[3 mins read]
As a slow fashion brand, we place great importance in our creation process and the choices we make along the way. The resulting high quality of our clothing serves as an effective benchmark of success. Whether it is choosing sustainable and organic fabric, chemical free natural dyes or working with our tailors and ensuring our clothing meets the highest of design standards, we pride ourselves on creating clothing that our customers will cherish as much as we do.
As sales grew, we found ourselves facing a challenge. We were averaging only one garment made each day. Our production was unable to keep up. As orders piled up, we realised we needed to come up with a solution that would help us ramp up our production without compromising on our quality.
Interestingly, the solution to this particular challenge came through Abhishek’s (co- founder) previous experience of spending some time at a car factory as part of his engineering studies! During this time, he observed that new cars were not manufactured all at once. Rather, the cars were built in stages, with different teams working on different parts of the car. Each car, suspended from the factory ceiling, moved slowly along different ‘stations’, where it was meticulously fitted with doors, wheels, engine, windows and all other parts by teams of people and machines working together — each contributing their own part to the whole. This meant that an entire car could be assembled in just under six hours!
But what do the techniques used for mass production in factories have in common with a homegrown business looking to prioritise quality? As it turned out — quite a lot!
While we couldn’t suspend our half-finished garments from a claw or put them on a conveyor belt, we took inspiration from how the cars were assembled – part by part. We began to look at each garment from a different perspective. We no longer saw a shirt as just a shirt, but as something made up of collars, sleeves, pockets and various other pieces each quietly playing their role. A sum of parts, creating a whole.
We approached our tailors with a new idea – could these ‘sub-units’ be sewn separately? Despite having their doubts, they agreed it was worth a try and got to work. We made a batch of collars and a batch of pockets. Then, we cut the sleeves and other parts of the garments, and finally, our master tailor pieced all these carefully crafted parts together into a series of beautifully finished clothes. In just one day, we dramatically increased the amount of garments we were making.
What’s more, since each aspect of the garment was now receiving focused, special attention rather than being scattered by working on the whole piece at once, the overall quality of our garments improved as well!
Now, whenever a new design makes it off the drawing board, our tailoring team is the first to suggest ideas for how the garment could be assembled most efficiently, and our innovation continues.
As a homegrown business starting from the ground up, we are forging our own path, discovering new solutions to age-old dilemmas— solutions that work for us. Sometimes, when you’re driven enough, passion will find innovation, problems will find solutions, and challenges will get resolved. This willingness to slow down, to delve deep into a challenge and remain open to alternate ways of thinking and seeing the world, is what keeps us thriving.