You must have all seen the material from the dress of those celebrities on the red carpet. Some of them are specifically attracting your sight, since they appear in different colours in different angles, and that their dresses flash and twinkle when they move.
Assuming you want a few yards from your local fabric market, how do you call those materials in front of the salesperson? Satin? Twinkle Satin?
Different stores may have different name, for us we call them Two-tone Satin.
According to their yarn and weaving structure there are other two-tones such as Two-tone Organza and Two-tone Chiffon.
So what actually are they? For starter, two-tones were fabrics woven by two different colour of yarns in weft and warp direction.
The two colours could be contrast to each other or in similar tone which, in a sense the whole piece of fabric will thus create a “shadow effect” in motion.
Two-tones are designed for the luxury looking of evening dress, couturial fashion, performing costume, accessories and so on. If you are applying them on small parts, they could also serve as a secondary fabric which effectively strengthen the specific part.
If you would like to know more, tell us your thought and raise any questions to us. We are happy to share with you our experiences and ideas!
Cheers~
]]>Recycling fabric? or Stock Fabric?
There is no doubt more and more people are concerning environmental sustainability in the garment and textile industry. As one of the most polluting businesses in the world, textile mills are seeking ways to produce more environmental friendly fabrics some years ago - which is now called “recycling fabrics” today, and is adopting by big name players in the garment industry gradually.
In the coming year of 2022, we will launch our new eco-series for designers who want to join us in saving our environment. You may check out here.
However...
Producing these recycling fabrics are costly. Along their supply chain - from the collection of discarded clothes and plastic bottles, to documentation on each production steps for recycling certification, monetary terms are everywhere. High costing is then becoming a concern to fashion brands and labels, after all, businesses have to take care of their balance sheet, or at least not making loss for their season collections.
As a result, we want to promote a better sourcing concept – STOCK FABRICS.
Stock fabrics, or we called “stock” in this article, is not a new born idea in the garment and textile industry. Back to the time in the 90s, textile mills are weaving tonnes of products that are countable in containers – because people are richer and more willing to spend money on their dressing. Excessive yardage are remaining in garment factories due to different reasons, say, damages or demand miscalculation. These yardages will finally move to retail shops or other production sites for a smaller design programme in a discounted price. And at the end, different parties would enjoy a lower cost, or have a lesser loss by utilising most of the stocks.
Most people may have a negative feeling against these stocks, but most of the time, veteran merchandisers and designers would rather happily, and proactively to search for them and fit in their garment programmes. In fact, not all of these stock are “old-fashioned”, “damaged” and “stained”. Quite oppositely, you might be well benefited by following points:
“Sleeping beauties” be the vocabulary described by Mr. Romain Bravo, an LVMH’s expert in material purchasing and manufacturing, after he realised the value of stock and trying to use them more after his detailed understanding of textile market status.
Unlike newly launched products, stocks are not the stars or focused items at the beginning of season. These older clothes were introduced and exposed in front of the camera in the past years so they are gradually being forgotten at the corner of the warehouse. Same to the damaged stocks (or we called “B or C grade fabrics”) that has slight flaws on the surface, they will be missed out because garment factories are not able or difficult to use them. But at the end of the day, they occupy space and owners will try to put a price cut on them for sale. In this case, small labels or even domestic tailors could spend less in your material part, so as to ultimately becomes more competitive against big players.
Unlike recycling fabrics, although there are still lack of import regulations concerning the use of “stock fabrics” in the world (In fact, it is also very hard to define stock even such regulations exist), you are ACTUALLY reducing waste for our planet! Imagine 18 million tonnes of clothes were thrown away by end consumers in 2020, imagine an even larger amount of raw fabrics were disposed without processed into garment products, just because they are in excess or having an evadable damage/flaw by proper trimming.
Say you are launching 10 styles, 20 pieces of dress each for your new season collections, you are saving about 500 yards of stock from the landfill – equivalent to 40 - 100kgs of waste depending on your material chosen. 100 designers around your area, 10 tonnes will be well utilised.
