i haven’t written in about a week. much has been happening personally to preclude much detail for our petit couture blog. we have finalized much of the material for our sample preview which will happen this coming saturday. we’ll treat the day more like a ‘focus group’ of sorts where our guests will help us determine best features of our products, future direction, etc. we really hope to walk away from saturday with a clear understanding for ‘how’ our products are perceived, the gaps, feedback on pricing as well as competitive quality, etc. the rub….our samples just are not up to spec.

given this is our first manufacturing attempt, and managing this initial sample run remotely and digitally (in the future i’ll be based in portland so one of us will be actual eyes at press-time) we knew we would have some challenges overseeing quality. but, we – at length i might add – specified to the 1/8′ in some cases the level of detail we required for our final garments using line sheets (technical drawings of each garment). we even reviewed on two occasions screenprint techniques and signed off on the process’. but, even so….the end result isn’t up to par with where we need it to be. not even for samples. much of the post-production work (label sewing and ‘bling’ insertion) was done by hand. that said, our expecation is that it is done perfectly. however, the quality is inconsistent from garment to garment. tomorrow will not be a fun day unraveling this all and hoping that our screenprinting provider can right the wrong. our hope at this point is that they can re-run our order prior to our photographs. unfortunately, i know they will not be able to correct the issue in time for our very key preview. so, the show must go on and hopefully our friends and family who have been invited will see the vision, packaging, story and still be able to provide the feedback we so critically need regarding the vision and direction of our brand and initial line for fall 2009.

kismet sometimes comes in funny packages.