Rewind: JCP visit!

We have to rewind a few days to talk about our JCPenney visit!! It was FANTASTIC! A huge thank you goes out to Tom Gorski at our Dallas office for connecting us with the Mr. Adil Raza, the Vice President and Regional Director of South Asia, Middle East, and Europe.

We were able to tour the JCPenney offices and meet the wonderful people who work there. Peggy even got to meet one of the ladies she corresponded with while at JCP in Dallas! Mr. Raza shared with us his role overseeing all aspects of JCPenney's business on this side of the world and also shared his outlook on the direction of the garment manufacturing business in the next ten years. As the wealth of the current labor force increases, business will move to poorer parts of the world. He believes a lot of manufacturing will remain in Bangladesh for at least 10 years because they have a huge population to sustain it. After this eye-opening meeting, we were able to see two of the nearby factories JCP works with: Sarla Fabrics - a fabric dying and printing factory, and Shahi Exports - India's largest garment manufacturer.

Sarla works with many top apparel companies such as H&M, JCP, Zara, Target, Wal-Mart, and GAP, and we even got to see 60,000 meters of material being printed for GAP! We were impressed by the many processes the fabric must go through PERFECTLY in order to pass color, hand feel, and strength tests. Every little step has to be precisely calculated, closely monitored, and perfectly executed! We know from experience how precisely designers check these aspects, so it's incredible that these factories can deliver! After a brief Q&A over some delicious Dominos pizza, we proceeded to Shahi Exports.

Shahi produces apparel for companies such as Hugo Boss, A&F, Calvin Klein, JCP, Kohls, H&M, Target, and Zara. Mr. Rohit Kaushik, Divisional Merchandising Manager, showed us around and answered our many questions. We toured the factory and saw all processes from pattern making, cutting, embroidery, sewing, approval, and preparation for shipment. Seeing how each of these steps occurs on such a huge scale was enlightening...the seemingly small decisions we make as designers, such as changing the color of one stripe on a plaid, creates quite a bit of work in the factory! It was helpful to hear tips from Mr. Kaushik on communicating clearly.

Out to dinner at the Great Kebab Factory

Dinner with Rajiv's family.

Hello tourist.

Peggy attempting to help the ladies at Sahaj!

The gorgeous sunrise over the Ganges.