Inside a High Fashion Factory in China

No, here it is! All girls!

Black Q, legendary factory producing for the likes of Alexander McQueen with relationships spanning over 15 years. Today we get a look inside.

This way.

It actually looks legit.

I think, I think good.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Okay, my name is Q-U-I.

Yeah.

I was born in Vietnam.

How long did you stay in Vietnam for?

Around 11 years. We moved to Germany after the war. My family are textile business and then everywhere is fabric and then we try to love fabric, touch fabric, try to sewing some garment, you know, when I was a kid. In the fashion, we don't want to— how to say— we don't want to do any easy, simple job in our company. Yeah, because we love fashion. Fashion is running. For us, it's hard to walk, but we love to do it. Yes, and I have the dream, like styling. I'm Asian, but I've gotten Western. I'm studying fashion, and maybe I can do the bridge between Asia and Europe.

So you came from fashion. What made you want to get into manufacturing?

Good question. I start from the design. This one is UV light. If I put in the sun, The color come out. And then they change to the buyer. This piece is special because we do for one of our friends. This is Heidi Klum silk. You want to try on? Yeah. Sir.

Look good?

Very cool. And then it's very interesting to me. Not only do the sketch, only calculate it. Also have to know how to work, how to shipping and how to talk for the factory. And this may make me year to year more interesting. This is my favorite brand. We work with them many years. They are flexible t-shirt. They are good. They use 100% cotton organic.

These bomber jackets are really beautiful, really cool, nice zippers.

That's why we do this production in our Poland factory.

If you source the fabric, something similar, what would this cost?

Good quality is better, €80.

You guys are clearly experts in the puffer jacket. You've done so many different styles.

This one is down, real down. This one, very special technique. This one is hand spray. MOQ? €300.

€300. So this jacket is absolutely nuts. It has like a Yeezy-esque feel to it. Beautiful cotton fabric. Where's this fabric from?

Import is from Japan. I think similar brand, talk about IC 100.

What about this? All gorgeous tape seaming on the inside.

Yes, this is normal tape, also waterproof, but this one is more special. This one we do the same technique but with the PU tapping, and this is more interesting. Beautiful. Yeah, very nice.

And so what's the cost for items like this?

70 to 100.

If somebody sends you fabric, yes, are you guys willing to do like 100 unit of something if they send you custom fabric? It's a complicated piece.

It's walkable, it depends on the season and what kind of partnership, you know. You just asked me, hey, we had me do one of the Thank you, bye-bye.

No, no, no, doesn't work. It needs to be a relationship.

Exactly. This jacket is double face, handmade wool cashmere, long hair. The button, I remember, is made from nut.

Are you serious?

Yeah, sure. This is cotton wool, and here's no any sewing.

Yeah, no sewing, all seamless.

It's beautiful. Yeah, you don't see the seam inside.

Yeah, yeah.

When you wear, you feel very comfortable. This one is, uh, should be 100% cotton, cost around 20 2, 25 maximum.

Are you able to change how big or small the holes are?

Easy, easy.

That's just the gauge of the fabric, right? Where are your factories?

Our first factory is China, the second one is Poland, the third one is Vietnam, and the last one is Madagascar. China, we do— we focus a lot on HR fabric. Poland, we are strong on the tailoring, number one, because of all history. They start a lot with tailoring.

What would be— what would be the cost for something like that?

15 The main fabric they brought to you? Yes.

Because it's from Italy?

This one, Italy. This one is special case.

I understand.

But mostly it's China, Asia fabric here. One thing that Will and I noticed too in the past few days is how much you understand really well what these brands that you work with are trying to do. How much help do you give the brands? Sometimes I see the textile, I understand some designer why they do it. Yeah, if I see this one is a lot of cost, so it's more effective, then I give them this, the option B. In the fashion, we have two product. One is development, one is production. We get the design from our our client, then we start by the design, we do the pattern. This is the first pattern assembly room.

So these are the pattern makers, and their job is to create templates of the clothing so it could be mass-produced. This means creating the shapes of each of the individual panels so that they can be sewn together to make the finished product. The pattern maker is responsible for making your t-shirt fit either oversized or really tight to the body cropped, however you want it.

