Here is a brief summery of the visit.
The shop tour starts with a visit to the designers workshop, here, a pattern is cut in size 40 only. Once the designer is happy with it, it is computerized and adjustments are made to produce a digital pattern for all the sizes required. In the same office, the cutting pattern is made. A laser guided cutter that rolls on rail tracks, 3 large cutters travel back and forth between 6 tables. As workers ready the roll of cloth while one cuts and back and forth the cutter rolls. The cutter who prepares the table for the machine travels the length of the table on an automated buggy allowing to move about the huge tables without taking a step. Two suits are cut at the same time as these allows less fabric wastage. The cuts are planned so tightly that a jacket in a solid toned fabric can be done with 2 sq. yards of cloth. There is a rule that if an efficiency of over 86 percent usage of the cloth is not possible, the cut is halted. The fabric costs in this shop are 60 dollars a yard at the highest end.
The woman who lay the fusing down on the fabrics slide it through the oven on a fast moving belt, another team bundles the pieces on exit and send them off to the line. Most of the stations are fed by baskets that wind their way along the shop feed by an overhead belt. Every machine has a counter, and the women do not stop to speak say hello as the did at Oxxford or Kiton.
Today I witnessed the low end of the high production scale. The seams are aligned top and bottom and clamped in place then fed through a machine that sews the entire seam in seconds, then feeds the sleeve unit to a machine that folds it half and hangs it to be sent on to the next stop. Many of the steps are managed in this fashion with the operator only setting the piece in place and the stitching done by a machine that runs up the seam like a buzz saw.
A belt brings the jackets along to the button station and the jackets are not removed to sew the button holes and buttons. The sleeve reaches the machine and the operator just pulls the sleeve over to the machine and four holes and buttons are attached in a few seconds. The conveyor belt will loop around and come back along the other side of the operator for the left sleeve to be sewn on another machine just inches to the left of the other. Working button holes are done in the same fashion but require a different machine as do metal buttons.
A staff of three hundred produce a daily goal of about 1000 suits. As I walked the floor the digital readout showed the staff the morning goal was 395 and actual production was standing at 324. Problems arise and a few operators told me fabrics with heavy patterns and odd colors slow them down, “they take forever!” said one button operator.
We saw their first entry into Chinese hand made suits.
A mock up revealed horrible hand work on the collar, the lapel was machine sewn, but we were told it was “hand padded”. This was part of the visit that left me with more questions than time allowed. I could not pursue this venture further at this time but hope to return just to speak about the Chinese made goods. Some are saying that in the very near future, Chinese made suits will rival the best of Europe’s. This was not what I was witnessing.
The company did not try to pass their goods off as hand made, production is key, fusing was spoken about openly and they stated they could never take the time to do the hand sewing that Samuelsohn does, they high lighted twice the fact that a Samuelsohn cost about four times what their suits wholesale for.
While certainly not my cup of tea, the visit was enlightening and certainly made me further appreciate those who view a jacket or suit as a piece of beauty, not just peice meal.
Automatic seam stiching machines:
No hands required once the seam has been postioned.
Three types of button machines are used, metal, regular and wroking.
Regular sewn on buttons:
Metal Buttons:
Suit sections being sent into the fusing oven:
Automated pockets sections:
Pressing:
One side of this machine presses while the other side is loaded. Note the laser dot to align jacket position.
Laser guided cutting machines waste next to nothing:
