We are not a big shiny factory. We don't have vastly experienced veterans of the lingerie trade working with us.
We are a tiny factory. Our current designer is a (brilliant - she will go far) student who is teaching as she learns.
We do not have decades of experience and knowledge.
What we do have is a bucketload of enthusiasm, a huge waiting list of women who want jobs, a fantastic sewing team, a huge dedication to providing you with as many good pants days as we possibly can, and a treasure trove of reclaimed fabrics that we'd like to turn into pants.
And so, because we don't have people here who can *look* at a fabric and know how it will behave, we fit test and wear test rigorously.
What is a Fit Test?
When we make a new SHAPE - eg, Aimee, Cecilia, Rosalind - we make up first patterns and samples in a range of sizes in any old combination of fabrics and threads. We (a number of us in the factory) try those on for a few moments, sometimes longer, to make sure they FIT correctly, in the same way as the rest of our Pants. If we're used to wearing a 12, do they feel like other 12s. If not, the pattern gets tweaked, another sample made, another test done until we are happy. This can go round and round a load of times. it's time consuming - but we want to get it right.
When we have signed off the patterns to say 'yes these feel like they match our sizing across all sizes' we move onto making samples up in the actual fabric combinations we will sell.
And then we Wear Test them.
You might have seen me tweet about this at times. A Wear Test is where a person gets given the Pants and a form. They wear them all day (unless we're in a hurry and sometimes I'll do two in a day). At the end of the day, the tester fills in the form. Were they high enough at the front/back? Is the lace comfy? Did they stay put?
Can you IMAGINE the day when you wear test something that's NOT ok? The team laugh at me when i say that on a Wear Test day I am working from the moment I put my Pants on but it's true!
All these forms come to a Production Meeting. The ideal situation is that all Pants are loved and signed off immediately but if any questions are answered with a NO we discuss them, and the process starts again.
We don't sign off any Pants until we are 100% happy that they fit like out others, and that they have that forgetaboutability we - and you - so want.
And that's the way we do it.