With Kate on a much deserved summer holiday the blog has been quiet. My apologies. Stephan however has been raving to me about a screen printing club in Dalston, London that we should write up. Set up in 2007, Print Club allows members to use their well equipped studio to produce posters, t-shirts, art prints, etc. More after the logo…

Print Club is a great way for designers and illustrators to get their hands dirty and they run one-day beginners workshops to teach the basics of screen printing. They are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and they are well equipped. They have six screen beds, two t-shirt carousels, a t-shirt dryer, Apple Macs, storage facilities, a washout room and a large exposure unit. £90 a month gives members unlimited access to the studio and 9 hours pre-booking time per week. They supply the facilities and members supply ink, paper, emulsion,and screens.

We think it is a great idea! If however you need t-shirts printed and don’t want to go down the DIY route, of course Indigo Clothing are always on hand to supply both garments and the printing service is super-quick time.

]]> http://www.indigoclothing.com/blog/print-club-london-waterbased-screen-printing/feed/ 0 http://www.indigoclothing.com/blog/uniqlo-phenomenon-grows-in-europe/ http://www.indigoclothing.com/blog/uniqlo-phenomenon-grows-in-europe/#comments Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:19:59 +0000 Alex http://www.indigoclothing.com/blog/?p=1414

Japanese fashion brand Uniqlo was eagerly welcomed by Parisians this week, with customers queueing in the rain to lap up products from the new store.

With the recession hurting luxury brands, Uniqlo is well placed in the fashion market and it’s profits may jump as much 23% as a result of the economic climate and new product development.

[Via Bloomberg]

We have been notified by a number of our suppliers that due to particular market forces they have had no alternative but to increase prices on a number of their products. Although some products are increasing in price, there are also several styles that have been reduced.

There are a number of reasons why these price alterations are coming into force:

• A weakening of the Sterling currency.
• An increase in distribution costs.
• A rise in the cost of production on the back of the escalating oil prices.
• An increase in the price of cotton.
• The fluctuation and upsurge in the Chinese currency and rising labour costs.

Amended prices are applicable from the 1st July 2008.

We hope this does not cause too much inconvenience and if we can help in any way, please don’t hesitate to give us a call.

The famous actor and director, Woody Allen, is suing American Apparel for more than $10m (£5m) after the US clothing company allegedly used his image on advertisements without permission.

According to the Guardian newspaper:

American Apparel claimed “the image of Allen dressed as a Hassidic character alongside Yiddish text was meant strictly as a social parody”. It added that the company sometimes used billboards “for non-commercial social and political commentary.”

Indigo Clothing offer the full range of American Apparel items and t-shirts including their organic cotton collection, which can be customised with your logo or design.

This weekend sees the start of the annual Printwear & Promotion Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham (Sunday 2nd to Tuesday 4th March).

It is a time when all the brands and suppliers get together under one roof and people plod along the aisles with carrier bags full of promotional clothing catalogues, samples and free biros. We didn’t go last year (in fact I had a bit of a rant on this blog about it) and we are not planning to go this year (and Sunday is Mother’s Day too!).

To all our friends who are going – enjoy – we’ll see you sometime soon.

Jo was interviewed for Company Clothing Magazine’s feature entitled, ‘Magic of merchandise‘. View the PDF on their site.

UK based PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) company, Bladerunner, a clothing manufacturer that specialises in equipment for the police and security services, often incorporating a Kevlar lining in their clothes, has just released a GPS tracker jacket for kids. In this ever security-conscious world, I can see a demand for such kinds of products, but it is sad such a demand exists.

Indigo Clothing does not stock these items but does have a range of children’s hi-vis products in kids sizes which we supply to schools and youth organisations.

[via talk2myshirt]

According to the press release:

“The Quayside Group has purchased the assets of SAF UK ltd, one of the UK’s leading supplier of ethical and organic clothing.
…
Michael Conway, Managing Director of Quayside commented “Organic clothing is great for the environment and great for the customer. It is a rapidly expanding market and we intend to make SAF the leading organic clothing brand in the UK. We will improve customer service by increasing stock levels and ensuring faster delivery times”. “

Indigo always offered SAF organic clothing but, in recent weeks, we had removed the product from our site due to concerns over stock and supply. Now that the brand is under new management, Indigo will look to reincorporate it back into our range as we always loved the quality of the SAF t-shirts.

This is a new exhibition at Brighton & Hove Museums (free admission) which documents the history of our favourite colour!

Indigo: A Blue To Dye For, a survey of the world’s oldest and most distinctive dyestuff, is a major exhibition of art, craft, fashion, and design featuring historical and contemporary indigo-dyed artefacts from around the world.