To being “more eco-friendly” in this recession time after Covid-19, you are not necessarily sticking yourselves on “recycling fabrics”. We invite designers to take a deeper look at these “sleeping beauties” and try to revitalise them in your fabulous designs, and we trust your dresses will make no differences or even outstand those which is made of mainstream materials.
Our vision as greener fabric supplier in Asia
In 2021, we have 49 degree Celsius in West Canada and 18 degree Celsius on the land of Antarctica. With extreme weather become more common, Yau Yuen is eyeing ourselves to become a greener fabric supplier by providing recycling items and quality stocks for fashion labels in Asia. With our 2 million yards of bulky inventory in our Hong Kong warehouses, the project will cost lengthy time.
We seek your attention and support in the future and hopefully we could stay together and protect our Earth!
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No, we are not talking about the “Triacetate” fabric you mostly heard from the fashion magazine. Let’s discuss it further in the future.
And yes, this time we want to talk about the traditional acetate – the one which started its usage from the 19th century, and mostly related to its famous lining usage.
As E-commerce is getting more and more popular these days, you may probably receive a “damaged” fabric from internet store. But is it really unusable? In this article, we will give advices on how to check your newly purchased acetate fabric from online, and also how to deal with some potential flaws or problems.
Acetate lining from fabric store
Acetate is one of many textile compositions, and basically a good choice of making fancy dresses – but there are some notes to take. We will recommend you to check and care by focusing on Acetate’s 4 major disadvantages:
Easily ripped
A well woven piece of acetate fabric should not be ripped easily, especially when it is checked and dispatched by the fabric store. Briefly look at the edges of the clothes and you will not find it hard to spot out the damages. If there is one, notify the store and follow their returning policy if applicable.
Wrinkled easily
Similar to above, the fabric store should make sure it is in good condition, or have your awareness and consent about any flaws before dispatching.
If you receive it, unfortunately, with wrinkles because of logistics or other reasons, ironing is never your first choice to flatten your acetate – it could be burnt or melted easily. Treat it as any delicate fabric, for example, hanging it with a hanger overnight and it should be fine. Your will save your iron only as the last resort, and remember to set it to low heat, apply under a damp cloth, then press gently during the process.
Colour fading
In normal condition, no colour fading should happen upon receiving the fabric, but when it does, make sure it is minor enough which will not affect your sewing work.
Slight discolouring might happen sometimes, but if it fades evenly across the whole fabric (luckily), rather than scattering as spots or areas, then we suggest this piece of acetate fabric is still usable – of course, it is best used as lining rather than an exposing shell fabric.
Sour, vinegar-like odour
Lastly, check its smell. Acetate fibres could give out a sour, vinegar-like odour after preserving in years – especially in hot and humid area. But don’t worry our Asian friends, we recommend you to unfold and lay the fabric on somewhere cool and ventilated (it should be good enough to lay on your working table). The odour will gradually disappear and getting back to its original status after a few days, you will then be able to use it as a new one.
Acetate fabric is delicate, but it is still regarded as a good material to create gorgeous dresses today. After all, it is made to replace silk with a cheaper price at the beginning and holds a lot of good properties.
In this very late era of fast fashion, textile industries is highly saturated. Since 90s, fabrics were produced in excess and many parties like garment factories and fabric store were overstocking. On the other hand, new items are less frequently introduced by textile mills than before (it makes sense in order to reduce waste, garment and textile is regarded as the most polluted industry in the world), so we take this chance to encourage you to make good use of stock fabrics, in order to make our lovely planet sustainable – they might have some flaws, but when you know how to deal with them, they are still "sleeping beauties".
Hope it helps you!
]]>What do you do when you obtain your newly ordered fabrics from the fabrics store? Yes, to wash and iron. However, inappropriate handling would murder them that you would have to start the process all-over again!
In this article, we will share how one can flatten and clean your polyester fabric just bought from the store and get them ready for your sewing work!
Flattening
It is not uncommon to find folds and wrinkles on the fabrics. But ironing them like you do on your cotton T-shirt would likely to cause disaster. Here are the top 3 ways to manage them properly:
1. Steamer
Steam is the best solution, if you have one. The steam could achieve the flattening easily, while protecting the fibre from direct contact of the hot iron soleplate.
