I’m waiting for the first time I encounter a “Woman’s bra”, because I’ll look what they did for men.

I’ll save you time searching and leave the link. hahaha

I’m waiting for the first time I encounter a “Woman’s bra”, because I’ll look what they did for men.

I know, I know, it’s just way too obsessive, but anyway…

Dawn B wrote:

What do you do if you have purchased from a 3rd party supplier who doesn’t know or won’t tell you the country of origin of fabric. Can you still say Made in USA?

Technically, you’re supposed to list the fabric’s nation of origin too. Russell is a weaver who produces his own fabric with his own hands in the US. If he bought imported fabric, the last line of my example should instead read: “Made in USA of imported fabrics”. If the nation of import is prestigious, include that, ex: “Made in USA of Italian/Korean fabrics” (Korean fabric is prestigious among those in the know).

If the supplier can’t or won’t tell you, it’s safe to assume the fabric is imported since most fabric is. If it were me, I’d omit fabric nation of origin if I didn’t know for sure. Otherwise you’re stuck admitting your supply chain is loose and have to write something like “Made in USA of mystery fabric”. The consumer may then wonder if you’re certain of fiber content which you could certainly verify with burn tests but…

In sum, you could limit the last line to country of origin for the construction and it wouldn’t be a major crime but omitting the latter is misleading. I’m not the only consumer who reads “Made in USA” and mentally adds 25%+ to my budget of what I’m willing to spend to acquire it. Plenty of people won’t care, they’re shopping on price but you do want to snag those who are willing to pay a bit more for it.

Russell wrote:

Amazing, Just amazing! BTW – how did you know those were bone buttons? (don’t answer)

Why wouldn’t I answer this when it speaks to your design integrity? People consistently underestimate what I can perceive in product lines based on photographs. You do many things well, one such thing is the quality continuity of your inputs. The gamut of button materials are plastic, mother of pearl, wood or bone. Plastic I could eliminate off the top; it is incongruous that you’d put a plastic button on goods you wove by your own hand. It’d be like a five star restaurant putting velvetta on pasta primavera. Wood was a possibility but typically, light colored woods are too soft (and inexpensive) for these price points. Tagua (technically a nut) was a possibility but it’s darker than these. The only remaining possibilities were mother of pearl and bone. The buttons weren’t shiny enough to be M of P so that left bone. Or horn, essentially the same thing.

Ari wrote:

Are fiber content/nation of origin the only two that one is legally required to include?

Yes. No. Yes and no. Products regulated by the FTC (certain products like furnishings etc) must be labeled as what they are (product type). Kidswear being listed as the intended consumer falls in a grey area but I would think it is required altho not specifically stated in FTC regs because if you don’t, this could be seen as an attempt to mislead consumers under CPSIA and we really don’t want to go there right now.

Russell then wrote:

In this example, it seems that a new description would be formulated for each variation of fabric. Is that true? If this is true and there are 10 fabric variations for the same style#, how would they be differentiated -new style number for each?

If it were the same exact style (used the same exact pattern) and the only difference was fiber content, you’d make the appropriate substitutions in each description. It’s not hard to do this because -of course- you’re using a different style number because the fabric has changed from one style to the other and each are listed separately. Yet another reason to use good style numbers :). You wouldn’t want a contractor to pull silk instead of rayon because you used the same style number.

For consumers, you can make this seamless. Let’s say you have the one style, same pattern, in three different fibers. If you wanted to sell it as one group, you set up the order page in such a way that they could select the color/fiber content from a drop down list, after which the description for that item (and style number that applies to it) would load on screen.

On wholesale order forms, you’d show the sketch and a description w/o fiber content. Below it you’d list the style number and each color/fiber content alongside. This also helps because there might be a slight price variation for each (but again, you might decide to average the costs and sell them at the same price). Ex:
#1001 Blue silk $250 ($225 for avg group price)
#1002 Red Rayon $225 ($225 ” “)
#1003 Green Cotton/Rayon $200 ($225 ” “)

If it is the same fabric content for the style (the “same” fabric), the only difference being colorways, you could use the same style number for all colorways. You’d control production with color codes and inventory with skus.

Are fiber content / nation of origin the only two that one is legally required to include?