Andari Sweaters

On our third, and final tour, we visited the Andari factory. Andari is a factory that produces fully fashioned knit garments. This means that there is no cut and sew process involved. I learned all of the proccesses of production of knit sweaters as well as the costing components of the design process. Experiencing this first hand, I have decided to give a basic explanation of the steps involved in the creation of a sweater.

1. A designer employed by the factory as well as the manufacturer. At this level decisions are made about the fibers in the yarn, color, shape, and treatment. Each one of these decisions determine the cost of the garment. the $1,200 sweaters for the row were made from "Forbidden Cashmere". This yarn can cost around $1.05 per gram compared to cotton yarns less than $.12 per gram. 
2. Pattern specs are drafted and a programmer programs the flat back knitting machine you see in the first video to produce, essentially, each pattern piece. one for sleeves, bodice front/ back, etc.
3. These pieces (pannels) are inspected to ensure quality standards are upheld. Adjustments and repairs are made if neccissary/ possible.
4. pieces are bundled together for one entire garment and are then linked together. The linking is then inspected.

*Linking is the most expensive part of the production process. As you can see in the second video, a person sits at a linking machine and hand loops the pieces on the rotating circular platform. Each individual loop must make it onto this machine. If one loop is missed, the quality of the garment is compromised. In addition to the cost of a human performing this task, it requires better skill, therefore more money, if a smaller guage is used. Smaller loops take better skill and more time than a larger guage knit.

             * Another method to attatch pannels together is called cut and overlock. This is comparable to serging seams in a cut and sew garment. It is a faster and cheaper method and more widely used. Because of this, linkers are becoming obsolete and, therefore more expensive.

     5. The sweater is washed and dried once to eliminate most consumer shrinkage. The decision can be made to declare the garment dry clean only or machine washable. Silicoe can be added to the wash cycle to get the right hand.

              *We learned, from every factory tour, that the more you wash a garment, the more the fibers break down or get coated. This prevents the fibers from behaving naturally. 

Heat setting with wire frames. See them on the back wall, hanging?

     6. The sweater is then heat set. A wire form is created in the shape designed in step one and inserted into the garment and someone uses high heat, high pressure steam irons to set the shape/ size as well as stablize the yarn.

     7. After heat setting, the garment is labled, tagged, and packaged (which also varies the cost, depending on method) and shipped to distribution centers.

A pile of sweaters for The Row. Made of "forbidden" cashmere.
Each will retail for $1,200 a piece.

Andari is the factory where we were able to learn about this process. They offer a wide variety of contract options, including full package. They also perform a three pass quality check throuout the process to ensure the garments they are producing are exactly what was aggreed upon with the manufacturer. They do this more than cut and sew factories because of the process of production where they link an entire garment at a time. If something is wrong, entire garments are ruined, rather than one specific pattern piece that can be replaced at a lower cost than an entire sweater. 

We also learned about cost and the mark up process. Andari charges $30 and up per sweater produced.The amount of pannels also increases the cost due to the cost of linking each piece together. Wholesalers charge a 55% markup from cost and retailers markup another 55%. Direct to store manufacturers will markup 70%-80%. This is how we can get a garment costing $1,200 when using higher quality materials and finer knit designs