Episode 12: WTF Is Made In China?

0:09Hello guys and welcome to another episode of Pretty Busy. Today I thought what would be a really nice episode would be to take you through my perfect week in China because I feel like I really lifted the lid this trip. I had I obviously bought socials with me, I bought Sophie with me to really just film what a week in China looks like. Obviously, I feel like I've plopped my phone up previously and shown as much as I can. But it was really good to just have someone there to just film everything, because the reality is I am really busy in China. So if someone's filming me, that's great. Anyway, I was able to just show you like every single day what we was doing.

0:57Um, but it actually got a crazy amount of engagement. I never really thought I would have someone's attention for like five minutes of a day every day in the week to show you what we was doing in China. Um, but obviously it sparked loads of questions on, you know, people traveling to China, people going to China for their brand. And so I just thought I'd really break down my week in China because I know for a fact it is incredibly different to other brands trips to China. And I know that because whenever I post our China trips, I always get various different people who have worked in buying previously DM me and say, your China trips look so much fun.

1:42You know, previous companies I've worked with, they've been hell. and other company other people that have come to odd news from other companies have given me the same feedback and i think the main difference which i will get into as an odd news china trip is we pretty much spend the whole week with one supplier now other brands who obviously are releasing a lot more product than us but also are just bigger businesses than us that are more margin heavy they will hop between up to like 10 to 20 to 30 suppliers in that one trip so for me that just sounds like hell that is just not how I would want to do a china week the way in which we do our china week is we just spend it with one supplier we do now have a knit wear specialist so we'll do like an afternoon or a morning there um but other than that we are just in the same office every single week.

2:42And yeah, that's how we kind of do it. So I wanted to take you all through my perfect week in China, how we prepare and set ourselves up for success. But first of all, we must start with what's keeping me pretty and what's keeping me busy. Now, my one thing I wanted to say is keeping me pretty is the lip blush treatment that I had a few weeks ago but I kind of feel a bit icky putting a treatment on the pretty for this week because I personally thought about lip blush around two years before I went and got it and I would never want you to watch this episode and then go book lip blush think about it do some research find the best person for you but that's definitely was gonna make it I would much rather suggest a product that you can buy because that just feels like I don't know I just don't want you to just go get a treatment that I've you've not thought about I'm rambling so my pretty for this week is something that's definitely for the over 25s and it's tretinoin you need to be you know working tretinoin into your routine and you need to get it prescribed from a doctor or a nurse if If you go to someone for microneedling or Botox or anything like that, I hope to God they are, you know, they can prescribe, they are qualified enough to prescribe you things like tretinoin and stuff.

4:12And if they're not, please just know, come on guys. And there's a lot of that in the UK. Tretinoin is absolutely amazing for texture, for tightening, for pores. And I use it kind of like twice a week now. I used to just use it once a week. and when you use it you must make sure that there is a moisture barrier before and after so I've particularly been loving pairing it with the Vici water hyaluronic serum and then after I obviously do my Avene cream that I literally don't shut up about if you don't do that you will notice that it really like makes your skin like dry and flaky um so yeah that's my pretty what's been keeping me busy what's been keeping me busy is the chic season we sold out we didn't have barely enough stock so I mean it's it's quite annoying to sell out straight away because when you're like six years into the game because that is a missed opportunity if you've ever seen one but I just feel like where we're doing so many more skews than we was previously I think we're kind of like spreading ourselves too thin across a number of skews rather than previously being like a best seller brand like there's always hero products in a launch and we do when we're shooting the shoot we do pick out hero products but I just feel like we're not backing them enough like the Tweed Contrast Midi has had millions of views on socials I need to preface that Bethany Frankel has it in her possession.

