October is a t shirt printing, screen printing, garment sourcing and embroidery supplier established in 1990. We source a wide range of clothing and accessories to fit the most demanding of specifications. Although we print and embroider for a variety of sectors, our speciality is fashion.
With this in mind we offer a full service including garment sourcing, graphic design input, range development, technical screen print and embroidery advice, label supply, re-labelling, bagging, swing ticketing and bulk distribution.
This isn't everything. That would just be too massive, but it is a cross section of all our favourite T-shirts, sweatshirts, hoods, polos, hats etc. It's what a pretentious bell end might call a curated edit. Feel free to call us with any questions, and let us know if we left anything out.
It all started 25 years ago. Paul finished a degree in obscure eastern religions, and was surprised to find he couldn't get a job. Not a problem, a friend had a sewing machine,
October is a t shirt printing, screen printing, garment sourcing and embroidery supplier established in 1990. We source a wide range of clothing and accessories to fit the most demanding of specifications. Although we print and embroider for a variety of sectors, our speciality is fashion.
Everything about Yamama is unique and in Brighton. The materials, screens and appliqué’s all individually created. Yamama has always been about colour, individuality and experimentation. All inspired and realised on the tropical island of Bali. Predicting future seasonal trends, fabrics and colours, designing and printing new graphics and materials is an exciting challenge that continues to push the label forward.
Yamama! Not from the high street; from the rebels, from the beatniks, the hippies, the mods, the discos. From the punks, the funk, the rockers…the post modernists. Not from the high street, with the wink of an eye.
Christmas is upon us and it´s time for last minute shopping. Last year I was fortunate enough to receive some chocolate mints and a thermos flask, and the year before I became the happy owner of a male grooming kit. In an attempt to avoid the crimes of previous years, I would like to draw the attention of my London friends to the opening of Chateau Roux’s new shop at 17 Newburgh Street. Before you say it I realise that October screen print the T-shirts, sweatshirts and hoods etc, but it seems unreasonable of you to ask me to print my own present. So, you know what I want and you know where to get it – now get your smoky selves down Carnaby Street, hang a left, and don’t stop to buy any dodgy knitwear on the way that dealt with, everyone here at October would like to wish all of you a safe and warm festive session – to all the people we´ve printed and embroidered for it’s been a pleasure, and a big thanks for the work. Look forward to seeing you all again next year and remember, a T-shirt isn´t just for Christmas, it´s for life.
Chateau Roux has rapidly achieved the status it deserves and has received a fantastic response from the press. Recent features have included: FHM, Loaded, Notion, Pimp, OWTL, Beast, Nuts, Stirred Up, Notion, DJ, M8, Ten4, Pool, 247, More, In-Style and Drapers.
The brand has also featured on MTV, T4, E4, Skins,Hollyoaks, the TV series WAGS Boutique, been worn by Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim, M.I.A, London-born rapper Example, Tim Lovejoy, members of The Automatic, Mumm ‘Ra, New Young Pony Club and Lady Sovereign and have designed customised jewellery for the shoe designer Gil Carvalho who has worked with the likes of Madonna and Liz Hurley.
They have also recently had our jewellery featured on Project Catwalk on SkyOne and also had¬â€ a one-off customized piece of jewellery worn by M.I.A on her recent cover shoot for Notion magazine.
All this has been achieved since the launch a year ago, helping to firmly establish Chateau Roux as one of the most exciting and sought after young labels around today.