2. Gentle heat with damp cloth
If there is no steamer in your place, this is another safe way to flatten the folds.
- Use low heat of the iron, while placing a damp cloth on the fold.
- Press the iron against the fold and move on it repeatedly and gently.
- Check in between some seconds to examine the flattening status.
Repeating low heat transfer and the use of damp cloth can both minimise any potential damages caused by high heat.
3. Gravity
The most natural and secure approach for perfectionist especially to those with light-weight fabric.
A very light-weight polyester organza (such as our FS-2020) can be revived by simply hanging it up and letting gravity do the magic! The fabric weight when pulled by gravity will gradually flatten the wrinkles.
If you are not very patient, you may apply some weight at the end of the fabric to speed up the process. However, you must beware of the mark left by the clamps!
Caution!
Never apply high-temperature setting on the fabric, especially to polyester or any other synthetic fabrics. High temperatures will inflict permanent damage to these oil synthesised product by melting, bubbling and partial shrinking.
Washing
Polyester fabrics come with a low shrinkage rate between 1.5% - 3.5%, i.e. they do not shrink when washed by water. So the same worry when using wool, cotton, and silk won’t be a concern here.
However, to those who were advised to do pre-shrinking before your work and you insist to complete such step, then here are the tips:
1. Hand-wash / machine-washing setting
Be gentle to the fabric and avoid vigorous twisting to the fabric. If possible use hand-wash, otherwise use the hand-washing setting in the washing machine.
The key is to prevent twisting damage during the washing process. This is particularly important for fabrics that are light-weight and thin.
2. Low heat drying
In case of using a dryer, set the temperature to low and run one cycle. Remove the fabrics from dryer at once after the cycle, because when they cool down completely, the wrinkles will sculpture on the surface. Hang them properly to remove the remaining moisture.
3. Hang drying
Placing them on the hanger for drying is good to dry and at the same time removing the wrinkles!
Now it is all set! The fabrics are well ready for your great work!
Thanks for reading this and please kindly share with us your experience and comments!
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當您看到這篇文章,您應該和我們一樣經歷了那可怕的Covid-19抗疫年。不管您是時裝設計師、服裝師還是做手作的家庭主婦,甚至是做場景佈置,家居裝修… 恐怕會有一個感覺 – 好像越來越難找布料了… 嗎?
事實上,近年來世界各地紡織行業的經營模式正急劇改變:香港市場因為大陸的競爭越來越多布行倒閉,大陸則因為如淘寶等電商的競爭白熱化而開始抬高布料價格,歐美國家則更依賴中國、土耳其等國家的紡織廠在Ebay, Amazon等的直營銷售而導致實體店鋪經營越趨困難,而Covid-19更是加速了傳統布行的倒閉,上了年紀的老闆都紛紛擺手搖頭退出市場,於是大家的選擇也就越來越少。
早些年有同行的前輩講過一句話:不出5年,香港的深水埗將會消失的無影無蹤,現在看來前輩的遠見不錯。坐在螢幕前的朋友可能要想象一下:有一天您要到深水埗買布,然後發現… 咦?怎麼都變成了咖啡室啊?所以在您身邊的布料市場消失之前我們必須要學懂網上買布,那究竟從哪裡開始好呢?
