Your Cart is Empty
FREE SHIPPING IN AUS 💚 Packed with love in 100% biodegradable satchels
Meet our factories
From farming to fabric, from pattern to final finish
Our factory is located in Laishan Town, Yantai, in north east China. Founded in 1999, it is a trusted supply source for our hero brand Patagonia. It specialises in sourcing some of the most environmentally friendly fibres, spin the highest quality yarn and knit as well as investing heavily in recycling technologies, all under one roof. We chose to work with this supplier as it is transparent with the textile supply chain, from farming, weaving, all the way to production. What's more to love? it is committed to ethical and social responsibility - 5 per cent of its profit are dedicated to benefit charity organisations with a focus on the health and development for children in rural areas of China.
Enjoy our 12 episodes of Fashion Revolution behind the scenes:
The first look into our organic cotton yarn spinning room. Located in Rushana, Qingdao, China. The factory employs 150 local residents and 30 contractors. The area spam across 50 acres of land including vegetable gardens. Currently more facilities are under development to expand not only ♻ recycling technology but a medical centre for the workers on site.
The factory includes 5 small 3 story buildings, and a potato garden, rebuilt in 2016.
83% of energy are renewable, all off cut fabrics are being recycled. Its such a tight knit and peaceful community. Their working hours are Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm including 1.5hr catered lunch breaks.
I had some great chat with the lovely pattern maker lady during lunch (last pic). She had been working at the factory since 2010 and is a grandmother of 2.
Meet our lovely sample maker, Mrs Liu. She's the lead sample maker for The Rushing Hour. For more than 3 years, she has worked her magic to put together some real tricky designs. Both her and her husband work at our factory and supporting their 2 kids to school.
What about the cute kitty, I heard you asked?! 😍 She's was rescued by Mrs Liu 3 weeks ago and is now the sample room pet. How cute!
This woman deserves a big fat trophy 🏆
After a pattern gets designed on computer and printed, Shen An is responsible to check each pattern manually for fitting accuracy before fabric cutting. This process ensures minimal waste of fabric. 100% of fabric off cuts are being collected and recycled.
Shen An is now 52 and had been a pattern supervisor at our factory for nearly 10 years. 👏
Meet Mrs Yu, the super woman who leads a small quality control team of 10. She ensures the quality of fabrics all the way through to pattern cutting to finished products. Not a single flaw escapes her eyes.
Bravo to these amazing people behind the scenes of our beloved collection.
When I first arrived at the factory town named Rushan, the first impression was how clean the air was, quiet, surrounded by mountains, blue skies and cherry blossom trees. This is the only textile factory located in this area and there's no chemicals on site.
Since 2015, our factory uses more than 83% of solar power renewable energy across the entire site. Looking forward to achieve 100% renewable energy by year 2020.
That's right, the lunch at our factory is fully catered. Kitchen staff are instructed to take sanitising seriously. The lunch hour starts at around 11.30pm -1.30pm, it's up to everyone when they would like to take their 1.5 hours break during this time.
I'm very jealous about their yummy lunch menu which includes their home grown potatoes from the factory veggie farm - 100% organic from their backyard.
Let's shine a spotlight on the lovely sewers who put every stitch together.
This factory produces 70 per cent of our organic and recycled fabrics and employs more than 160 people (all are from local town Rushan). Every employee is compensated with above standard industry salary rates plus annual paid bonus. Maximum working hours for full time workers strictly capped at 40 - 45 hours a week.
The factory provides medical insurance, paid maternity leave, and 1.5 hr catered lunch breaks for all employees. It also organises free annual outing for its employees to enrich workers' daily lives and promote the relationship between them and the management team.
In this photo featuring youngest employee Chen Jia, 22 years of age. She's been making your clothes since last year. Don't you just love that smile?
Meet the general manager at our Qingdao factory - Mrs Xu. She brings her big smile everywhere she goes. Her daily practise includes checking every step of the factory process as well as looking after every employee to ensure they're happy at work, New mums are given a generous maternity leave to look after their kids. She organise training sessions for management team once every quarter as well as staff outing once a year.
The potato patch at the back was also her idea back in 2016. (see episode 6)
Some may insist that garments be made locally. They may have missed a very important point: Not many local factories actually know WHERE THEIR FABRICS COME FROM. Isn't that 90% of the supply chain? Making the garment is the final 10%! That's why, we chose to work with this factory which provides a fully streamlined production cycle, from growing, yarn, weaving fabric to final garment.
When I visited this factory, I was blown away by how generous the staff is treated. 1.5 hour breaks plus freshly catered lunch, tea room on every floor, potato gardens, 9-5 working hours and complimentary transfer bus to and from home!! I don't think I've actually worked anywhere that provided these treatments.
The two employee buses are dedicated to transfer workers to and from home. As Rushan is a small town, employees live only within 10-25 mins away from the factory. The complimentary bus service is provided as a hop-on-when-you-need service. Some may choose to travel to work on their own scooters.
When I asked the workers, they revealed that people live a pretty decent life here so most companies make sure that they provide generous working conditions. 65% of workers here are women and they love the idea of being independent and the opportunity to contribute to work with a close knit community. Most of them have worked here for more than 5 years. I'm grateful to discover this factory and be able to contribute to a better life for the workers here.
The Final Finish steps for pleats fabrics (currently only 1 style under our up and coming collection): Another small factory we work with is a 15 people team, specialised in pleats fabrics - final finish production. (Think Issey Miyake pleats please).
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Here's the boss Mr Chen, he's 46 and have been operating this pleats finish service for textiles for 20+ years. He's super down to earth and you can find him often helping out with the pattern cutting and planning. Thumbs up for Mr Chen.
Meet our lovely production assistant Iris, who spoke perfect English and have graduated with a international business bachelor degree. Now she's an account production assistant liaise with clients and ensure all communications are passed onto the team.
"I never planned to become a fashion designer, but I have social statements to pass on, and fashion is one of the best canvases I could find to do that...."
This table is for reference only doesn't represent the exact measurement of every design. Measurement range depending on the style/cut for each individual design. For fitted style, it's usually the smaller end of the range; whereas oversize fit will measure towards the larger number.
|
|
XS |
S |
M |
L |
XL |
|
|
|
Bust (cm) |
81-83.5 |
84-88 |
89-93.5 |
95-98.5 |
99-104 |
|
|
|
Waist (cm) |
63-66 |
67-71 |
72-76 |
77-81.5 |
82-86 |
|
|
|
Hip (cm) |
89-92 |
95-97 |
98-101 |
102-105 |
106-110 |
|
|
International sizing reference
|
|
USA |
UK / AU / NZ |
Italy |
France |
Germany |
Japan |
Russia |
|
S |
2-4 |
8-10 |
38-40 |
34-36 |
32-34 |
7-9 |
40 |
|
M |
6-8 |
10-12 |
42-44 |
38-40 |
36-38 |
11-13 |
44 |
|
L |
10 |
14 |
46 |
42 |
40 |
15 |
48 |
