With the 2010 Jiberish Fall Line in the works for nearly a year, we anxiously board a Korean Air flight across the largest ocean to see the fruits of their labors first hand. We land at a rainy airport in Qingdao, a large coastal city sitting between Beijing and Shanghai, on the East China Sea. After clearing customs we meet up with a few folks from our manufacturing team and motor into town.
Jiberish’s limited schedule in China prompts us right to work, and just an hour after arriving in the country we are standing in a medium sized silk screening workshop. A handful of printing samples lie on halogen lit, aluminum work tables for our consideration. A bold, colorful scheme of interspersed triangles, printed on black cotton fabric catches our eye. The print quality on this Jiberish hoodie called, ‘On Point’ looks as solid as ever, and the other proofs we check at this facility are exciting. Confirming the work with everyone’s favorite international hand sign, the “thumbs up”, we are shown to the sample facility where proof garments are sewn and completed.  Jibeirsh spends the next three days at the sample house working hard to review the samples for final revisions. Us creatives spend so much time at computers in this modern era doing nearly all facets of work; and in between clothing seasons, the emotional power of tangible fabric pieces is easily forgotten. One by one, pieces that were pondered, and toiled over, and added up to thousands of dollars simply with ideas developed on digital lineart, are brought out for Jiberish to critique. It was nearly impossible to control the gasps and the grins watching the clothing line materialize in front of us.
Jiberish is so excited about their manufacturers continued progression in creativity and quality. We consider their team there, artists as much as any of the inhouse designers, patternmakers or musicians.
These skilled people work simply off illustrator artwork, mockups, techpacks and patternmaking dimensions and bring nearly a dozen specialized components together for these cut and sew pieces. In this sense, with the detail that is combined on garments as are Jiberish’s pieces, could would never become the masterpieces they are with out the artisans in China. That being said, there were plenty of high-5s taking place over the three day stay.
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After wrapping up work at the sample facility we embarked on a 12 hour van ride from the city of Qingdao, down the interior of China’s industrial coast bound for a city named Shaoxing located in the greater Shanghai area. Through foggy windows and drissel we arrived late in the evening to a bustling low rise city.
Shaoxing holds one of China’s largest textile markets where an indoor/outdoor fabric mall spans for many city blocks in the heart of town. Even at the late hour of arrival the trade of the city was apparent, as trucks, forklifts and handcarts were busily shuffled by diligent workers in the muggy 80 degree nighttime heat.
The next morning we walked with two people from the Jiberish manufacturing team as they conducted checkups on fabrics for their many accounts. Without their guidance we would have surly been lost and overwhelmed by the choices in fabric swatches that unfolded before us. We saw some of the fabrics already in use on current Jiberish pieces and kept our eyes peeled for potential new fabrics for upcoming seasons.
Two days of hard work at the textile market and a return van trip and we found ourselves back in Qingdao, with one more day of reviewing samples that had been created since our departure. Our last meal in China was ironically KFC, the colonel is huge there. It is not only ironic because we were just a day away from Cheeseburgers and other American delights but our hosts thought we wanted AMERICAN FOOD now. It turned out to be one of the less appetizing meals of the trip.
The next morning we bid the friendly and skilled Jiberish production crew adue and with two industrial size duffles bulging with Jiberish samples boarded a Korean Air 747.
We also stopped in Tokyo for a few days to check out some streetwear boutiques and seek inspiration in one of the globe’s fashion mecca. CLICK HERE for video of the trip.
Keep your eyes peeled for the Winter 2011 line to be debuting here on ABSTRACTmall sometime in early November.
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