5:57The Tweed Contrast MIDI is in Bethany Frankel's possession. We need thousands. And we literally had like 200 on launch. Obviously, they sold out. So this week, I was majorly supporting the buying team. And it was actually really fun. Like I was writing all my orders. I was splitting them by size. I was splitting them between the UK and the US. And I really got my buying hat back on. Could not have done it without ChatGBT, guys. I literally have linked my ChatGBT up to Shopify. So I wrote my order, I put it into ChatGBT. And I was like, can you just check this against, you know, sizes that are selling well in the US, sizing that is selling well in the UK, you know, what the split is between UK and US stock, how many units I should order like just check it all and we made a few like tweakments but I just thought that was just like the world has come so far since I was writing orders in like 2018 2019 um but yeah I've actually been really enjoying that the buying team in Obmuse is very very very light in comparison to marketing operations customer service because in the grand scheme of things we just don't release that many products but I think when you have a light team it it works and then when it has like a and you have a mega busy week you do have to support so I've just kind of told myself that for the next you know up until Christmas I really need to have like a day in my diary where I can really just support the buying team whatever I kind of need if if I say like oh I think we need 500 more of these dresses I know that I actually need to quantify that ask and actually present it to them rather than just saying I need 500 of these because yeah I'm just recognizing we're super super light but every single team goes through them awkward times where like you have crazy weeks but it's just not enough to hire someone that is just like the whole world of a founder in in early years um so I'd say the the the stock in odd muse is keeping me really busy but it's really fun and it's really just fun to see that that hint of the old not the old odd muse but you know people loving this new odd muse like you know like when odd muse was first being discovered on tiktok and there was loads of new people discovering us again we're in that realm again and it you know for the last couple years we've been super established and everything's been super consistent and it's amazing it's a much better way to live um but we're kind of in this rediscovery stage where people really new customers are discovering old music and it's so fun so that's been what's keeping me busy but let's dive into my china trip i broke it up on my phone and i wish i put it on my laptop because i know when i get this phone out there's going to be loads of messages.

9:07I'm going to just try and go straight to notes. So number one, your perfect week in China starts weeks before you fly. So the way in which I want to get to the office is loads of samples are waiting for me. And the reason why we go on these China trips is to complete a lot of product so what we'll do before maybe like up to four three four weeks before we'll send off as many tech packs as possible and definitely if we're looking to confirm a season definitely all the tech packs for that season so this trip we was confirming all of resort so all the tech packs were sent weeks in advance any ideas we've had for autumn winter next year any random ideas for call, we also send them over.

10:02And that just means on day one, Monday in the office, always just make sure you arrive in China on the Sunday night so you can be in the office for Monday 9am. And when I get there at Monday 9am, I have so many samples to review, but there's nothing to kind of, we're waiting on nothing. There's so many samples to review. So day one, we're always trying on loads of samples and what I particularly love about China and what I'm trying to move the business towards is only sampling in China because this play suit for example if I was to sample this play suit and I don't know the changes to the samples on this play suit is we ballooned the sleeve a little bit tightened it on the wrist we made the waist smaller we can just do that in China with the pattern maker and with the sample team on just one garment rather than sending garments back and forth for minuscule changes weeks and weeks and weeks shipping costs shipping time we just do it there and then on the one sample that is just so much better for everyone wins you know my factory are happy we're happy there's less samples there's less parcels going all around the world it is just game-changing and I started on me in 2020 um so I wasn't obviously able to travel to China because of COVID so for me it was so game-changing on my first China trip like samples can just be done there and then and I feel like that's why you're seeing odd muse we're able to i think the china trips show a lot in odd muse in in the fabrics and stuff like that but also just in the range we're able to bring out there's no way i would be able to release the skews that still as we know are minuscule compared to other brands but there's no way we would be able to expand our offering the way we have if we didn't do these china trips because we just need to be somewhere and get the samples there get the samples done then and there and yeah so the day one we will just try on all the samples we'll make all the amendments and that's actually like across a couple of days because the sample team will then make all these amendments some will be ready same day because it's literally just like bringing a hem up or like doing a small change others will be done later in the week but that first day trying on all the samples from the tech packs that you sent weeks in advance is very very very important and it's also just very nice to collaborate with your suppliers and you know sometimes they'll have ideas that you wouldn't have had like you know changing a button to a zip or just all little different details that they think would functionally work better you know we'll say what we think will look better and it's really really collaborative so making sure day one you have a season worth of samples to try on is game changing and then I think it's really good to get in a trip to the fabric market um with your suppliers again the first time I went around the fabric market I was so overwhelmed I had no idea I was just like picking up anything um really really no clue but sometimes you'll just land on a fabric that will just really inspire a collection like we've we've got this gorgeous fabric for resort next year and we're thinking of all what we can do with it I think the first time I went to the fabric market I just put it in my itinerary because everyone goes to the fabric market and I should just go but actually having you know the next season that you want to go into or the next category that you want to go into and this now falls in back into that prep so you're getting your samples prep for the season that you're looking to confirm but you also want to source for the next season so as much as we're confirming samples for spring summer we are then going to the fabric market for autumn winter 27 which literally makes me feel sick and even like city things like this time I didn't go but I sent our designer um and i told her that i'm looking for like jersey fabrics because the merino wall done so so well but i don't want to just assume that the only tank top we'll have on site is 125 pounds um and you know you have to dry clean it like there has to be like an easier option for a tank so we were looking for like viscose options for tanks and tops and jersey really just building out jersey as a category because I'm kind of done with my skims like they're way too casual I want tiny little details that just elevate this you know still easy dressing that people want but just like small elevations so we're constantly looking for just like easy tank fabrics and I wanted more bridal fabrics a lot I want to go more into embellished bridal styles because we have this floor on new bond street where you can literally book a bridal appointment but there's no like real like uber luxury bridal pieces in there um and the uber luxury bridal market is like ridiculous like i know that i can really enter that market with good prices rather than like literally the minimum for a bridal dress is like three thousand pounds which is crazy um so we're constantly looking on bridal.

