Sourcing and Manufacture

Made to Order

1800 Gallons operates on a Made to Order basis - that means no stock is held and works starts on your order as it comes in. The up side of this is you can customise your order and make requests to personalise your piece and make it one to treasure. Tweak the fit, change the topstitch colour or opt for an entirely different denim wash.

Sourcing Fabrics

1800 launched from about 30 pairs of vintage Levi's jeans gifted from Emily's uncle who used to buy one pair a year from America whilst working in the country music space. The deadstock was generously donated from a London costume house and friends who work in the fashion industry and saved surplus denim from the bin!

The denim now comes from vintage fairs (Mile End and Cornwall recently), charity shops (lucky there is a Bernado's downstairs!), trawling eBay, friend's wardrobes and deadstock suppliers in London. Whilst there is no way to know what kind of conditions some of the secondhand jeans were initially produced in, they have already had at least one owner and are now being saved from a potential life of landfill. Once they come into the studio and are reinvented, you can be sure they are produced in safe and fair working conditions.

The majority of 1800 linings are upcycled cotton shirts - again donated or sourced from vintage fairs. Deadstock cottons which were otherwise going to be left unused have also been donated from the same London costume house.

Sourcing Trims

As a very small company that launched with zero financial backing, sourcing the most sustainable trims proved to be a difficult feat. Things like zips and buttons are still relatively new to the trim market and have incredibly high minimums that would simply not be a sustainable buy at this stage. Currently garments are sewn together with rPet threads (although switching to cotton may be a possibility in the future), the majority of zips are YKK and additional trims are sourced from haberdasheries and wholesalers within London. 1800 uses traditional iron on fusing and 100% organic cotton lining where it is not possible to reuse shirting. In the future an exploration into fully biodegradable and more environmentally friendly fusings is definitely on the to-do list as it becomes more widely available and affordable to small businesses.

Manufacture

Respecting the people who manufacture clothing is one of 1800's core values. The entire collection was developed, pattern cut and cut out by Emily in the Brixton studio. A number of samples were produced in a factory in North London and 1800 has also worked with independent seamstresses. Everybody who works on the pieces must be paid at least a living hourly wage (usually it is much higher than this as sewing is incredibly skilled and should be compensated as such).

Currently all the orders are produced in house by Emily herself as and when they come in. It is an incredibly small scale operation which means the supply chain is entirely traceable from the obtaining of the materials to production and shipping.

Still have more questions?

Drop the studio an email and Emily will be happy to answer any further questions about the manufacturing process.