Nanamica Spring '12 at The Bureau

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Info

—01. Tote Bag, Wind Shirt and Wind Parka.

Words

The good folks over at The Bureau have just recently received a delivery of spring product from Nanamica. The bags, shirts, and outerwear in the collection all feature the interesting fabrics, technical advances, and re-envisioned silhouettes that the innovative Japanese brand has become so well-known for.

—Spring '12 Nanamica at The Bureau

Comments

[Brian Braddock]

Made in China?

[Cecil]

Some of it is some of it ain't.

[Glenn]

Brian (without getting into a mad internetz debate), China is the only country investing in the technology and expertise to produce this sort of stuff at the moment. There's good factories and bad factories in China (as there is in the UK - I've seen some shocking US and UK made stuff).

It's all a bit lazy this Made In China is shite debate as things have moved on considerably over there. It's a similar argument that people had 20-30 years ago regarding Japanese technology being shoddy, when in fact is was actually well made....

[Brian Braddock]

I won't wear anything made in China, never have & never will. This isn't me being a little Englander but because I like knowing my gear has been made by people like me who share a passion for the product.

I don't recall Japanese tech being considered shoddy, but that was a little bit before my time so I'll have to take your word for it.

[pr]

Funny how you don't see any complaints about made in china macbooks.

[Billy]

Well said Glenn, I eat Chinese food. Made in England. Do I get the arse? No.

[Figurative - Lee]

I think the "Made in China" sentiment stems from the notion that a few years ago, we were basically saying "I only buy stuff that's made locally to support those age-old businesses and help keep them around", rather than "Chinese people are unable to manufacture quality product". Also, many people seem to think that everything that comes from Japan is made in Japan by small, age-old manufacturers, so the prices for Beams and Nanamica are probably justifiable for them. The reality is that it Nanamica and Beams would be priced fairly at around double the price of what you'd pay at Uniqlo. The way this stuff is priced now is a joke. Whoever buys this at full retail should have their voting rights waived. If the stuff was at 90% off, I'd still have to think twice to pay this kind of money for some nylon.

[JJG]

@pr: what's the alternative to this?

[Chris P Bacon]

Before your time Brian???!!!!!.I seem to recall a post by you mentioning the use of the term'Brothel Creepers' in your youth.

[louis]

Well no, not really well said Glenn. He's missing probably the most important point. With UK and USA made products you can almost guarantee that the people making them have been paid fairly and have reasonable working conditions. Other countries, like China, do not have the same standards or rules and regulations in place and therefore it is very difficult to know which made in China products have been made fairly and responsibly. Quality doesn't really come into it, it is a moral issue.

[Brian Braddock]

For the record, I've never used the term 'brothel creepers' either during my adult life or in my youth.

However, I often refer to hob nail boots (hand made by my local cobbler of course) and like the idea of trying to determine someone's age through their references to shoes.

[Glenn]

Hobnail boots?

5/1 on you're Victorian. Or from Yorkshire.

And Louis, regarding working conditions in China. Vast improvements have been made these past years and the quality (like manufacture) differs from factory to factory. There's good factories and bad factories in China.

Some of this made in the USA or UK strikes me of Xenophobia and I could show you plenty of factories in the UK filled with eastern europeans getting paid next to nothing..

[Glenn]

Xenophobia, even.

[Giffen]

With a capital X no less.

Regardless of the specific working conditions of particular factories in China, the overriding state is a menace. It's an anti-democratic dictatorship that caps wages, restricts personal freedom and precludes the kind of lifestyle that we seek to flaunt by wearing $1000 Visvim boots.

Anyone who defends Chinese manufacturing ought to be the enemy of Inventory, which purports to be 'a curation of ideas in product, craft and culture'. The fact is it's none of those things, it's little more than a blog about natty trinkets for over-moneyed hipsters who consider themselves to have fine taste.

Engineered Garments is a brand we can get behind. It too is able to charge massively inflated prices, because it's FASHIONABLE, but at least it's a vertically-integrated business based in the USA (supposedly the land of the free but you have to wonder sometimes).

Nanamica make great clothes - I've even had one of the macs before - but let's not convince ourselves that outsourcing manufacturing to China isn't a bad thing. I'd expect it of publically-traded tyrants like Wal-Mart but if you're dropping hundreds of dollars at least question where it's coming from.

The American economy is in a bad way at the moment partly because it has no manufacturing base. Like the UK it discarded it willingly. The inventory team will romanticise about the homegrown handiwork of small a company like Quoddy, then pine after products made under totalitarian regimes and marketed cynically by profiteering brands, with no irony or even self-awareness. It does not add up.

I'd love to think Mr. Willms will respond to this but I suspect he is blissfully absorbed in tracking down exactly the right ceramic vase.

[Ryan Willms]

I think I found the vase last night!