15:50And then with autumn winter, it's, you know, knits, coats, fabrics. So I think that's really, really important to, you know, go to the fabric market with an idea of what you want. In fact, it's not important. It's actually essential. Otherwise, you're going to be me when I was like in 2023, walking around, just like picking up things that I didn't even know what they was going to be for. But definitely getting a fabric market trip in with your suppliers. And that's one of the reasons why I just like to spend the whole week with someone rather than just doing it all independently. Because again, it's more collaborative, they understand your brand.

16:32And they can teach you like I've lent on my suppliers for so long, especially in the early years when I really didn't have like a product team or anyone that really understood fabrics beyond my understanding, which honestly wasn't very much. So I just have loved someone over the years that I can just ask the most silly questions to because I'm learning. I went into this brand with a real understanding of commercial and buying and margins and freight and stuff like that. I didn't go into this business knowing much about garment construction and fabrics and zips and trims and all these different things.

17:16And so that's something that I've really learned over the years. I feel like you can really see that in like our sixth year of business. But yeah, establishing a relationship where you can go to the fabric market with them is very, very key. And I think one of the reasons and one of the questions I get asked the most is why I really don't spend the week factory hopping. because a lot of people would see a trip to China as a week to meet loads of suppliers. And, you know, the classic business advice that everyone who has been in the industry for longer than 10 years has always tried to tell me is, you know, we are at so much risk being with one supplier.

18:04Like 90 % of our SKUs are made with one supplier. And that is such a risk because if something tragic happened or something happened overnight and they just was no longer in business, we have no stock. And when we have no stock, we have nothing to sell. If we have nothing to sell, we have no money. And if we have no money, we have no team. And that's just bad for everyone. And I get that. I get that so much. That is a, you know, when I speak about other brands, you know, chasing after low margins and stuff like that, there is a less provocative reason as to why brands factory hop. And that is because, you know, if one factory lets them down, they have other options.

