It is unusual to manufacture here in the UK - that is fact. Until the 1990s - it wasn't unusual, but typical for clothes to be made here. With rising wages and new rules governing how this industry works in this country, things changed rather quickly. Suffice to say it's a hotbed of political opinion and not something i would often raise in polite conversation with anyone who experienced that change unless i had plenty of time to spare!
And this isn't a post about ethics or politics or pricing - it's about our lovely factory and our core values.
We currently manufacture the majority of our House of Foxy dresses, coats and trousers at a dedicated factory.
We have 4 sewing machinists who bring a variety of different skills and wisdom to the team. We mainly do 'through-work' which means that one person generally makes an entire garment rather than just a 'piece' of it. This - again - is fairly unusual. You will soon find special labels in each of the dresses - saying who has made your garment!
We also have a Pattern Cutter who looks after all our patterns and cuts the fabric for each garment. We use traditional methods and our patterns are on card and cut by hand.
Our Garment Finisher quality checks each garment, does all the hand finishing such as adding any of the trimmings and packs the garments ready to send.
Finally our Production Manager overseas the whole process and runs a tight ship!
Having a dedicated factory gives us the facility to create new products quickly and means that we don't have to resort to strict seasonal collections. I would find that too restrictive and since i get design ideas during the season too - this is ideal. This is a designers dream. We are extremely privileged to have a team of people who are so dedicated and get as excited as I do about all our garments.
It also gives us a great deal of control over quality - something that is really important. We aren't fast fashion orientated - we are creating clothes that we want you to love and enjoy wearing for many years.