Behind the Scenes of Quaintrelle
If you had been following me way back from my Little Miss Pinay Crafter blogging days, you would have already known that sewing is my first - and still is - crafting love. I tell my students that textiles and sewing is my main form of art. I used to produce a few clothing lines before under the label, Quaintrelle. I would sketch a few designs, work with a local seamstress to produce the clothes, and then sell them online and in a couple of holiday markets.
First of all, why Quaintrelle, you may ask. Quaintrelle is defined as a woman who emphasizes a life of passion expressed through personal style, leisurely pastimes, charm, and cultivation of life’s pleasures. I feel that the word truly embodies the Provenmille brand and way of living - one that is creative, driven, and inspired.
And so when I set out to produce clothes, I knew that the clothes that I would produce are ones that would reflect a quaintrelle.
I took a pause from producing clothes for a few years until 2019 when I felt an urge to pursue it again. This time around, I wanted Quaintrelle to be purposeful and sustainable. I had read and learned a lot about the harmful effects of fast fashion and I knew I did not want Quaintrelle to be another contributor to environmental degradation. This time around, I wanted Quaintrelle to be mindful in its production no matter how slow the process may be.
From 2019, my time has been spent learning about creating a sustainable fashion business via the Factory45 program. I learned that it was perfectly fine to launch a fashion business with just one product. I thought about this particular dress design that I attempted to launch several years ago and decided that I still like to design to this day. To me, it was a lovely dress to throw on and go pursue one’s dreams and slay the day - very quaintrelle.
I decided to stick to this dress design as I went through the program. I worked with an unbelievably good pattern/sample maker here in Japan and she helped me to further improve on the details and, more importantly, the fit of the dress. I am absolutely in love with the fit of the dress and the subtle details we added to the dress and I can’t wait to share them all with you!
Finding the perfect fabric took quite a while. I wanted fabric that was comfortable to wear but still had enough structure to hold up the design of the dress well enough to still look put together when worn. I decided on Japanese cotton because the quality and feel of this fabric is off the charts. I looked through different fabric swatches before deciding on one and went ahead and ordered my sample yardage. I also decided on coconut buttons instead of plastic ones because they are strong and rigid and kind to the environment.
After two rounds of sampling, I reached out to a potential production partner in the Philippines. There are two reasons I wanted to work with a manufacturer in the Philippines: first, I wanted to provide work to my fellow Filipinos especially as we are all still navigating this pandemic for a proper source of livelihood; second, I was firm in my decision that my production partner needed to be an ethical manufacturer - one that practices fair trade principles and provides a safe working environment for its employees.
As I write this blog post, I have just received the samples from my production partner and I am currently doing fit tests and quality control. If all goes well in that regard, things may just fall in place in time for a fall launch.
Quaintrelle samples in fall colors
Speaking of the launch, I plan to do so using a pre-order model. I will welcome orders for a period of time and produce only the number of dresses based on the pre-orders. From a sustainability standpoint, this will ensure that I will not be left with an excessive amount of unsold inventory after production. It will mean limited stocks and some waiting time but it will also mean that producing the dresses will be more mindful and meaningful.
If you have read until the end of this journal entry, I hope that I have made you understand and appreciate the slow and mindful way I have taken to produce this clothing line. If it piqued your interest at all, then please do continue to follow me on IG and FB as I share progress posts and sneak peeks of my Quaintrelle journey as well as this space where I will share the journey in more detail from sketch to launch. In the meantime, here’s a shot of my dress in a lovely green hue.
Won’t be too long now. Follow me from sketch to launch!