Pima cotton and alpaca in September…
April has been a busy time of sampling and finalising new styles for the autumn. I can now reveal that there will be two new necklines coming in September: a deep V neck and a high neck. Both will be made in navy blue and black, two versatile, easy to style colours that you have been asking for recently.
I’ve been road testing the prototypes and ironing out the details over the last six weeks and I can’t wait to unveil them later in the year!
Both styles will be made of a yarn that is a blend of royal alpaca (the highest grade of alpaca fibre) and Pima cotton – one of the world’s finest cotton varieties, grown along the northern coastal valleys of Peru. In addition to being super soft, this blend of fibres mean the styles will be machine washable, making them easier to care for.
Incalpaca will once again make the styles with yarns sourced from Inca Tops. Both companies are located in Arequipa, Peru, a city with huge heritage and skill when it comes to manufacturing with both fibres.
The new STUDY 34 pieces will be made with a Pima cotton and royal alpaca blend
The styles will be knitted with three strands of yarn, making them a good weight for the cooler months, while retaining their breathability. They will keep you warm when it’s cold and cool when the weather is a little warmer… or when you’re sweating buckets before an interview. This is an underestimated and often overlooked quality that certainly puts my mind at ease.
Production orders are exciting and terrifying.
If you’re at all like me, you’ll work endlessly towards being your vision of a perfect customer for your manufacturers or suppliers. I want everyone I work with to think I’m the easiest and most accommodating person ever.
Not a great way to be when you’re running a small business.
When the smallest of issues arises, I find myself tormented between not wanting to be the pernickety customer who picks up on everything while at the same time, I certainly don’t want to be a pushover.
So I do as I always do: express my concerns politely, logically and clearly… and yet my stomach flips itself over in anticipation of a reply. A reply that will surely confirm my worst fear: that I’m inconvenient and demanding to work with.
Except it never does.
Time is teaching me to have more faith in others and myself. It’s something I find quite difficult, ‘having faith’, but something I think I must learn to do as I continue to grow this business.
I’m trying to see these moments of discomfort and worry as growing pains; every negotiation or discussion is giving me the skills, knowledge and experience to tackle the next one better.
Thanks so much to everyone who came to see STUDY 34 at the Country Living Spring Fair last week, it was great to talk to so many of you!
Until the end of the month,
E
p.s. Sign up to my new mailing list here to stay up to date with what’s happening at STUDY 34. Otherwise from May onwards, following the introduction of new GDPR regulations I will no longer be able to send you any news!
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