page. Trims affect both cost and lead time, so a factory needs them to quote. A tech pack generated in The F* Word lists trims in its BOM.
Every component apart from the main fabric: buttons, zippers and pullers, thread, interlining, elastic, drawcords, snaps and rivets, main labels, care labels, size labels and hangtags. Packaging trims such as polybags and stickers often go on a separate packing sheet.
The product developer or technical designer usually confirms specifications, and the designer or merchandiser approves color and look. Final sign-off happens before the pre-production sample, described in our guide to the PPS sample.
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