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FRIENDS & MATERIALS: Bamboo Our first step towards ecological production is our bamboo collection. The bamboo raw material is ecologically produced in Sichuan, and is sent by train to Shanghai where we have a special dyeing factory that uses teas leaves, flowers and roots to dye the fabrics. The result is a color palette that is unique for Alice & Sens. The sewing is made in a small factory in the outskirts of Shanghai. Here Mr and Mrs Ji have run a small family business for a few years only. They want to keep their business small and are committed to work with Alice & Sens and develop themselves and their working methods with us. When we produce our clothes we stay in their home and discuss new possibilities and ways for our products. Cashmere We have worked with cashmere for five years in shanghai. We meet Mrs and Mr Chen on a market the summer of 2003. We became good friends and they told us about their small cashmere knitting factory. In the beginning they did all the knitting themselves and owned only one machine. 5 years later they are 10 employees knitting our cashmere sweaters. All our styles are knitted in their hand machines. We like to keep our styles nice, clean and simple enough for them to produce them on these machines. Complicated styles are made by automatic machines, thus only larger factories can make these. Mr and Mrs Chen rather give their profits to their employees than buying big automatic machines. Alice & Sens design and develop their new styles with Mrs and Mr Chen so that they can still make it in their small business. We are faithful to our friends and as our business grows it is important that they can grow with us. The cashmere is taken from inner mongolia where Mr and Mrs Chen has a relative who sends them yarn every month by train to Shanghai. Right now we are developing new dyeing ways for the yarn and we hope to be able to use our natural dyeing ways next season already. Silk Our very first business in china was silk fabrics and we developed a relationship with a superior silk printing factory in the very early Alice & Sens years. Since then we have completely fallen in love with all kinds of silk materials and beautiful silk prints. In our silk factory we found Meihong, our very first employee, which we are forever grateful for. Meihong is in control of all our production in Shanghai and she is since four years completely devoted to the Alice & Sens thinking. We are still good friends with this factory and keep on developing silk prints and fabrics together with them. For each new season we speak our mind through the prints, and we are working towards ecological and natural printing ways together with this factory. Close at hand is natural dyes on silks and also new silk blends with exiting new organically produced fibres such as soybean fibres. Leather. Two years ago we became friends with a man who\\\'s family make leather in the Henan province of China. Mr Gu and his brother has run a leather factory for many years. Mr Gu stays in Shanghai while his brother is stationed in Henan. Two years ago when Alice & Sens was in the process of developing an accessory line, we met Mr Gu and we discussed ways to develop leathers with him. Our first bags came out in 2007 and our plan is to develop new leather features for each year. 2008 our first vintage leather came out, a leather that looks old from the beginning. Next in line is to create leathers without chemicals and dye it with natural dyes and this we are planning for 2009. Stay updated with our work towards environmentally and ethically friendly work in Shanghai. We will be updating this page continously. |
