Early days of production involved cutting out on the breakfast bar and sewing up on the trusty old Elna and an ancient second-hand industrial overlocker. Fortunately, my first job out of school had been in a large clothing factory where we churned out garment after garment on the production line. Payment was based on a bonus system, so the more you made, the more you got paid. This helped me to develop skills that enabled fast, quality production of the underwear.

After a while the poor old Elna couldn’t keep up and I realised I needed a more specialised machine; a three step zig zag. These machines are used in lingerie manufacture as the stitch allows the fabric to stretch. Conversely, they also are very popular with sailmakers as they provide a strong stitch for wind forces in all directions.

Things began to pick up and I was making more and more. At this point I was still cutting everything out by hand (which can be murder on the joints!) and I invested in a circular cutter which meant I could cut more in less time, with much less hassle.

Even with all these incremental changes and progressions we didn’t change a thing about the design, the fabric, or how it was put together. It was important to me to maintain the boyleg, no riding up  or no pantyline, as that was what our customers wanted.

As we’ve grown there has been encouragement to move production overseas. Let me be very clear here; we are proudly NZ made and we will always stay NZ made. Making real underwear for real people.