如果您平常是從事設計或者採購行業的,相信您對淘寶這個平台不會陌生。是的,對我們香港甚至是東南亞華人社區的人來說,淘寶算是我們購物的格價和搜尋引擎。當然淘寶有其優缺點,比如說:比較普通質量的布選擇會很多,但如果要找優質一點或者有點特色的布,就會比較難找;平台用的是中文,因此會比較方便母語為中文的華人買家,但因為淘寶面向的市場主要都是中國大陸,所以要寄貨到大陸以外的地方,賣家可能會比較缺乏經驗;價錢比其他國家尤其是歐美國家便宜,但因為近年的淘寶商家競爭白熱化價格優勢正在慢慢流失。總的來說,如果您是初級買家用作手工DIY,可以先玩淘寶入門試試。
√優點:
-選擇很多
-暫時來說相對便宜
-方便華人找布
-有手機App
×缺點:
-質量參差
-價格優勢將會慢慢流失
-優質的或者特別的款式比較難找
-不太支援港澳、中國大陸以外買家
所以如果您懂那麼一點點英文的話,我會推薦您Etsy這個平台。這個早些日子被鋼鐵人Elon Musk加持過的美國網購平台大家可能比較少接觸。它最初號稱給手工創作者發售自己的作品,但由於手工藝離不開布料等原材料,所以近年也默許商家出售布料和輔料。
√優點:
-有手機App
-質量比較穩定
-付款比較方便,支援Visa/Mastercard/American Express等國際通用的信用卡、PayPal等支付方法。
×缺點:
-價格偏貴
-有機會碰上大陸發貨的賣家
-未必支援全球發貨(International Shipping)
當然除了上述兩個平台,我們還有Ebay或者Amazon,甚至其他國家的電商平台,比如台灣有蝦皮,日本有樂天等等。但由於這些平台暫時不太“買布friendly”,他們的介紹就留待以後再說吧!
除了電商平台以外,其實現在越來越多布行都已經架設他們的官方網頁,個別更加有購物功能,方便我們立即下單。
其中比較有名的有美國的Mood Fabrics,以外國網站來說它的種類算蠻齊全的 – 有Active Wear(運動料),Costume Fabrics(服裝料),Couture Fabrics(晚裝料),Craft Fabrics(手工料)等等等等,可見他們收藏量之大(不過價錢也不便宜就是了……)。
如果您懂一點日文,推薦您這個Tomato Fabrics,沒錯就是東京日暮里那一個五層高,裡面還有升降機的布行Tomato。同樣很多布料和輔料選擇,而且相信大部份都是日本織廠出品的,所以品質應該不錯喔。殘念的是他們好像只送本國國內,所以下訂單後可能要多想一步,就是找日本的集運倉服務寄回來,或者只能找日本的朋友幫忙了。
香港的朋友如果您們想支持本土的話,其實都有些選擇。
如果找時裝、婚紗、晚裝等比較亮麗的類別,那本網頁友源布行 (Yau Yuen Fabrics & Accessories)是個不錯選擇,95%以上都是日韓台灣進口,價錢也不貴。而且所有種類都有現貨,就算想親自摸過才訂購,都能隨時到我們公司來看。最重要當然是距離近,下訂單後兩天內一定收到布嘛!
如果找印花棉布這些比較悠閒的類別,我個人覺得布恩堂 (Fo:rest Fabrics)也不錯,他們主打日本/英美花布,而且也有售賣針線、剪刀、拉鏈等雜項,想做小手作的可以試一試。
最後如果要找輔料,比如鈕扣之類,我會推薦您們這家信記鈕扣 (Your-button),這個網站的鈕扣分類非常清晰,MOQ也只是3-4顆,還支援送貨到澳洲、英國,所以如果最近一些香港的朋友有考慮移居外國,你們都可以試試支持一下這家網店。
這裡也提醒大家一些網購布料最重要的細節,因為我們有可能會因為自己的不小心,在網購的過程中和商家造成一些誤會,又或者掉入一些商家的陷阱。
無論您網購什麼都好,尤其在做國際網購,通常都應該留意商家能不能直接寄貨到我們所在的地方。有直接寄貨當然好,但如果商家根本只是支援本國送貨 (好像剛才說的Tomato Fabrics),那除非能找到集運倉服務,否則後邊的問題根本不需要討論。關於不同國家集運倉的事,現在暫時不談,我們以後有機會再介紹一下。