So now after the pattern, we go to the assembly room. Our assembly room have 5 workers, and based on his pattern, they start to cutting and then sewing the first piece. Here is some garment what we assembling at the moment. Placement, trim, piping. So very nice.

I have a question. When a client offers multiple sizes, do you make a sample for each size first before—

Yes, the first sample we do mostly S or M depending on the client, and after they finish the sample, then we We start with the size set. After sample finish, pattern okay, then we go do the production cutting. Uh, every day we cut different fabric. Today I see we cut, uh, Plissy placement. We use the laser positioning.

That's why there's the lasers over there.

Yes.

So you make sure you cut exactly at the right section for every single garment, right? Is this, is this a custom fabric?

So they give us the design, we print.

Okay, so you guys do custom printing on the fabric?

Yes.

So you turn this fabric over here into this pants.

Wow.

Beautiful.

This is our production line. We have different product depending on the quantity. We fix the production line depending on the product. The product more easy, then we have the short production line. The product very long, then we enlarge the production line. We are flexible on this.

So depending how complex the product is and how many steps, you adjust the production line.

Exactly. Every step, every stitch, we need an interlining.

So that When you sew, the fabric doesn't move too much.

Exactly, before we shooting.

That way when you sew, it's precise, it doesn't move.

It's not moving, you know, always straight. And this is the cost they cannot see. This is a pen line with 2, 3 person. So the line today very short because the quantity short. Also, product is always changing. This is the nature fabric. After you cut in production, then it's like this. Nobody touch. All spring. Yeah. And this fabric is so smoothly. Always moving. Yeah, that's very difficult to control. This pan, we finish the waste pan inside.

This is the inner waste pan. Wow, very clean, eh?

Yeah. Hi, hello. This is the finishing section. After they finish all the trim, then the final product, they— we hanging here. And you see some garment we hanging and then inspection. If they find some mistake or some dirty mark, then they clean here.

They're very good at details. What is this spray over here used for?

This is kind of chemicals that to clean the garment.

Quality control is constant.

Yeah.

And then when everything is said and done, where do we go? Where's the last step?

After this one finish, then we go to ironing. They iron, you have to see the iron machine. Sometimes they don't press the garment because they just go above, right? They go above. And because when we do the steaming step, we already iron the first step. That's why here they don't need to press very strong.

Once ironing is done, Finished.

Then we move to the packing. Yesterday we ship our lot of production. Today I think they not do it. Oh, sorry. Before the packing, they have to put the hang tag, the sticker. This client has put in the label. The last section is over there after the finished one finish, and then they hanging here. And it's depend on the client. Some of them we ship by hanger. Then we just packing for pack and wait for the truck come.

And then we load them on the truck and everything's loaded up on these lines. It's so neatly organized here. So perfect.

Yeah. You know, if you do something from beginning to the end perfect, then the final product come out is perfect.

Do you frequently get complaints from customers or almost never?

Of course, I can't say no. Sometimes yes, but year to year less and less because we understand where we need to focus point.

What do you look for in a new client?

The new generation, the look is different. I didn't say the old one not good, but you know, you want the fashion, it must be new, fresh, interesting. What I wear 10 years before or 5 years before, completely different would be today.

Right. What has changed in working here 15 years ago versus today?

Okay, so at the beginning and until now, if we talk about difference, then maybe the qualities. As you know, BQ before running for the media class, and now we're running medium to high class.

And what about in terms of people? Has she seen a lot of changes?

Yeah, some is, some is newest, of course. Yeah.

Amazing. All right. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Very good.

We have to develop. The product is the same, but the look, the style, some detail is different.

It's about brands that can reinvent themselves all the time.

Yes, I think it's very good. We also the same. If you come to my office today and next year is different.

Right.

Yeah. We also have to understand we want to We want to keep young, we want to keep more professional, we want to keep more innovation. We have to change ourselves or improve ourselves. And this is interesting to one, the fashion.

And what's the name of your factory?

Black Cool. Black Cool. Thank you. It's okay.

One more time.

Too strong. Thank you, very nice talking to you.

Pleasure being with you.

Good play, Will Larsy. The cow knows that he's fucked. Hey! Hey, baby!