News

We at Tribute are very happy to announce that we have made a sales agreement with one of the best coat manufacturers in the world. With their factory located in the heart of Istanbul and their studio headed up by their Japanese designer in Italy, this really is an international operation with technical skill and creativity in abundance.

We will be selling their products in the UK. Further more technical information will follow shortly.
If you would like to arrange a meeting to discuss this or our Chinese operation please feel free to contact Will
will.catlin@virgin.net

New Coat Fabric Collection (part 2)

In the second part of our introduction to the new winter coat fabric collection we concentrate on the more luxurious articles. This doesn’t have to mean the use of noble fibres, although they are well represented, it is more about the drape, lustre or finish that has to be achieved and this is very well illustrated by the fabric used in the garment shown in the picture. This style uses a wool article blended with viscose and polyamide (but you would think its cashmere) with a weight of 550gms linear and a price of around $10.00 per meter ex Shanghai. There is usually greige stock ready for dyeing so we can offer quick lead times.

The common theme running through the plain articles are the pressed finishes giving a sophisticated look that lends itself well to military or cocooning styling be it a fine 100% wool or a cloth with 10% virgin cashmere content.
In contrast we have a small group of longer pile articles such as a boucle using mohair that gives a tufted effect or a cut item that gives a diamond self pattern that has an alpaca content.

Further products will be added to the collection later in the season.We also have a sourcing service should you require a specific fabric to be found from our extensive portfolio of mills found all over China, but in the meantime if you would like to see the collection as well as examples of our garment production please get in touch with Will; will.catlin@virgin.net and he will be happy to arrange a meeting.

New Coat Fabric Collection (part 1)

This is the first of two posts concerning our new fabric collection.
We have really tried to focus on getting the right articles in place. Quality rather than quantity and this season that means the emphasis is on the right finish and weight combined with value for money and flexibility of supply for this section of the collection.

The first main group consists of wool/poly/viscose blends all coming in at a weight of around 490gms linear per meter. There are plain articles with slightly drawn finishes, semi-plains ( see picture) weave effects, especially herringbones (see picture) as well as a variety of check designs. These articles lend themselves very well to the smarter city look and cost around $6.00 per meter ex Shanghai

The second important group is a small selection of recycled wool articles. These are all plain items that have different finishes including melton, drawn and velour. Available for sampling in a wide variety of shades these fabrics are very competitively priced, starting at around $5.00 per meter ex Shanghai and with a 2000m per colour minimum.

Concluding the value end of the collection we have a quite an amazing fabric. With a composition of polyester/viscose/elastane, this is a faux melton cloth with a super soft finish helped by the elastane in both warp and weft. At a weight of 560gms it has a price of just over $4.50 per meter ex Shanghai with a minimum quantity required of 2000mt per colour. It is piece dyed so you can have any solid shade you like and with greige stock ready to dye generally available we can normally quote a 3week lead time for production.

Remember we can sell you the fabric on its own, or to take advantage of even more competitive pricing, you can buy a complete garment package from us.
If you would like to see or discuss our collections please contact me on will.catlin@virgin.net

A second post will follow soon talking about some of our fabrics using noble fibres.

So here we are then at the proper launch of our blog and twitter. We hope that you will enjoy our posts; they could be about anything that our business gets involved in, from colour trends, trade show reports, fabric collections, buttons, or prototype samples we are developing, whatever takes our fancy really. We are also fairly opinionated so expect us to spout forth from time to time on any issue we think needs airing.

The first topic on the agenda is something that has been bothering me for years and at last I get a chance to get it off my chest. Actually it would be more accurate to say decades as I first encountered this problem when working as a trainee sales rep for a London based Textile Agency back in the eighties. The company represented many textile mills from around the world which meant that one day I could be pounding the streets with suit cases full of knitted fake fur from Austria (I hated the stuff) and the next with a collection of Italian printed swimsuit fabrics or perhaps it would be some Brazilian denim or Spanish colour woven shirtings which all made for an interesting and varied working week. Trips to visit the mills themselves were invaluable experiences as there is nothing quite like seeing (and hearing) hundreds of looms in a weaving shed or smelling a dyeing and finishing department to enhance your understanding and so after a few years in the job I had a fair amount lodged in my brain that I could impart to my customers.

Recently a free magazine dropped through my letterbox and whilst flicking through the glossy pages I came across an article about a group of colleges that had put on a fashion show for 700 guests. Several pictures of students modelling their creations accompanied the report. To say that the work on show was poor would be an understatement, in fact describing these monstrosities as items of clothing would definitely fall foul of the trades descriptions act, these things resembling the output of a pre-school nursery session with lashings of crepe paper and glue. This took me back the three decades or so to when the phone would ring in the Agency office and I would listen to the voice explain that they were doing their final year fashion show and desperately needed fabric so could we spare a few meters? We would receive many such calls and each conversation would go something like “what sort of fabric were you looking for?” …..pause….”err, I don’t know, fabric”……”woven, knitted, plain or printed?”…. err it doesn’t matter I just need some fabric”

So my question which appears to be as valid today as it was way back then is; what do fashion colleges teach their students? How can a garment designer even contemplate achieving a satisfactory result if there is no thought or understanding of the main component that will be used in the making of that garment, i.e. the fabric. This may seem harsh and of course it is a generalisation and I have no experience of what the system is like outside the UK, but seeing that recent magazine article suggests that there is still a problem with design students finishing their courses with huge gaps in their knowledge which cannot be a good thing for our industry.

Your comments are welcome.
Will.

Lining Development

We like the idea 0f a border design printed lining. Something to work on.