You might hear me mention that my laces are all "deadstock" and wonder wtf that means. It may seem crazy, but when big companies wind up with excess fabric in their warehouses, the most economical solution if often to toss it or incinerate it (incineration is especially common with proprietary fabrics, because companies don't want their special, unique materials out there elsewhere in the world). I don't know that I've ever said this before, but thank god for middlemen! Folks called "jobbers" will buy up these excess materials in bulk and resell them to smaller companies and individuals. If you'd like a really cool window into this world, check out @fab_scrap. They pick up fabric from design houses and manufacturing facilities all over NYC and redistribute it to design students and other seamers, and turn unusable scraps into insulation for housing. They're a much smaller model, because the waste created by designers and manufacturers in the New York area is dwarfed by the production and waste in places like Southeast Asia. The woman that I buy most of my laces from is based in Eastern Europe, where there are many factories that cut and sew lingerie for European and American brands. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to make good use of waste stream materials, and to access fabrics as amazing and high quality as this lace, which I probably wouldn't have the wholesale buying power to get my hands on otherwise. The only downside is that these materials aren't re-orderable, so when they're gone they're gone. If you see a design that grabs you, get it into your drawer while you can! #wastestream #wastesolutions #wastestreamtextiles orevenuestream #trashion #ecofashion #deadstock #handmadelingerie
