Sampling: the first real garment in your cloth.
A sample is the thing you fit, photograph, show to buyers and sell from. It is also the reference every unit of your production run will be measured against, so it has to be right.
Sampling is where the pattern, the fabric and the construction meet for the first time. Everything before it is preparation. Everything after it is repetition. This is the point at which a design either works or quietly does not.
Sample development
We take your pattern — ours or somebody else's — and make it up properly in your chosen cloth, with the trims, fastenings, linings and finishes you intend for production. The result is something you can touch, fit, photograph and cost accurately.
We tell you when something will not work
This is the part designers come back for. If a seam will not sit in that fabric, if a fastening will pull, if a construction detail will double your production cost for no visible gain, we say so at sample stage. It is far cheaper to hear it once, from us, than to discover it across a hundred units.
Comments and revisions
You comment on the sample, we revise, and we repeat that until you sign it off. Most garments settle in one or two rounds. Once approved, the sample becomes the reference for bulk — everything in the run is checked against it.
Collections and lookbooks
We sample whole collections as well as single styles, including the press and photography samples that have to look immaculate on camera. Tell us your shoot date at the start; it usually drives the schedule more than the production deadline does.
Trims, fastenings and sourcing
Buttons, zips, linings, interfacings, labels, packaging — we can source these or work with what you supply. Getting trims decided at sample stage rather than after approval avoids the most common cause of production delay.
Quality control and delivery
Every run is checked against the approved sample before it leaves, and we can arrange delivery door to door rather than you collecting. We work across the whole range of quantities, from a handful of pieces up to large volumes — tell us about your product and your brand and we will talk you through the production options.
Straight on to production
Because the same people who sampled your garment will cut and make the run, nothing is lost in translation between the two stages. See production runs.
Things designers ask
What is the difference between a toile and a sample?
A toile is a prototype in cheap calico used to check the fit and correct the pattern. A sample is the finished garment in your real cloth, with the real trims, which you can photograph, show to buyers and sell from.
Can you sample from a pattern you did not cut?
Yes. Send the pattern and the cloth. If we spot a problem in the pattern we will tell you before making it up.
How many revisions are normal?
Most garments settle in one or two rounds of comments. Complex construction sometimes takes a third.
Can you source the fabric and trims?
Yes, to your specification and budget, or we can work entirely with materials you supply.
Do you sample whole collections?
Yes, including press and photography samples. Tell us the shoot date at the start, because it usually sets the schedule.
Will the production run match the sample?
That is the point of the sample. It becomes the reference for bulk, and because the same studio cuts and makes both, nothing is lost between the two stages.
Other things we make and mend
Send us a sketch or a spec
We will come back with a price, a timescale and any problems we can see coming.