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Written by Jean-Emmanuel
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Monday, 18 September 2006 |
As you probably already noticed our online shop is now open.
The shop includes all the Women's collection for Winter 06/07. Men's collection will follow shortly ...and maybe some other products...
If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us!
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Written by Hilda
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Friday, 15 September 2006 |
Our products have just been delivered to a first series of shops. You will find the list at "Where to Find Us?". The list will grow little by little ...
=)
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Written by Hilda
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Wednesday, 13 September 2006 |
Aside from the follow up of our first production, the second objective of my mission in Philippines was the preparation for our Spring/Summer 2007 collection. This morning fedex finaly delivered the prototypes. The box is here and Wow !! I am so glad to see them finally. Well i dont know if the people of our shop just wanted to suspend even more my excitement but I have never seen a box tighly sealed like that. I spent around 30 minutes just to open it. Well my long wait is over and i will say it is well worth waiting! But of course I won't show you anything of the collection now...you will need to wait, just like I did!
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Written by Hilda
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Thursday, 07 September 2006 |
Well, after months of conceptualising, designing, preparing the prototypes, buying the materials, cutting, sewing, washing, packing and transporting the long wait is over our Autumn-Winter Collection has finally arrived spiced up with some adventures at the Customs (I was advised over the phone that "if i dont have the CO, the customs will destroy my shipment" Well as they say, "What a bloody day!!")I spent wonderful and unforgettable moments in the workshop with our sewers and I would admit that that I'm truly proud of our products.
Well, there's nothing left but to deliver them!
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Written by Hilda
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Saturday, 02 September 2006 |
After my 4 month mission in Philippines, Im finally back home. To be honest about it I have mixed emotions when I left the atelier. I was both happy and sad. Happiness because I am glad to be back home and to start marketing and selling our products. But at the same time I was really sad to leave the people that I met there in the atelier. How many times we have shared lunches and dinners, of laughter and tears (when we all get sentimental) and tons and tons of stories of our lives that we have shared with one another. I will surely miss that. I am sure they miss me too (I just got their phone call the other day). If I were to assess my 4 month mission it was a success, for we have accomplished our objectives: we have met new suppliers and partners that have same vision as our project (and got their commitment to help), we have given opportunities and jobs to 6 couturiers and we will be adding 2 more this month. And of course not to forget the quality of our products (we have supervised the production) and worked on for our new product line. We will be updating you more about the happenings in the atelier in our next blog entries and definitely our activities here. Thanks to all the people in Philippines who helped me during my 4 month stay: thank you so much to all of you!!
During my farewell party
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Written by Hilda
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Saturday, 12 August 2006 |
There we are, almost finished: we are now doing the last finishing and quality control. All the finishing and a part of the embroideries are done by hand. We worked a lot with Joe and the sewers in roder to achieve a very high quality. I must admit that I am very proud of the output: I have never seen shirts with this level of finishing in any shop! You will be able to see by yourself once you will see them in the shops in September...
The last embroideries thanks to the incredible skills of Norma:
Last finishing:
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Written by Hilda
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Tuesday, 08 August 2006 |
Despite the fact that we are late to produce our winter collection we still find some time to have fun!
We did:
- A smile competition with the kids of the neighborhood.
- A do-not-break-the-needles competition. Norma looses, but she has a good reason: she is the one in charge of embroideries! Well she still deserves a penalty =)
- A do-not-disturb-Joe-while-he-is-busy competition. Dang is loosing...well, yes, that's my nickname...
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Written by Hilda
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Friday, 04 August 2006 |
I have not written for three weeks because I my schedule was a little bit hectic. In bulk: administrative work necessary in putting up the sewing workshop, to search high and low to find the necessary parts of the sewing machines (a machine, that breaks down, etc!), to prepare the logistiques of the production, to seek new fabric suppliers, to prepare the prototypes of the next collection, to find a washing machine (not too expensive), a dryer (not too expensive either!), to re-examine with Rose, our coordinator, the organization of the workshop so that it can run smoothly even without me, to widen my network of contact in Philippines… etc But the most difficult part was that we took a little delay in the production. Fortunately, the other dressmakers of the neighborhood came to give us a hand and all returned in the order: we will probably finish the next week, which will enable us to as project delivering to the shops beginning of September.
In all, with the reinforcements that we have, we are a little bit overcrowded at the moment: ten people in the workshop. Without counting of course some neighbors who drop by from time to time to give a little hand. It is really amazing to see to at which point all the neighborhood tries to implicate on this project and whats even more interesting is to see that even if we just started, we already created an impact to these families to live better.
As a gratitude to all these people in the workshop without which I never imagine to finish on time, I prepared a delicious dinner of my secret knockout recipes!
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Written by Hilda
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Monday, 17 July 2006 |
What's happening right now in the workshop?
Well...we are embroidering flowers...
Flowers again...
and some more flowers...
We are also preparing the prototypes for our 2007 Summer Collection...but that's classified top secret at the moment!
=)Write Comment |
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Written by Hilda
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Wednesday, 12 July 2006 |
After a very busy and tiring week in our atelier I accepted an
invitation of a friend who's a mountaineer and an adventurer buff to
do a trekking. I met my friends at around half past four because i needed to be in the atelier until afternoon (saturday is our payday and we often use it as an opportunity to have a small lunch together) and the plan of my friend was to do a night trekking. Trekking by night, in the mountain, in the middle of the jungle...the idea sound funny put not really the king of leisure time I was hoping.
Since it is already the start of the rainy season in
Philippines there was heavy traffic everywhere so on the way we
decided to have some short break to taste the specialty of the this
town of Batangas (Lipa): some rice cake mufins and some lomi, a kind of noodle served with a sticky sauce. It was worth a stop the food was really good, they are even prepaing them in front of you as you order them. We reached the foot of the mountain at around 9 in the
evening. Mt Maculot in fact was favorite training trek for
mountaineers, its slope is supposed to be easy enough for
beginners (that's what they claim!!). After registering to the
Municipal Hall (for security reasons), we started trekking at 9:30, our guide told us it will take normally 2 to 3 hours to climb it. Well in fact we were really not preparedas a result we ended up walking in the dark, guided only by the flashlights of other people. It was really impressive to walk in the dark like that with for only light the flashlights of other climbers and some beautiful clouds of fireflies along the way. You could only hear the noises of the forest at night: the birds, different kinds of insects...and some unidentified noises! I must admit I felt scared ! We walked like that for hours, seeing nothing neither in the back nor in the front and with only the night breeze touching you and the smell of the forest.
After an hour we decided to do our first stop over and when our guide told us to look back i saw the beautiful lights of the cities like millions of fireflies gathered down there. We finally reached our destination at midnight, shocking though that there were already plenty of trekkers who were installed at the summit. The ambiance was very gay and hospitable and we chatted a little bit before sleeping.
We spent the night there and
we woke up at 5:30 am, unfortunately that was too late to see the sunrise. Our disapointment was soon erased by the beautiful scenery fronting us. We were on the top of the mountain surrounded by lakes and you could even see the Taal volcano (known to the Filipino as the "smallest volcano n the world") from afar and on the other
side the beautiful sea of Batangas. It was a beautiful morning. We went down an hour later after a short breakfast (of rice but of
course!!). Second amazement: since we climb at night I never realised how beautiful this forest was. The vegetation changes everywhere: wild flowers, wild orchids, some fruits like papayas, avocado, mangoes and of course hundreds and hundreds of coconut. I saw differnt kinds os bamboo, from the big ones to small ones, to ones that climbs and clings to one that is like a very giant tree. It was not a bad idea after all to do this night trek: I will do it again as soon as possible!
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