Indigo: A Blue to Dye For
29 September 2007 to 6 January 2008
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery and
Hove Museum & Art Gallery

25-27th Sept 2007, NEC Birmingham

Indigo will be visiting the National Incentive Show at the NEC later in the month. According to the trade show’s website:

“The National Incentive Show is the UK’s most established event for the incentive, motivational and promotional marketing industry.This is a must see event for anyone in search of products and services to attract new customers, drive sales and reward employees. If you are an Marketing Professional, Agency Professional, Brand Manager, HR Professional, Executive Secretary or PA then you should visit this show!”

We aren’t exhibiting but if you are around and want to say ‘Hi!’ then drop us a line.

For fashion fans out there this may be of interest:

Camouflage Exhibition – 23 March – 18 November 2007 – Imperial War Museum, London

The first major exhibition to explore the impact of camouflage on modern warfare and its adoption into popular culture.

Find out how and why a revolution in camouflage occurred during the First World War; how teams of artists and designers were employed to conceal and distort everything from soldiers to battleships and how camouflage concepts and designs have influenced contemporary art and fashion from street-style to couture.

There has been a flurry of eco/ethical/organic posts on this blog of late, but nothing in comparison to miles of column inches in the press at present. I hope we aren’t overdoing it but the green issues that face the apparel and promotions industry are the most exciting thing to happen to it since someone decided to call a couple of pieces of cotton stitched together, in a ‘T’ shape, a t-shirt.

Of course it is not just our industry that is affected – the implications of eco-consciousness will reverberate throughout the triumvirate of politics, economics and sociology. If we agree that this movement is fundamental, it is perhaps inevitable that the PR and marketing people will look to utilise and manipulate the message for their own ends. I’m a capitalist, I realise that this is a probable consequence and see no hypocrisy in people both supporting the green movement and profiting from it. You may call it a win-win situation for the free market economy and the world.

I therefore disagree when I see statements in literature from one of our organic suppliers, Continental, stating:

‘We think it unethical to exploit ‘ethical trading’ as a marketing tool.’

Philip Charles, MD, Continental Clothing Company

‘Ethical trading’ will only grow if marketeers promote it and utilise it in their arsenal, and of course when Continental send us organic t-shirt samples and price lists, what are these to be called if they are not marketing tools used to promote sales and generate profits?

I do have a key caveat though, and in credit to them, I think this is what Continental really mean, and it is the concept of ‘Greenwashing‘, a pejorative term that critics use to describe the activity of giving a positive public image to putatively environmentally unsound practices. Talking with friends and colleagues, they can instantly name examples of this phenomenon: “Talk about that rubbish Shell ad with a man, his son and a straw,” said one unnamed source from the West-End (he is scared of the power of oil companies)!

Herein lies the problem. Greenwashing engenders cynicism, a dangerous by product of poorly conceived ethical marketing. To quote Whellams and MacDonald (2007):

“If consumers come to expect self-congratulatory ads from even the most environmentally backward corporations, this could render consumers sceptical of even sincere portrayals of legitimate corporate environmental successes. Thus well-meaning companies, companies committed to responsible behaviour with regard to the environment, have every reason to be critical of companies that greenwash.”

I think we are at a defining moment in this movement. When Selfridges and Hindmarch start doing what they are there is a risk that a pivotal point will be reached and this rapidly growing bubble will be deflated. In the mean time it may be worth investing in green tech stocks on AIM?

Indigo printed the t-shirts for London College of Fashion’s ‘Is Green the New Black?’ campaign and it is great to see that Vogue, the top fashion magazine, is supporting the campaign by running the story. More about the campaign on our previous ‘Is Green the New Black?‘ blog post.

Today is the last day of the three day Printwear and Promotion Show (P&P). Despite having written this year for the magazine of the same name, I couldn’t bring myself to traipse all the way up to the NEC in Birmingham and stand in a draughty hall collecting business cards. It is the same every year, I register for tickets, I never go. Why? Well here are my key reasons this year:

1. March is the start of the busy season; phones are red hot, the email server bulging. Why not do the show in January?
2. It is in Birmingham (enough said).
3. If I want to speak to our suppliers that exhibit I normally pick up the phone. If I really want to talk to them we have lunch.

I am not completely anti-trade shows, considering only yesterday Jo and I popped into Sports Merchandise at Chelsea FC, but they are a tedious experience that Google and a telephone have made less relevant in modern business.

Maybe next year?

The Independent are reporting today that on-line clothing sales are up:

Internet sales of clothing have passed the £1bn-a-year mark, despite customers not being able to try things on before they buy.

Mintel reported a five-fold rise in sales of clothing and footwear on-line since 2001 and a 44 per cent surge to £1.4bn last year. More…

Certainly looking at our on-line sales at Indigo over the past year, this growth statistic seems realistic but the article’s conclusion that the growth is down to greater broadband penetration seems simplistic and does tackle the psychology behind on-line clothes purchasing decisions. We would argue that basic items such as t-shirts and hoodies sell well on-line as customers have fixed expectations of the product, whilst specialist, technical and fashion items still suffer from the fact that people need to ‘touch-and-feel’ before making a buying decision.