On the road to the workshops
Several trips abroad, a lot of fabric in hand, very few workshops kept: how we choose the people who make our pieces.
A garment is people first. You can choose a fabric from a spec sheet; a workshop, you have to go and see. So since the spring we have been travelling. In early September, Ryan was back on the road, notebook in pocket, to meet new makers.
What we look at when we walk in
The rolls first. We ask to handle the fleece, to see the brushed back, to compare two rolls of the same fabric dyed weeks apart: a black has to stay the same black from one run to the next.
Then the cutting tables. A workshop that cuts cleanly, with patterns stored and annotated, usually sews cleanly too.
Finally the machines, and above all the hands that guide them. We watch a seam being made. We count the stitches per centimetre. We turn a finished piece inside out to see the inside, where nobody looks except the people who do the job well.
The questions we ask
- Can you make exactly this fabric again in six months?
- What does this piece look like after ten washes? Show us.
- Who checks the pieces before they leave, and how?
The good answers are rarely the fastest. They are the ones that come with a garment in hand.
The best are not the biggest
Some workshops impress you with their size. The ones we keep impress us with their care: dense embroidery that doesn’t pucker the fabric, ribbing that snaps back when you pull it, a lined hood that falls just right. We would rather have few partners, and long relationships.
What we bring back
A suitcase full of samples, photos, pages of notes, and every time the same conviction: you don’t choose a supplier on a screen. You choose them by touching what they make.