Chateau Roux have launched a new range of deep v-neck T-shirts. In the usual ultra soft modal fabrics they’re available in black, white and khaki, with both standard fabric options, and in line with the Shotguns in Soho graphics there is also a heavy distress effect. Soft fabrics need light textured screen printing, so October have used water based inks and have also printed a very lightweight foil – even where this is applied over the v-neck detail, texture has been kept to a minimum, making this a very wearable T. t shirt printing, embroidery, screen printing
Introducing ‘Filthy Riche’, the first t-shirt collection from new London label ‘Zev Couture’.Printed on quality vintage cut/washed tees, zev’s designs are socially & politically switched-on with a cheeky sense of humour. The collection grabs inpiration from the past & translates it into a forward driven fashion passion for the present!At the time of writing, the range is exclusively available on-line & Portobello Market as of Saturday 15th December… But watch out for Zev on a high street near you, come the New Year! www.zevcouture.com
Gobbolino specializes in everything for the urban raving fairy. Big furry boot covers, beautiful hand customised fairy wings, skirts and head garlands in a flurry of Rainbow-Brite’esque. An unusual range of thigh-hi legwarmers, cute animal ear hats and sexy lolita lace mini skirts makes Gobbolino an original magpie find. Gobbolino was seen first on the streets of Camden Town, London and quickly became available to buy in individual clubwear and alternative shops around the UK and abroad. Heavily influenced by the street wear of the Haruko girls of Japan with their original and inspiring handmade garments. This craze has swept through to the main stream recently with Gwen Steffani’s album ‘Lamb’ where she embraces the Gobbolino style to be different.
Gobbolino’s online boutique has been established since 1999 and their ever growing catalogue grows from week to week with the fast moving trends that encapsulates the new generation of cyber shoppers. “bubblegum slut magazine” says… Extremely DIY, Queen Adreena-esque fake flowers, shredded lace and chiffon and rips, saftypins, glitter, mutilated Barbie dolls and childhood imagery are staples of the style. Amid the fairy skirts, lacy bloomers and kitty ears nothing sums it up quite like the pink n punky… www.gobbolino.co.uk
Pushing the boundaries of credibility and distinction, KING has the streets on smash and continues to set the standards by which others follow.
Founded in 2003, its creators were brought together through a shared goal. To create a new apparel brand, a reflection of the creative freedom of their own lifestyle and culture. From the skate scene, the grime and hip-hop movements to the underground world of streetwear enthusiasts and the street art world, KING represents the eclectic mix of British youth and subculture.
The theme of KING is innovation, design, detailing and quality, reflected in its simplicity and subtlety. Garments for the streetwise, smart trendsetters – those who drive the bandwagon as opposed to jumping on it. It is more than a label, it is a representation of style, of distinction, the ethos through which we live our lives.
All outerwear garments and accessories produced are limited to exclusive runs of just 400 pieces with a strict ‚é„é²no re-runs and no repeats‚é„é´ policy! KING was also the first worldwide brand to work exclusively alongside New Era Cap. The independently designed 5950 fitted caps have specialized and exclusive design modifications to the classic New Era that no one else produces, with direct cap hook up‚é„é´s also available to match all outerwear pieces.
The elite and coveted King Affiliates team continues to grow in presence and stature. 2007 members include British music artists Sway (Best UK Hip Hop artist ‚é„é¬ BET Awards), Plan B and dubstep producer/DJ Plastician; emerging street artist Edge and the first additions to the brand new KING affiliates British skate team, Shaun Witherup and Daniel Clarke.
The brand is KING >>> Reign Supreme >>>www.king-apparel.com
Born in Japan and living by the ocean close to Tokyo. As a self studied artist Feebee produces some very striking and original graphics for advertising, product, interior and garments design. Combining a creative flair with very strong imagery. Influences are clearly Japanese with world wide appeal. Check out her website at www.feebee.jp
A warm trade wind blew through the palms,their wayward murmur broken only by the steady creak of the rope sling that rocked me gently between their up stretched arms. A thick haze of heat danced up from the sand, and through it I began to see the outline of an approaching woman. Closer now, her grass skirt joined in with the music of the trees, and I could see she had a large pair of coconuts. I knew them to be the vessels of a native brew so potent that one draught would send me ever further into a dreamless sleep. Smiling, the woman offered me the larger of the two; it was hairier than I had imagined, and I drank deeply. The last I would see would be the fathomless black of her Polynesian eyes, the last I would hear would be the ringing call of a jungle bird….getting louder….and more relentless……and….. ‘HELLO…what do you mean it’s in Nuneaton? I’ll give you 1500 good reasons why it matters pal, they’ve got leather jackets, long hair and semi legal choppers, and they’re all waiting on the sea front at Margate to take delivery of their bike rally T-shirts — if they don’t turn up they WILL divert to Nottingham to give me some physical education.
