Behind the production - Visit to the sewing factory in Bulgaria

Ecouture uses exclusively European sewing workshops in Poland, Bulgaria and Lithuania.
In this blog post, you’ll be joining us on a visit to the Pronto Moda sewing workshop in Bulgaria. I’ve just been there. Our proximity within Europe means there’s close dialogue and easy access to visit the workshop to prevent production errors and ensure high quality, and now you, the customers, are going to meet some of the people who have sewn your clothes.

I just don’t get it, Johanne – why do you need to work with several sewing workshops? Well, you see, it’s to spread the risk a bit! If I were to use just one sewing workshop, and it were to close down, for example, Ecouture would be paralysed and everything would be delayed, because it takes a while to establish a good workflow with a new place. I’ve actually experienced the opposite once last year, when one sewing workshop was suddenly swamped with work and had to throw in the towel. They sent the whole lot back to me – but then I was able to pass the order on to another workshop for production. Some of you, dear readers, may have experienced this as a delay to our pre-order – but we did get them in the end! ;)

Pronto Moda – A small, cosy sewing workshop

Pronto Moda is a small Bulgarian sewing workshop that handles the tailoring of most of our jackets and coats. It is small but really cosy, and is situated right in the centre of Varna. When I visited, they were putting the finishing touches to our Isolde winter jackets.

When we arrived, we had to go round the back to get to the lift; I’d lugged a LOAD of stuff with me. Of course, we bumped into the pair of porters. They were a bit annoyed that I had to come in through the ‘ugly’ entrance, when they have a lovely reception entrance on the other side of the building! We promised them we’d go out that way :)

A tour of the sewing workshop

First, a ‘tour’ of the sewing workshop, which takes up one floor of the five-storey building. Both the cutting room and the sewing workshop are in the same room. On the other floors, there are other small production workshops. Yana, who owns Pronto Moda, is – in my opinion – absolutely lovely! She told us about all the benefits of being housed in the same building as other small clothing production businesses. They help each other out, for example by lending each other various expensive machines, so they don’t all need to own every type of machine (such as buttonhole machines, which are only used very rarely). Sometimes they actually help each other out with production too, if things get too busy. It’s really clever and very sustainable for small production workshops like these!

Here is a short video from the workshop: IMG_6806

I told Yana and her pattern maker about four or five new projects I’ve got up my sleeve… And I think they’re both very talented and a pleasure to work with. So I’m looking forward to our future collaboration…

My usual way of working is to start by making a sketch, then a draft pattern, from which I sew a sample. At that stage, I’m still designing and making minor adjustments. But I must admit that I’ve gradually accumulated so many commissions that I’ve just started working with a lovely seamstress, Marina, who helps me sew the prototypes. She has her very own little sewing room in the courtyard, where my design studio is also located, so yes! A tiny bit of the production actually takes place in Denmark;) We’re sewing the first prototype using the exact right fabric – partly so I can see how it drapes and behaves, and partly to ensure there’s no room for error when the design goes into production. I’ll be sending that sample to the sewing room, because whilst technical drawings are useful, they’re still quite easy to misinterpret. Yana’s having a bit of a laugh at all my explanations and notes right now :)

Next, a look at our production. Pronto Moda also made the jackets last year, and we only had to sort out a few minor details before production began, so the quality will be even better this year. Otherwise, there wasn’t much to do here apart from having a look round and saying hello.

Almost all 12 of the South Americans were hard at work on our jackets, and I must admit it was actually a bit overwhelming to see just how many ladies I’ve put to work :) It really brings home just how many people depend on the value chain of every item of clothing that I produce and you buy! It’s very eye-opening to see with your own eyes what responsibilities you have as a manufacturer.

Each of the ladies is working on a process to streamline production, and being a production seamstress is hard work – even though the staff here enjoy a cosy atmosphere in the small sewing workshop and are treated well, with decent conditions, a good working environment, breaks and holidays. They’re always incredibly busy. And we manufacturers are always breathing down their necks, because we want our goods delivered as quickly as possible! On the other hand, it’s not a high-paying job, and the sewing workshops are typically located in countries where wages are already low – after all, the production cost will be reflected in the price of the finished product.

So it’s hardly surprising that there isn’t much manufacturing left in Denmark!

But actually, quite a few people ask me whether we manufacture in Denmark. And, more generally, there’s a lot of debate about bringing manufacturing back to Denmark. But I don’t believe in it. It’s easy to work out that clothes would end up costing at least double what they do now if a Danish minimum wage had to be paid – on average, one woman can sew one of our winter jackets in a day, perhaps a little longer. But it’s a fun thought experiment… Because what if we paid more for our clothes and bought less, thinking more carefully about what we want and what we actually need? If those working in the clothing industry were paid more, and we manufacturers simply produced less. Then the whole world would actually be happier – and not least Mother Earth! As I said, I’m afraid I just don’t believe it will happen. In fact, it may well be that the clothing industry is quietly moving out of Europe altogether as living standards rise – at least judging by reports I’ve received both in Poland and here in Bulgaria: The current seamstresses are all getting on a bit. Young people aren’t interested in becoming seamstresses. They want to earn much more money than you can in a sewing workshop. Nor are there many training programmes left where you can learn the craft properly (at least when it comes to the slightly more difficult tasks). At our sewing workshops in Poland and Bulgaria, they reckon it’s likely to be difficult to recruit new staff in 10–20 years’ time. Unless, of course, wages are raised – and they aren’t. Instead, manufacturers are moving their production to other countries where average wages and the cost of living are still low…

Kind regards, Johanne

Photographer: Peter Mark (my husband;)