There's no denying 2017 has been non-stop. We've launched our entire spring/summer collection, renovated our Williamsburg space, moved into a new studio and kicked off our workshop series - and we're only halfway through the year. While our New York team has been busy preparing all of the above, our production team in Guangzhou City have been working hard simultaneously to get our upcoming seasonal collections ready.
Our production team are a small and tight-knit crew of eight. They are incredible, committed and talented beyond words. Over the three weeks that I spent there in May, I got to document the hard work that our production team pour into getting every collection ready. I hope you enjoy this little peek behind the scenes.
xSzeki
Technical Challenges: We thrive on challenges. Every season we set a goal to push ourselves to experiment with new techniques, textures and silhouettes.
Researching and Buying: Our team walks the fabric market biweekly to research fabric bases for current seasons, and to discover new fabrics we can experiment with for future collections.
Troubleshooting with the team: we discuss notes taken by our New York studio and retail teams which includes feedback from customers. From here we come up with solutions and improvements to our designs. We're always looking for ways to make our pieces the best they can be.
Downtime: Maintaining a healthy balance between work, rest and play is one of our top priorities. For lunch the team takes turns to cook a communal meal which we all sit down and eat together. During my time there we made one of my favorite home-cooked dishes - Chinese str-fried tomato and egg with rice. Lunch time is always followed by nap time which actually helps concentration and productivity!
QC: The quality control stage is of the utmost importance to us. We meticulously check every piece once they come out of production. As soon as everything passes the QC tests, we iron and package up our pieces to get them ready for their journey to our stores in New York.