Knackers, I’m back — potent native brew! Happy Shopper own brand coffee shavings and a soggy choccy hob nob more like.We all dream of escape. I know, it’s hard to imagine given the glamorous red carpet whirl of the garment decoration industry, but we all hope that one day we’ll press the last lid onto the final pot of ink, flick off the six head and walk away.
But it’s going to take money, and sadly a whole lot of spending money, so what are the options for the wizened ink jockey, the stoop backed yarn threader?
Well we could sell up, lock stock and two smoking autos – the kit, the premises, the garments, the goodwill, but will that get us our BFH, the old bus fare home? Probably not — you know what’ll happen. Selling kit is a the same as selling cars — the blow dried villain you bought it off in the first place, will tell you that the big sales speech about residual values on equipment is no longer relevant, due to a need to make some money out of you – so your machinery is worth diddly.
Premises? Chances are we’ll all still be renting some fly blown lean-to from Fagin’s Asset Management. Banks as we know require an enormous deposit and the right to re-posses your grandmother when buying a commercial property, so although most us have dreamt of owning our own gaff, that and the fact that paying it off over a commercial term means Pot Noodling for the next ten years has meant that dream is of the pipe variety.
Goodwill? Maybe, a little, but most people in our game assume that when the main players have left the original line up, there’s a strong chance that the business will evaporate with them — Happy Larry’s T-shirts won’t be quite as happy when Larry is loafing on the Algarve. It’s a strong testament to the strength of customer relationships in our industry, but it doesn’t help when you’re trying to leg it. There’s also the likelihood that any prospective buyers will know where your work is and take the view that they’ll wait until you’ve done one, and then nick it anyway, the stinkers.
Stock? Forget it — most of us have it in and out the door faster than Forest go one behind at home, so there won’t be a European T-shirt mountain to flog off.
Not looking that great is it? And then when you chuck in a few tax issues and the fact that if you were bought out, all the chaps you’ve stood toe to toe with for years will probably get laid off as you pull out the car park, it looks even worse. Speaking of the work force though, the hearts of oak that have dug the tunnel that will hopefully enable your escape, what about handing them the keys to the executive wash room, or in my case the outside khazi? I wonder if this is the way forward — they know the score, they’ve earned it, and if you didn’t go to the Mike Baldwin School of Personnel Management hopefully they’ll quite like and you and who knows, maybe they’ll even bung you a few quid every week out of the profits — then you can go and rock backwards and forwards in your own trifle wearing state supplied clothing. I went to visit an old printer last week, banged up in The Shady Pines Retirement Lodge — on the wall there was a big sign for the bewildered saying ‘ Today is Tuesday’ above a clock that said it was ten to three. It was actually half past four on a Friday, so what with that and forty years of thinners Frank probably thought it was five to two and we were having a drink on the moon……not that his plight inspired this article of course.
I guess there are other possibilities — at the speculative end we hope that if we build a sufficiently wonderful web site, we’ll have a sales generating monster that will be of some value. And on a general e-commercial note dream of relevant traffic so vast, and data bases so extensive that maybe even the wider business community will see a price tag on our efforts. And at the more quantifiable end there are always pensions of course — I’ve got a rock solid one with Maxwell Assurance, so no worries there then.
