Well, today was interesting. Starting with not being able to find where I was going, despite a mapquest map and quite likely because of it. However, I persevered, drove around, called for help, and finally arrived at the silk screen shop I mentioned in yesterday's post. The company is owned by an incredibly nice guy named Charlie.
Now, I was under the impression that this was a shop that produced silk screened fabric for clients, designers, that sort of thing. This impression was based upon a rather vague conversation with an old friend of my dad's with whom I made contact back in January of this year hoping he knew of someone who did this type of work. And he did. He actually worked with or for this person about 20 years ago and said he'd find him and then get back to me. My dad's friend did finally find Charlie - who was pretty much still in the same place geographically - told him about me, what I was looking to do and asked if it was ok for me to call him. Charlie said, sure, no problem.
Over the next four months Charlie and I played a convoluted game of tag - either he was way too busy or I was traveling - and then he was going on vacation - but we finally hooked up. And that was today. Charlie met me at my car as I pulled up in front of an industrial building on a rather nondescript back street, which, as I mentioned earlier, was pretty hard to find. Charlie shook my hand, introduced himself and invited me upstairs to the shop.
OK. And then we walked into the main office/studio area where I met his sister and his wife. All three of them have art degrees and work together in symbiosis to run the business. This is when I saw that what they are producing, silk screening, etc is NOT yards and yards of fabric for whomever, but rather clothing which they put through a patented process of Charlie's design. Due to the proprietary nature of what I was seeing and what I was going to hear, I was informed that I would be asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before I left the premises.
I'm not sure if any of you have heard of the designer MARIKA CHARLES? Well, that's Charlie and his sister, Marika.
Here are some links to check out:
Augustina Boutiques
Barneys New York
Fashion Magazine
Charlie showed me some pretty cool looking clothes - cashmere sweaters and fine gauge t-shirts, among other things. We went through the shop from where the product begins to where it ends and then into the art department where the designs are created and worked and reworked.
It was all rather astonishing. The colors were fabulous, the patterns were subtle and created a great visual texture. I wasn't able to find anything online that reflected what I saw today - which makes me think most of it was from their fall collection. Actually, I know that some of it was, as I asked and that hunch was confirmed. While showing me one of the sweaters, I asked Charlie what it would retail for and he said, "Oh, about $400". Crikey! Way out of my league.
It was a really good visit and Charlie and his family were very gracious. He and his sister even took time to look at my portfolio and a sample of my printed fabric - all of which I felt quite shy to show them after seeing the extent of their work and success. Man. But, they were very encouraging, made suggestions, talked about options and sent me off feeling inspired and invigorated.
I'll be staying in touch with these people, let me tell you.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Sewing contractors (again), designs, goals, India and Kathleen Fasanella
Ok, well it's been a while since I last posted, but I'm back on track here and even have things to talk about!
So, I worked with two seamstresses from about the beginning of March until the end of April. Not very long, I know, but it seemed like years. Time dragged and prototypes were sewn incorrectly (which I have learned, quite rightly, was all my fault - no proper pattern, obviously poor communication on my part - I have Kathleen Fasanella and her book The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing to thank for that!). And all this time dragging (obviously, I have a problem with thinking that things should happen rather quickly, even though I myself am not that great at getting things done in a timely manner) started to sour in my mind the idea of having anything manufactured at all. Well, not anything, mind you - fabric does not fall into this category. But I was thinking "Crikey! If this is what it's like it's going to drive me bananas and why would I want to do that? " etc, etc.
This was before I began reading Kathleen's book - or at least I hadn't gotten to the part where she lays out things like, yeah, IT TAKES TIME. And then there are the prototypes and the tweaking and the new prototypes and the more tweaking and on it goes. Thus, I have given it more thought and recognized the merits of actually taking an idea, working with it and seeing it through to completion, which, in this case means not only having a finished product in hand, but taking it to market and seeing if it sells.
Other things I have learned from this book: less is more, know your limitations, don't buy materials before you actually have orders (doh!), listen to everyone who could possibly be telling you something useful, keep your ego in check (check!) and, damn it, you can do it! I can't recommend this book enough, so get out there and buy it before you start your handbag, handkerchief or undergarment business, ok? Save yourself some time and forehead slapping.
And then I had a dawn-breaks-over-marble-head moment - um, just yesterday evening to be precise - which went something like this: how about you look in the yellow pages for an actual sewing contractor company? I mean, what do you have to lose? Five minutes? So, I did that, starting locally - found a couple - moved on out to the state - found more - then got giddy and Googled the whole damn country.
Found a whole bunch of them then! Within minutes, I was filling out RFQs and sending email and even making a phone call to leave a message. I have thus far heard back from the recipient of that message and am now awaiting an estimate. I have received an email response from another company and hope to hear from the others by tomorrow. With the exception of a place in India, of course. I mean, time appears to be on another plane altogether in that country. Which is fine, but it does take some getting used to. Oh, right, the India company was not in the US Google search, but rather was one I had contacted a couple months ago. Then it took a while for them to get back to me. And then, I wasn't sure I wanted to manufacture overseas and then, well, I changed my mind, so emailed them with my specs and now I'm waiting...
In the meantime, I will be identifying more sewing contractor companies to contact, working on more textile designs, and researching trade shows. Anyone out there have trade show recommendations for bringing stuff like hand/shoulder bags to market?
The strike-offs I was all excited about in my previous post turned out ok. Yeah, just ok. But I learned a few things. Digital printing on unbleached canvas looks faded from the get-go and canvas is just such a dead fabric! It has no hand and is rather uninspiring. It is incredibly affordable, though. *sigh* The second set of strike offs were done on oyster linen and heavy cotton sateen and they turned out much better. I love linen, always have. Yesterday I submitted 4 new designs to be struck-off on a cotton/linen blend. Soon I will be listing my fabrics for sale on my etsy shop. When that happens, I'll post the URL.
Tomorrow I will be visiting a silk screen company not far from here. It's owned by a guy who started out painting silk scarves about 30 years ago and now owns this shop that occupies over 20,000 square feet! I'm looking forward to that visit for several reasons: have never seen such a large silk screen operation, certainly not one that specializes in screen printing yardage, I have lots of questions, and I hope to work with this company to produce a line of home furnishings and bedding. But, that will come at a later date. I have shoulder bags to manufacture!
So, I worked with two seamstresses from about the beginning of March until the end of April. Not very long, I know, but it seemed like years. Time dragged and prototypes were sewn incorrectly (which I have learned, quite rightly, was all my fault - no proper pattern, obviously poor communication on my part - I have Kathleen Fasanella and her book The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing to thank for that!). And all this time dragging (obviously, I have a problem with thinking that things should happen rather quickly, even though I myself am not that great at getting things done in a timely manner) started to sour in my mind the idea of having anything manufactured at all. Well, not anything, mind you - fabric does not fall into this category. But I was thinking "Crikey! If this is what it's like it's going to drive me bananas and why would I want to do that? " etc, etc.
This was before I began reading Kathleen's book - or at least I hadn't gotten to the part where she lays out things like, yeah, IT TAKES TIME. And then there are the prototypes and the tweaking and the new prototypes and the more tweaking and on it goes. Thus, I have given it more thought and recognized the merits of actually taking an idea, working with it and seeing it through to completion, which, in this case means not only having a finished product in hand, but taking it to market and seeing if it sells.
Other things I have learned from this book: less is more, know your limitations, don't buy materials before you actually have orders (doh!), listen to everyone who could possibly be telling you something useful, keep your ego in check (check!) and, damn it, you can do it! I can't recommend this book enough, so get out there and buy it before you start your handbag, handkerchief or undergarment business, ok? Save yourself some time and forehead slapping.
And then I had a dawn-breaks-over-marble-head moment - um, just yesterday evening to be precise - which went something like this: how about you look in the yellow pages for an actual sewing contractor company? I mean, what do you have to lose? Five minutes? So, I did that, starting locally - found a couple - moved on out to the state - found more - then got giddy and Googled the whole damn country.
Found a whole bunch of them then! Within minutes, I was filling out RFQs and sending email and even making a phone call to leave a message. I have thus far heard back from the recipient of that message and am now awaiting an estimate. I have received an email response from another company and hope to hear from the others by tomorrow. With the exception of a place in India, of course. I mean, time appears to be on another plane altogether in that country. Which is fine, but it does take some getting used to. Oh, right, the India company was not in the US Google search, but rather was one I had contacted a couple months ago. Then it took a while for them to get back to me. And then, I wasn't sure I wanted to manufacture overseas and then, well, I changed my mind, so emailed them with my specs and now I'm waiting...
In the meantime, I will be identifying more sewing contractor companies to contact, working on more textile designs, and researching trade shows. Anyone out there have trade show recommendations for bringing stuff like hand/shoulder bags to market?
The strike-offs I was all excited about in my previous post turned out ok. Yeah, just ok. But I learned a few things. Digital printing on unbleached canvas looks faded from the get-go and canvas is just such a dead fabric! It has no hand and is rather uninspiring. It is incredibly affordable, though. *sigh* The second set of strike offs were done on oyster linen and heavy cotton sateen and they turned out much better. I love linen, always have. Yesterday I submitted 4 new designs to be struck-off on a cotton/linen blend. Soon I will be listing my fabrics for sale on my etsy shop. When that happens, I'll post the URL.
Tomorrow I will be visiting a silk screen company not far from here. It's owned by a guy who started out painting silk scarves about 30 years ago and now owns this shop that occupies over 20,000 square feet! I'm looking forward to that visit for several reasons: have never seen such a large silk screen operation, certainly not one that specializes in screen printing yardage, I have lots of questions, and I hope to work with this company to produce a line of home furnishings and bedding. But, that will come at a later date. I have shoulder bags to manufacture!
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