Before everyone groans...

My clothing label is my 'hobby-company' and I retail all over the world and supply a few shops around Europe. My role in my company is like...a fixer...I just have the ideas and the innovation and I hire the expertise. I do the marketing and sales.

I make organic cotton mens shirts and do some womenswear. My employer wants to help me 'redomicile in Switzerland' because he's a fan of eco/ethical stuff and likes my little innovation as well as my cooking!

I need 3-30 shirts made per week, sometimes more if there is a wholesale order. It's a tiny amount.

I'm looking for what is called a 'Cut, Make & Trim Unit' in England. There is probably something similar in Switzerland but they are called something else entire or just 'sewing units' that don't advertise and is very 'cottage industry' oriented. I don't speak much French and no German but that has rarely stopped me doing business.

A good description of a CMT Unit is: 2-12 people working in a small, independent studio making up small clothing orders. They use your fabric, your patterns and your haberdashery (buttons, zips etc) and work to an agreed price per item. CMT customers range from commercial dressmakers who need their orders made up or perhaps a small independent shop that might want it's own range sewn up. In England CMT Units pick up contracts that are much too tiny to consider being made in Asia or it is imortant that the items be made within a country as a marketing feature.

Please note I understand the cost of labour but that is the point of my clothing label. I want quality, no exploitation and creative innovation.

Anybody have any ideas?

Okay...you can start the groaning...

Web site ? Sample photos ?

Don't want to be seen 'advertising' and receive incessant groans.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandsty...e-mens-fashion

I'm Quail.

Nice shirt. Can you do made to measure?

My wife has a few made to measure shirts "made here" but actually made in Italy (this was clear at the time of order no problems), they are a perfect fit and not too expensive. So while basing yourself here maybe look a bit further south, Italy has a great garmet industry and outsourcing manufacture would appear to be a lot easier there. Or look at Tessin as a base as there are still remnants of Swiss clothing industry there.

I can do made to measure but don't make to measure anymore. If you want to marry off your daughter send her to Savile Row. There's something about doing a neck measurement that makes men propose marriage.

Great, thanks I'll look into what's in Tessin. I'd like to make a set of shirts just for Switzerland to sell to the unsuspecting Swiss. I'm going to rove around Geneva on my day off with my 'interpreter' and ask around a few seamstressy/wedding/dry cleaner type places. The whole 'industry' is incognito!

OMG my thread has been moved 'here' by the moderators. I thought it was safe to post in 'off topic' but I suppose mentioning Switzerland gives me an automatic upgrade to the 'entrepreneurial' area.

But anyway...back to the post...

Anyone have any more clothing manufacturing suggestions?

I thought that was inside leg!!! However, that said, I love your shirt and I feel sure that my husband would too!! Best of luck with your venture

Prato in Italy hosts roughly 70'000 Chinese workers (some legal some illegal) who produce under the "made in Italy" label at Chinese production costs...get your goods made there and shipped to Switzerland...add the tags and packaging...and there you have a custom Swiss made shirt ready to be sold at an inflated price.

Women are not allowed on The Row to do the "Do you dress left or right?" questions, let alone the actual measurement!!! Fingers at the nape of a man's neck does something primeval for sure, moreso than fingers under a measuring tape across the chest.

Anyway...I digress...anyone for adding to the thread topic?

Ah yes, I have heard of this - near Florence I believe? I met a German woman in Majorca who was having handbags made there for next to nothing and selling them for a fortune back in Germany with an Italian label.

The little shop that I take my drycleaning to in Baden seems to make some of their own dresses and stuff like that so I am sure that you will find cottage industries in Switzerland that will be interested in this sort of thing.
I would encourage you to have them made here in the country. Support local labour and the local economy.
Good luck with your endevour and good luck with the walk around Geneva.

Exactly my line of thinking, thanks.

I'm not into exploiting workers in this country or the next. In sweatshops the unfair labour practice is just the tip of the iceberg.

Probably a long shot, but...

Here in SZ the Schwyzer Bauerinnenvereinigung (loosely, the association of SZ farmer's wives) runs a household service - sewing is one of the services offered. Usually this means doing a few little one-off jobs for a private household, I have no idea if something on the scale you are talking about is within their remit, or not. After all, the women are first and foremost farmers - they have a pretty time consuming 'day job'.

However, I really like the concept of the Haushalt Service - it's a way for SZ farming families to earn extra income, offering hard-to-find help to folks who need it. The umbrella organization makes it easy to handle social contributions, ensures a fair wage, etc. A win-win for the community.

There are Farmer's Wives groups in most cantons, whether others run a household service similar to SZ I don't know. Nonetheless, you might contact groups near Geneva to see if there is any interest. Here's a list of such associations throughout Switzerland:

http://www.landfrauen.ch/fr/a-notre-...tions-membres/

As above, probably a very long shot - but might be worth investigating.

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FYI, for anyone interested, the Schwyzer service is here:

http://www.bvsz.ch/Baeuerinnen/haupt...altservice.htm

just out of curiosity, what's the cost per shirt you can afford to break even? Isn't Switzerland the worst place for low qualification/low margin production?

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Wow, this sounds really interesting. They sound like a resourceful group, and like you say, a long shot, but where there is a collection of people is 'someone' who wants to try something new. - Thanks!

Not sure in Switzerland, with me it's £25.72 for a men's shirt
- High quality fabric on an XL
- 12 shell buttons
- Neck label
- Cut, Make & Trim Labour

But it doesn't include packaging, post, advertising and the million or so other things.

How about stitching and importing from Bangladesh or India at low price than in Switzerland? I can help you out

interesting products. i never heard of any CMT units here in Switzerland. Does it have to be Switzerland? I suspect you'd have better products/services and prices from Italy.