Looks like a lottery ticket then — I’ve never bought one before on the basis that you’re 12000 times more likely to die by Saturday than you are to win; I figured if I avoided the whole idea I might live a bit longer. Looking at previous winners it seems like you can increase your chances though by: getting your house a dodgy stone cladding job; installing a 20 foot plasma screen TV that’s visible from the interest free credit sofa on the front lawn; walking bandy legged in sportswear carrying a tin of Special Brew, and investing in a Celtic tattoo…….I know I know, I’m a bad person, totally politically incorrect, they’re all God’s children and that line about the sportswear was just a cheap shot…it was a bulls eye, but a cheap shot none the less.
The last thing I’ll see of course will not be the dusky smiling face of willing native abandon, but the underside of an auto when I collapse in the middle of a small and irrelevant run of T-shirts for a dog training club — they won’t get rid of me that easily though, it’ll take at least three days to chisel me off all the glue on the floor!
Cheers,
Paul
“Do you know where your cotton comes from?” If you knew what you are wearing, you might be ashamed.
What Continental CAN do, is to guarantee that the cotton we use does not come from Uzbekistan. (Continental uses Turkish & Egyptian cotton.)
To substantiate this, each of the factories Continental uses, in Turkey and India, have prepared the paperwork for both the organic and non-organic cotton, to show the source of the raw cotton. It took only four days to prepare the documentation, and the documentation had to show the receipt of the cotton as it travels up the supply chain of the manufacturing processes.
With that guaranteed, you can now sleep a little better at night, however, if you wish to learn more, read on… but I warn you, it does not make happy reading if you are in any way involved in purchasing or re-selling cotton apparel…
Uzbekistan is the third largest cotton exporter in the world. About one in four of all cotton garments sold in the UK contain a percentage of Uzbek cotton fibres. The first problem is that the Uzbek regime is responsible for torture, slave labour and a continuing environmental disaster on an unimaginable scale – all in the name of cotton production. The second problem is that they don’t tell you on the clothing labels in stores where the cotton fibres came from, just where the garment was manufactured. The truth about the Uzbek cotton industry makes horrific reading, and I only reproduce here a fraction of what I have read. I do this, not to be sensationalist, but because we can actually do something about this, by raising awareness in our industry, and encouraging other manufacturers to follow suit or lose their reputation – and ultimately lose sales. In the near future, in the current climate, unethical business practices will simply not be profitable.
Don’t take my word for it. What follows is abreviated passages from the executive summary from the International Crisis Group report on Central Asian cotton of March 2005:
The Uzbek cotton industry is a disastrous aberration created by Soviet central planning. Over 80% of the loss of water from the Aral Sea is due to irrigation for the Uzbek cotton industry, so it is responsible for one of the World’s greatest environmental disasters. On most agricultural land in Uzbekistan, cotton has been grown as a monoculture for fifty years, with no rotation. This off course exhausts the soil and encourages pests. As a result the cotton industry employs massive quantities of pesticide and fertiliser. As a result it is not just that the Aral Sea is disappearing, but that and fertilisers, with no rotation.the whole area of the former sea suffers appalling pollution, reflected in appalling levels of disease.Uzbek farm workers are tied to the farm. They need a propusk (visa) to move away ‚é„é¬ which they won´t get. The state farm worker normally gets two dollars a month. Their living and nutritional standards would improve greatly if, rather than grow cotton, they had a little area to grow subsistence crops.
There are no independent research institutes allowed in Uzbekistan. In fact the proportion of the population enslaved on state cotton farms is closer to 60% than 40%.
The cotton industry in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan contributes to political repression, economic stagnation, widespread poverty and environmental degradation. The economics of Central Asian cotton are simple and exploitative. Millions of the rural poor work for little or no reward growing and harvesting the crop. The considerable profits go either to the state or small elites with powerful political ties. Forced and child labour and other abuses are common.