18:50And I do get that. And we definitely experienced growing pains with our suppliers. like you know odd muse grows when odd muse grows overnight and the demand doubles overnight so does theirs but they're the people that are literally making the clothes so you know our shopify can accept like growth overnight but we can't make the clothes quick enough like i can't express to you i can't express to you how much odd muse is not fast i should i wish it was a little bit faster at times like it our reorders take us you know the tweed contrast midi for example I managed to get a really really good date on that but I couldn't order the units that I wanted to I had to go with what fabric was in stock and luckily we had fabric in stock luckily we had fabric on the floor otherwise that dress would have had about a nine week lead time and that's really the quickest we can do whereas other brands can really buy into things within like a week or two which is insane um you know if if I get a five week lead time I I fall off my chair like it just that is fast for us um but anyway I'm rambling as we know I love too so yeah we've definitely experienced a few times where you know a new style is going crazy but you know we still we're still selling our capsules and our midis and they're still constantly in production so um that's one of the reasons why we also went to get a new like a new supplier for knitwear and one of the reasons we see one of the ways in which we see ourself kind of mitigating the risk a little bit is when we do want to go into new categories we will look for a specialist so knitwear will have a has a specialist we're still debating like who we are in the denim category but when we really start to take denim seriously we will find a denim specialist and even our suede we tried suede in china we could not achieve it for a good price so we went to turkey and we sourced in turkey again that's just one skew and very very minuscule but i think that's one of the ways we're kind of mitigating our risk but also we've just grown with our suppliers we've just had those open conversations even when I even when you know we're speaking internally about scaling this business to 100 million while I was in China I sat down with them on one of the days and kind of said we're scaling to 100 million and we want you to come with us and you know your business will have to grow behind the scenes with us and we'll we have to like make commitments of you know how many units we're going to order each month to make sure that they can you know invest in their growth knowing that we're going to put the orders in so we do a lot behind the scenes to kind of mitigate the risky position we put ourselves in which is you know putting 90 of our production through one supplier i think the next phase of that is finding another woven supplier for things like our cap sleeve and our midis and stuff that we always know is working i just always want to develop new dresses with amy and joy which are my suppliers that i've had for six years because that's where the china trips come into play that's where i feel most comfortable that's where we have the most fun that's where we collaborate these people know odd muse inside out they know the future of odd muse they know where we're going and i want to develop new product with them and So I think to like spread our risk a little bit more is, yeah, to find another waving supplier for like the cap sleeves and stuff like that.

22:44And but I think I'm speaking to found a lot of time I'm speaking to founders that are super, super early in their journey. And I just don't know why all the old business advice is telling you to have multiple different suppliers. is like I am only thinking about this as I scale to 100 million and as I've already reached 30 million without using that kind of old school business advice. So one supplier build the relationships over the years. I cannot, cannot, cannot stress that enough. Otherwise, these trips are going to be super overwhelming and you're just not going to want to do them. So that is my major key with suppliers.

23:29Suppliers is definitely the thing that I get asked about the most. You know, I think if you're going into fashion, you're producing in China, which by the way, I'm going to do a sub stack article on this and I'm going to name it. Should I say WTF? WTF is made in China because I saw a founder the other day, like do this whole post, it like what's made in China and it's like China is the manufacturing capital of the world they have positioned they've positioned themselves like that they have worked much harder than other countries to to position themselves in that way they have the best fabrics they have the highest technology they are set up to be the manufacturing capital of the world and when you are the manufacturing capital of the world there is going to be good and bad and it's the same with British manufacturing like pretty little thing have been caught multiple times using illegal factories in Leicester so if that made in the UK label makes you feel better it absolutely should not and it has to you know manufacturing cannot be generalized it has to be looked into case by case factory by factory I'm going to do a little end to this episode on like green and red flags when you're looking for a manufacturer.

24:51Yeah, I think China production is absolutely brilliant. I think it's super, super small minded to think that a whole huge part of the world, a whole huge country in this world is, you know, all manufacturing with cheap fabrics, with cheap labor and in unethical ways. It's super, super small minded. And I was actually, I remember I went for dinner in New York with the founder of Freya, Jenny. now she is actually from a province in China that is really really close to the factory that I use also the factory that she uses and we were just talking about like her mum and dad still live there we was just talking about how how small-minded people are and like towards made in China like these people there's literally amazing professionals out there and like the same as UK manufacturing like the same as US manufacturing, there is good and bad everywhere.

25:50So I champion and challenge WTF is made in China because Odd Muse is made in China and proudly, I'm so proud of our manufacturing story. I think that's why you see me go really like ham and lift the lid this year because one thing I've consistently said this year is I am owning the fact that Odd Muse just do it the right way when it comes to manufacturing. in. Coca-Cola for the big, for the small, the short and the tall peacemakers, risk takers, for the optimists, pessimists, for long distance love, for introverts and extroverts, the thinkers and the doers, for old friends and new. Coca-Cola for everyone.

26:41Pick up some Coca-Cola at a store near you. So yeah, should we talk about some green and red flags? I actually wrote a Substack article on how to land your dream supplier. And it's a very lengthy one. And it also has some homework on there on how you should email people how you should search for manufacturing how I genuinely feel. If I had the resources that 2026 has in 2020, I would have been able to find my manufacturer a lot more easily. So definitely, definitely head over to there because I've literally broke down like what you need to ask and what kind of answers you want to receive in returns.