有些貨品驟眼看似很便宜,但到最後結賬的時候才發現,原來還沒算運費。又或者你看到,欸,淘寶免運費,這次撿便宜了吧?但原來商家只是把運費轉嫁到產品單價上。這些都是不同商家的小技巧,我們需要細心一些才能看到貨品的真正價格。
這一點很直觀,因為在您付款的那一刻就會知道自己能不能買單。淘寶來說你可以用支付寶,用信用卡的話手續費稍高一點,而外國網站就通常使用Visa/Master/America Express這些信用卡。
以前網購的時候,會擔心付款後的寄貨情況,整天擔心自己付錢後商家會不會一直不發貨。但現在的電商網站就讓我們買家放心多了,通常都會有物流追蹤的功能,您可以隨時得知自己貨品的現狀,即使是商家忘記發貨,您都可以提醒他們趕快處理您的訂單。
看到這裡希望您不要生氣,其實不是商家要騙你的錢,恰好相反,他們是要讓您省錢。試想想我們要做的衣服如果需要三碼半的布料,而我們網購的時候卻只能買4碼,剩下的半碼也就浪費了。商家想解決這個難題,但因為大部分網頁不能設定“半碼”的按鈕,所以只好在備註寫上“1 Unit/一件 等於半碼”來解決。但這樣又容易引來誤會,而且部分黑心的商家會更過分地把單位調成0.1碼,好讓本來賣$20的布看起來只賣$2,以達到吸引我們去買的效果,所以這個辦法是有利也有弊,我們當消費者的就只能自己小心點啦。
第二,色差和手感。很多時候我們淘寶,收到貨後發現顏色會有些不一樣。如果說電話殼、衣服那些也就算了,反正便宜也可以用。但買布的話,用來做日常的創作甚至是用於工作上的job,顏色差一點就是一點,這個時候又不能退貨,因為商鋪的“退貨政策”寫了色差問題不退貨。您會說,怎麼搞的,明明顏色就不一樣,怎麼不讓退貨?
其實大家有沒有留意我們不同電話間的螢幕在顯示同一張照片有機會有色溫差的問題?比如說大家拜年的時候,長輩跟您要剛才拍的全家福,然後您傳送照片後他們會說:“欸好像你那一個手機的照片看起來沒那麼黃呢”。然後你看他們的螢幕,整個照片好像回到50-60年代那種黃。所以是的,雖然商家已經盡力把布料顏色拍好拍真,但我們電話載入顯示時還是會有色差,因此我們要學會接受輕微的顏色差,行內人會說,容許+/-5%,講的是Pantone裡面大約左右5個色階。
至於手感更是比較主觀的指標,即使一些商家很懂得拍照表達該款式的手感,還總是有人會在收貨的時候投訴布料比“想象中”薄了,太硬,色澤太閃亮等等等等。(這些事也不是只有買布才發生,對吧),遇著這些羅生門情況,就變得公說公有理,婆說婆有理了。
如果您日常經常逛布行,對布料比較有經驗和自信,單靠看圖已經能猜到80%的手感,那請放心相信自己的經驗吧。但如果您是做project,收了客戶訂金而人家對色調方面比較嚴格,那麼比較好解決的方法就是向商家先索取或者購買色辦,並在下訂單的時候指明要跟色辦和批次,就能90%解決問題。
第三,現貨問題。雖然有色辦,但現在很多商鋪的經營模式並不一定自己有存貨——商家會從比較有規模的同行拆貨賣給您,於是他們手上的色辦就有機會是從行家的貨剪來的。所以當我們向他們要色辦,隔一段時間後有可能行家已經把那款布賣完了,而行家把貨賣完以後當然不會告訴他們啊,於是我們手上的布樣就過時了,商家也因此不能夠交付一模一樣的布給我們,又或者他們根本沒有您指定的數量。所以我們最好可以先詢問商家夠不夠庫存,排好自己的工作進度,適時向網上布行取樣,並盡快落實訂單了。
總結
那讓我們現在為今天來個小總結好了:
首先,紡織業的商業模式正發生變化,雖然實體店在未來不會完全消失,但為了自己有更多選擇,應該開始裝備自己,學習一下網購布料。
其次,我們推薦了幾種網購平台或者網站:
平台:淘寶和Etsy,都找不到的話還可以看Ebay和Amazon。
布行網店:美國的Mood Fabrics,日本的Tomato,香港本土的友源布行、布恩堂、Your-button等。
外國布行會比較集中、齊全,香港本土則會比較分散,但同時間訂貨後等待時間不會太長。
最後,網購布料的注意事項包括: