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Ahead of the new year, I travelled to China via Hong Kong, along with our Production Manager Tam, to meet with our suppliers including our makers and fabric mills.
We stopped in Hong Kong on the way over as it’s one of my favourite cities to visit. It’s a dynamic and vibrant city which is a far cry away from my home life in Mount Maunganui, I always feel energised and inspired after spending time there.
Poised and considered, Hong Kong is a convergence of the world’s cultures, industries and people. Everything from the infrastructure to the fashion, the shopfronts to the interiors are thought through and cleverly designed. We stayed at the Tuve Hotel, a boutique space in Causeway Bay: A smaller hotel than others, I keep returning to the Tuve as it’s an interesting and aesthetically pleasing experience in a great location which doesn't follow in the same suit as large chain hotels. Just down the street, there’s a Michelin Star restaurant called Sister Wah’s that we stumbled upon on one of our walks. I love the contrast of sitting on crates at shared tables with locals in a casual and comfortable setting while dining on the most incredible food you could imagine, the dan dan noodles were delicious.
From here, we went to China where our main focus was to meet with our makers, visit our factories, go over new production and to source new fabrics and fibres for upcoming collections.
A hive of activity, huge apartment blocks and hotels sit atop green gardens and parks. We stayed on the 60th floor of our hotel and despite having been to China before, it always takes me aback when I see the expansiveness of the city set amongst rooftop gardens, plants all along the motorways and green parks in the middle of the city.
Visits to our factories and makers is always a great experience. We work with suppliers who share our vision and the innovation coming out of these partnerships is incredible to see. One of our fabric mills presented us with an upcoming fabric made from real roses. The cloth truly smelt like roses too! There was also a cotton blend with aloe vera. Both exciting fabrics I'd love to share with you in garments soon.
Working only with natural fibres has its challenges and what is offered largely comes down to consumer demand. It’s more expensive to produce natural fibres so there have been limitations around availability and cost, however this trip was a great reminder that there is a want and a need for more considered options and the developments in the space are very exciting.
Partnering direct with fabric mills also allows more access to a greater range of fabrics and while deadstock fabric, which simply means leftover fabrics which may have been over-ordered or overproduced, isn’t anything new in the fashion industry, a new partnership will give us the opportunity to use a wider variety of deadstock. This means new innovations, prints and textures all the while ensuring nothing is going to waste.
After being back on the ground in China, I felt excited, invigorated and inspired about our future collections and what’s to come for both Marle and the fashion industry as a whole.
