Our Aberdeen Workshop is up and running.
We are incredibly pleased to announce that we are set up and working from our new HAAR workshop. It's week two in the new space and what a difference it has made to every element of HAAR.
This is has been both an exciting and daunting prospect, but one that definitely needed to be done. The new space will be (and already is) providing us with so many opportunities, giving us the space and utility to continue to grow in a sustainable and organic way.
Up until this point, Everything had been organised from our own home, with freelance seamstresses producing the work around the city from theirs.
We have personally been involved in everything from designing the clothes, sourcing fabrics, working with seamstresses and tailors, to building the website, photographing products, packing orders and so much more. Doing all this from our home was difficult but allowed us to grow to the point we're at now.
Now that we have a dedicated space with all our machines, (thanks to Aberdeen Sewing for hooking us up with those) a small studio set up, a cutting table, a packing station, an area to hang all our patterns, dedicated area for fabric storage and a press and steam station, things are already so much more organised and efficient.
Another big reason for this move is to move away from our 'Made to Order' model for every item. Again, working this way has allowed us to grow slowly and methodically, however, it is an extra slow way of producing garments and the long wait can understandable put many customers off.
We are certainly not looking to imitate a 'fast-fashion' approach to garment manufacture, but this new space will allow us to create small runs and batches, while maintaining the highest quality as before. Eventually we hope to have small numbers of stock in many of our products, still offering a made to order option for anyone who is happy to wait the extra while or requires a specific fit that our 'off-the-peg' items don't fulfil.
The big move has allowed us to offer full employment to our valued and highly skilled tailors, and with their skills, we will be able to utilise the workshop space and equipment to train a new generation of local people to the high standard we will continue deliver.
Aberdeen and the surrounding area, now has a place where College and University students can further develop their skills in a real world setting with the opportunity of employment after their training with in our workshop. We want HAAR to provide real opportunities for talented people, who might otherwise pursue careers in other areas due to the lack of garment manufacture.
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