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ΕλληνικάCASE STUDY
Case study 1: Lanificio Bisentino and Manifattura BIG
CONTEXT:
Lanificio Bisentino is one of the historic textile mills of the district of Prato. It has a 70 year experience making luxury wool fabrics and up to this very day collaborates with a network of qualified suppliers to implement a sustainable production practice.
Lanificio Bisentino is a historical company, witness of local excellence, but also pioneer in the interpretation of new trends. With its accessories division, now Manifattura BiG, it specialized in the use of sustainable natural fibers and regenerated material. Manifattura BiG produce accessories for the most prestigious brands in the world.
DESCRIPTION
Lanificio Bisentino and Manifattura BiG are sensitive to the needs of smaller brands and designers. Wherever it is possible they try to support them with their dedication of time at tradeshows or within their company and production site, free samples or the activation of collaborations.
This is slightly simpler for the textile mill, as they may have stocks of fabric the has already been produced available and the costs connected to offering this is smaller quantities are limited.
For a company specialized in production of accessories, such as Manifattura BIG this is far more complicated. The production of new accessories is very complex and it is not so simple to start production on a project from scratch. Every new project comes with quite some costs associated with it; this makes working with small designers and emerging brands almost impossible.
What Manifattura Big does in these cases, is to support projects they particularly like. They expect an email with a professional presentation of a project, the moodboard, designs, exact ideas of where the brand is going, who they are planning to target and what they need from their production suppliers. If they are enthusiastic about a project they may chose to support it and to help with production.
LESSON LEARNT
Don’t give up, don’t let a first no from one supplier get you down. Be professional, organized, interesting and convincing. Be prepared to pitch your project, be prepared to convince suppliers to give you a chance and invest in you.
Case study 2: Texmoda
CONTEXT:
Texmoda is a textile mill of the textile district of Prato, with a more than 40 year experience making luxury wool fabrics The production is entirely Made in Italy, using only first quality raw materials and selected third party companies.
DESCRIPTION
Texmoda Tessuti is very sensitive to sustainability, ecology and the respect of the environment.
The mill takes part to the major textile fairs throughout the world, showing their innovative and sustainable collections. The production is entirely Made in Italy, using only first quality raw materials and selected third party companies. Texmoda nowadays is well known in all national and international markets and work with many of the major fashion industry players, this is why their days at textile trade fairs are extremely busy and they often don’t have time to sit down with smaller brands and emerging designers.
What they offer instead is access to their online catalogue where all their existing textile samples and stock are available for consultation.
LESSON LEARNT
Don’t despair if you don’t receive all the info you need at a trade show, companies are more than willing to help you out with online catalogues, visits to their productions sites and their local agents and showrooms.