For most brands, it takes months of research, outreach and sampling to find the best manufacturer for their needs and we are no exception to this. We knew that our main priority as a brand was to showcase our manufacturing partners as we believe this level of transparency is imperative to continuing manufacturing within the UK.
STARTING OUT & THE CHALLENGES.
If you are fashion brand that is just starting out, finding good manufacturers is one of the first challenges you'll run into. It can be overwhelming, and can quickly become an expense part of your business. Finding a good manufacturer simply comes down to research, and relationship building. However, our challenge became even greater as we knew from the outset that we wanted to work with British and Welsh businesses throughout our supply chain.
From our packaging, to our care labels we have ensured that each aspect of our designs supports British businesses.
When developing the product, this took longer than we'd like to admit. The main reason for this is that manufacturing in the UK exists, however, it is very underground unless you know exactly where to look. For a new business, this took us a long time to find manufacturers that could not only produce to our unusual needs, but would also align with us on our long-term vision. We hope to not only grow over the coming year, but we aim to support our manufacturing partners in the process.
Working with pre-existing materials and re-thinking textile waste.
For us, our biggest challenge was to find a UK manufacturer that could produce one of one garments using pre-existing materials. Typically, businesses will have cutters that work with traditional cloth. As our products start in the form of stretch denim jeans, we have to do a lot of deconstruction to eventually reconstruct. This we do in-house so that we can re-use the remaining parts of the jeans for future products.
MANUFACTURING IN THE UK.
We knew from the beginning that we wanted to work with solely British businesses and manufacturers, again, this provided us with a different set of challenges as manufacturing abroad is both technological more advanced and typically more cost effective.
Why is this?
Unfortunately, due to the historic implications of the 1980s clothing manufacturing in the UK has seen a drastic decline due to technological advancements in Asian and European countries - one of the main reasons we see most clothing made in countries like China and Portugal.
As a Welsh brand, we are proud to say that we are based in Wales, and despite a wealth of clothing manufacturing history there are little to manufacturers left here. We are however, lucky enough to have partnered with a clothing manufacturer based in Treorchy (the Rhondda Valleys) which is where Burberry previously had their clothing made.
We are unbelievably proud to have partnered with this Welsh business as Treorchy not only has a special place in our hearts but because we are able to support one another in our new journey.
If you'd like to learn more about our partnerships with our Treorchy manufacturer, click here.
