Most of our journal is written for models. This one is for the other people who write to us: someone with a label name, a few sketches and the question of what happens next.
Here is what happens next, in the order it happens, with the numbers we work to.
Start with the fabric, not the design
A swimwear brand is a fabric decision first. The cut can be redrawn in a week; the base it is cut from decides how it feels, how it holds chlorine and sun, and what it costs.
We hold twenty-four bases in stock for swim, active, intimates and nightwear, from a ribbed swim knit to a Chantilly-style stretch lace. Ninety-five per cent of our fabrics are recycled, which for swim mostly means regenerated nylon. Stock colours are cut the day your purchase order lands. Anything outside stock comes in on a seventy-metre roll, which is worth knowing before you fall in love with a colour that is not in the library.
If your brand is built on a print, that is made from your own artwork. You send the file; the print is developed and run on the base you have chosen. Custom print and dyeing sit under the same roof as the sewing, so there is no second supplier to chase.
What to have ready: which garments you want (a triangle top, a one-piece, a bandeau set), the colours you want them in, and your artwork if there is a print.
The first sample: one week
Once the fabric and the style are chosen, the first sample ships in a week. That is the number on our home page and it is the number we keep to.
A sample is a single garment, made properly, in your base and colour, so you can see it, wear it and send it back with corrections. Fit sampling and corrections are part of the service: the sample is not the final answer, it is the first question.
You can also sample from our ready-design range. Every style in the catalogue can be re-cut in any base or colour, and a sample of any style ships in a week. For a first label this is the fastest route: pick a style that exists, change the fabric and the colour, and the first sample is yours.
What it costs: sample fees are listed per style on our Range section and in our launch packages, in US dollars, as one-off fees separate from the unit price.
The minimum: 100 pieces, 20 per size and colour
Our minimum is a hundred pieces per order, and twenty pieces per size and colour.
Read both halves. A hundred pieces across the whole order means you can split it between styles: forty of one, sixty of another. Twenty per size and colour means each size you offer, in each colour, has to reach twenty. A one-piece in three colours and four sizes is twelve combinations, which at twenty each is two hundred and forty pieces, not a hundred.
So the practical first order for a new label is usually two or three styles in one or two colours, with the size range kept tight. You can add colours in the second order once you know which sells.
Bulk: six to eight weeks
After the sample is approved and the order is placed, bulk production takes six to eight weeks.
Everything in that window happens on one floor: pattern making and grading, cutting, sewing, finishing, labels, tags and packaging, and the export paperwork if the order is leaving India. Our capacity is over ten thousand pieces a month, so a first order of a few hundred does not wait behind a larger one.
Add the two together and a label that chooses its fabric this week can have a sample next week and stock in two months. That is the realistic timeline, and it is the one to plan a launch around.
Labels, tags and the parts you forget
A garment is not a brand until it has your name in it. Woven labels, hang tags and packaging are part of the production line, not an afterthought, so bring your logo files when you bring your artwork.
If you do not yet have a logo, or a look, or photographs, that is what our launch packages are for: branding, design and sampling, and photography, priced as one-off fees for brands launching with us. They are separate from the unit price, and we quote them together if you ask for a combined launch quote.
How to order
There is no online checkout, on purpose. Bulk orders are placed on a call.
If you are choosing from the ready-design range, our catalogue page lets you build the order first: open a style, enter the pieces per size, and the page checks the hundred-piece minimum as you go. Then you request a call, and we phone you within one working day to confirm price, sizes and delivery. Nothing is paid online at any point.
If you are starting from your own design, use the quote form on the home page and tell us the garments, the quantity and the timing.
A first order, worked through
A label launching with two styles.
- Week one: choose a swim base from stock in two colours, send the logo and the print artwork, and sample both styles. Samples ship in a week.
- Week two: wear the samples, send corrections, approve.
- Week two to ten: bulk production, six to eight weeks. Two styles, two colours, four sizes each, at twenty pieces per combination, is three hundred and twenty pieces, comfortably above the minimum.
- Alongside: launch photography, if you have booked it, shot on our floor with released models.
Two to three months from fabric to stock, with one supplier to call.
The questions to ask any manufacturer
Ask us these, and ask anyone else you are comparing us with.
- What is the minimum per order, and per size and colour? Both numbers matter.
- How long is a sample, and how long is bulk?
- Is the print done in-house or sent out?
- What share of the fabric is recycled, and can I see the base before I commit?
- Who makes the labels and the packaging?
- Do I pay anything online, and when is payment due?
Our answers are on the home page and the catalogue, in the same words as this post. If an answer you get elsewhere is vague on the minimum or the timeline, that is the answer.