What Katie Did in India

I spent last week in India working on samples in
our main factory. Normally I go alone, but this year I was joined by wholesale
manager Richard who instantly fell in love with the country (although he's still
coming to terms with the traffic which makes London rush hour look like a quiet
Sunday afternoon drive). A lot of lingerie companies make samples in the UK
before going into production overseas. We find it a lot easier to work on
samples in the actual factory that will be producing the garment, that way we're
instantly aware of any problems that might arise: and generally there are a few!
Spending time in the factories we work with also allows us to get to know
everyone and get to know the manufacturing process. It really is fascinating
seeing everything being made: it takes 6 different machines just to make a
bullet bra!

One of the most difficult things when starting a
lingerie company is finding a reliable factory: especially when you start at a
tiny scale like we did. Although initially we worked with a British factory we
had lots of quality issues (when we complained we were told our customers were
too fat, causing seams to break - as a footnote the factory is no longer in
business!) As we were so tiny no other British factory would even talk to us.
We've been working with our Indian factory for nearly 10 years and now there are
about 22 people who work on What Katie Did lingerie exclusively (a third row of
machinists to the left hand side isn't shown).

We spent our time working on our AW11 collection (which  we're keeping
under wraps a the moment) and also revamping some of our Glamour shapewear.
Richard is so excited about the new Glamour additions that instead of waiting
for the launch of our SS11 collection, he wants them out as soon as possible -
all being well by the beginning of December in time for the party season.