This system is only sustainable under conditions of political repression, which can be used to mobilise workers at less than market cost. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are among the world’s most repressive states, with no free elections. Opposition activists and human rights defenders are subject to persecution. The lack of a free media allows many abuses to go unreported. Unelected local governments are usually complicit in abuses, since they have little or no accountability to the population. Cotton producers have an interest in continuing these corrupt and non-democratic regimes.The industry relies on cheap labour. Schoolchildren are still regularly required to spend up to two months in the cotton fields in Uzbekistan. Despite official denials, child labour is still in use in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Students in all three countries must miss their classes to pick cotton. Little attention is paid to the conditions in which children and students work. Every year some fall ill or die.
Women do much of the hard manual labour in cotton fields, and reap almost none of the benefits. Cash wages are minimal, and often paid late or not at all. In most cotton-producing areas, growers are among the poorest elements in society.
The environmental costs of the monoculture have been devastating. The depletion of the Aral Sea is the result of intensive irrigation to fuel cotton production. The region around the sea has appalling public health and ecological problems. Even further upstream, increased salinisation and desertification of land have a major impact on the environment. Disputes over water usage cause tension among Central Asian states.Reforming the cotton sector is not easy. Central Asian cotton is traded internationally by major European and U.S. corporations; its production is financed by Western banks, and the final product ends up in well-known clothes outlets in Western countries. But neither the international cotton trading companies nor the clothing manufacturers pay much attention to the conditions in which the cotton is produced. Nor have international organisations or IFIs done much to address the abuses. U.S. and EU subsidy regimes for their own farmers make long-term change more difficult by depressing world prices.
Three years ago Craig Murray, our British ambassador to Uzbekistan, had a sense-of-humour failure about Britain condoning torture there. His fate? The Foreign Office fired him. Labour or Conservative? It doesn’t really matter does it, they are all the same.
To effect immediate change, you should demand that your apparel manufacturer state on their garment labels where their cotton comes from, and that it does not come from Uzbekistan. With the vast volume of T-shirts bought and sold, the message will quickly spread, and High Street retail will follow. Why am I doing this? As a large user of cotton, and with our influential position in the T-shirt industry, Continental Clothing has an opportunity, if not even a responsibility, to raise awareness and promote consumer action on issues where we feel strongly – such as the state orchestrated child slavery in Uzbekistan. The wonderful thing is that it costs us nothing, and may switch cause consumers to question the garments they buy and so switch them on to cotton garments which guarantee that certain positive social and environmental conditions are met – such as Continental garments. This is often the way with ethical and environmental choices, initially they appear expensive and difficult, until you realise they can be sustainable choices for a longer term and more profitable future. So yes, we are doing this because we can, and also for personal gain. If you follow the same formula, you may benefit in exactly the same way.
Philip Charles – Director. Philip can be reached at phil@continental-usa.com
We are origin68. We make pretty little t shirts for you to wear. It’s that simple. We like t shirts, we like good design, so the next logical step was to merge the two, et voila! Have a look on our little website – www.origin68.com
Five Red Bats is a new independent online fashion boutique which creates fashionable garments, all hand made, in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Even though the company is called Five Red Bats, there are actually only two bats – Kerry Fewster and Claire Hutchinson – two females who are fighting the high street fashion scene.
The pair met while working as designers in Leeds and formed a friendship that combined a passion for independent fashion and strong views against high street multiples and mass produced clothing.The goal became to create an independent fashion revolution, fighting against throw away fashion, supermarket collections and the ‚é„é²everything you want in one shop‚é„é´ lifestyle which they believe is sucking fashion‚é„é´s creative energy dry.
Five Red Bats first range of exclusive ready – to – wear collections for women, men and kids is now available online at www.fiveredbats.co.uk.
The bats are constantly designing and developing interesting and unique garments and are always on the look out for independent designers who believe in an independent revolution.For more information on Five Red Bats contact Kerry (07921 771942) or Claire (07867 920540). Alternatively email info@fiveredbats.co.uk or visit www.fiveredbats.co.uk
Five Red Bats, Batcave 166, 57 Great George Street, Leeds LS1 3AJ
