Q What is the minimum quantity for a trade discount?

A 10 items of the same style

Q What is the maximum quantity we can produce and make in our studio?

A Around 100 pieces of the same style

Q How does the price point apply? 

A Price depends on 

(a) quantity purchased

(b) whether you use our brand label (BRITISH ALPACA FASHION) or white label FOR YOUR OWN PRODUCTS but use our hangtag EKOALPAKA

NB There are different prices for quantities 10- 25, 26 – 50, 51- 100

Q What is Lead time for delivery?

A 5-6 weeks for our standard designs

Q What are the benefits of using EKOALPAKA hangtag?

A  EKOALPAKA is a hangtag which provides a certification to the buyer of the source and provenance of the alpaca fibre used in their product. It assures the buyer that their product is

 Eco friendly

      Organic standards – no pesticides or chemicals used in processing

 Animal welfare paramount and cruelty free

 Sustainable sourced

 Ethically produced

In addition we provide the seller with photos and information regarding the farm where alpacas are and production studio to help promote sales

Q What is the knitwear made on?

A On our state of the art machines – Shima Seiki SRY123SVLP and Complett Linking machines

Q What gauges do we knit?

A 10 – 14 Gauge knitting

We specialise fine and medium weight knitwear not chunky knitting as in 3- 7 Gauge knitwear

Q What yarn counts do we use?

A  We mainly use Nm 28/2 and Nm 16/2 

But we can also knit with yarn counts as fine as Nm 70/2

Q What colours do we work with?

A Mainly the natural colours of alpaca

- ecru (cream)

- fawn (oatmeal)

- mid brown

- dark brown

- black 

- charcoal

- grey

We also use a few dyed yarns

- forest green

- navy

- Teal blue

- Corn yellow

- Dusky pink

- Ice Blue

- Mushroom

Please refer the products in our showroom for colour references of products

Q Will we make knitwear from other materials?

A We are happy to work with all natural fibres

- Merino

- Cashmere

- British Wool

- Cotton

- Silk

- Mohair

- Tencel Viscose and other plant based fibres

However if we are required to use other fibres the customer must provide the yarn for bespoke orders. We only provide alpaca from our farm.

We are happy to work with blends provided the yarn count and quality is suitable for our machines

BESPOKE PRODUCTS

Q Will we make bespoke products for designers or shops or even perhaps students?

A   Yes, we do make bespoke products for customers, We can work from a photograph or a sketch.

We will discuss yarns programming knitting and finishing costs before starting

NB We do offer discounts to students.

It is best if the customer provides a full technical specification.

Failing that we will prepare the technical specification and programme for knitting the sample product.

- we will provide a swatch for handle quality and colour reference

- if the swatch is OK we will proceed to make the first sample

SAMPLE COST

  PRODUCT               WITH OUR YARNS                       WITH THE CUSTOMERS YARNS

   swatch                       £25                                                                     £30

   Jumpers, vests          £350                                                                  £275

    cardigans                £400                                                                   £325

   Complex garment   £450                                                                   £375

   Throw                       £450                                                                   £375

   Scarves                    £200                                                                    £175

SAMPLE TIME

Development work takes time. If you are want a bespoke product developed you need to allow plenty of time for programming and the testing of yarns. As an average for a standard product please allow

 3 - 4 weeks to make programme and swatch 

 5 - 8 weeks for first sample

There is no need to keep to minimum orders when doing bespoke knitwear as you have to start with the first sample

Also important to note that the first sample is not always perfect as it is a prototype and often has to be improved.

Please note however that some development work takes longer if we have to work with yarns supplied by you. All yarns are different and the machine has to be calibrated accordingly.

If you have time constraints please advise us and we can tell you if we are able to work within your timeframe. We are a design studio not a factory.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Unless the customer is providing both the design and the programme for our Shima Seiki machine all design and  programming rights are and remain at all times the property of Alpaca Fashion Company Limited. If the Customer wishes to retain the  rights to the design programme the Customer must notify us at the outset so that we do not publish any images of development work and samples produced.

PHOTOGRAPHS We are proud of what we do and like to show off  our work....if you don't want us to, please let us know. We charge a fee of £50 + VAT to reserve the photographs of what we make for you. But please note this must not be something already in our portfolio of programmes