27:20But I'd say the biggest green flag that it's not necessarily a green flag, but one thing I would say is don't contact a supplier. And if you're starting an activewear brand, for example, don't contact a supplier and think it's a green flag if they make for aloe or they make for tala or they make for any of these big activewear brands because nine times out of ten your order is going to be substantially smaller than the likes of these big brands that have kind of looked golden to you so you're not going to be prioritized they're not really going to have the time to spend with you because they have to prioritize brands and clients that are spending a lot of money with them because they're the people at the end of the day that are paying them and keeping their business alive and growing their business.

28:17So I think that's the biggest mistake I made when I was going out there. I wanted to hear that they was making for all these premium brands and these big labels. But in reality, no one was going to prioritize me. No one was going to give me a low minimum like if you're putting in an order for 30 to 50 units when aloe is ordering 20 000 leggings why are they going to prioritize me so looking for someone that is early in their journey is super super important and it's even the same like every time i'm in china my manufacturer will show me her whatsapp because people do get her number um and she will get so many messages like hi I just want to make like dresses like odd muse that is not the way to approach a supplier like they are going to have red flags for clients that they want to onboard like when I contacted my supplier I had my own tech packs I had you know you know a pitch of the business who we were I wasn't just like sending screenshots of other people just saying I want to make dresses like this.

29:24It's very good to have a visual idea of brands that you want to be like and stuff like that. But if that is in your opening, all that tells a manufacturer is you don't know who you are. You don't know the next six months to a year of this business. And there isn't not only is there only going to be small orders, but there's not going to be the longevity. The only way a manufacturer is going to prioritize you as a small you know fish in this majorly big pond which is the fashion industry is if they see potential in you and if if they see that there's a strong screwed on head on your shoulders for your business and so I think that's very very important to see it as not only you actually have to sell yourself more than more than they have to sell themselves to you a lot of people approach suppliers like they'd be you know lucky to have you have you onboarded and that's just not the attitude to have like I really knew that I needed a supplier to take a chance on me because I was not going to put those big orders in because I didn't have the funds to do that and also I didn't want to risk you know buying thousands of units when I didn't have the customer there so you know find identify that red flag in yourself first don't look for the huge suppliers that are manufacturing for all these big brands and don't think that you know they need your business you really need to you know sell yourself and I think that's a good challenge to put on a founder because you might actually ask yourself after this pod maybe I don't know the next year of my business maybe I don't know what I want the product to look like and you'll have to go back and do that work before you reach out to suppliers so that's a red flag to finding yourself.

31:12And again, referencing the subsec article that I wrote about questions that you really want to ask people is, you know, what are your minimums? What are your lead times? Do you have experience with, you know, freight to the UK? Do you have experience working with wholesalers? You never know. Be punchy. You might want to be selling to Selfridges in the first year or two and you want to make sure that, you know, your suppliers know how to facilitate a business to business order that isn't to the brand. The obvious one is making sure you either if you can't do a trip to their factories, making sure that you can at least do like a video tour, see their credentials.

31:54That's really, really important. And that goes for anywhere you are supplying in the world, because that is not a China problem. That is an industry problem. every single place you go. There are practices that are not running ethically and you just need to be self-aware of, you know, who you're putting your order through. I couldn't travel to China when I was first trying to find a supplier. And guys, I know that, you know, in an ideal world, you would travel to China and meet with loads of suppliers and do this whole interview process. But I promise you, you can do it online. Like nine times out of 10, that cash should be put away for when you actually start sampling and want to go view product and when you're comfortable with a supplier and I remember and I will I will officially let this go live because my team will love this I remember the first trip I went to China I was following kind of you know that old fashion business advice that I should definitely get a few new suppliers I wasn't I wasn't past five million at this point.

32:58You know, the factories were doing fine. There was no, there was really no reason other than I just listened to some crap advice. So I went to this supplier just to meet them. And I had the most overwhelming greeting in the world. And we will, you know, we'll clip this and we will run this video of me walking into this supplier where I had like 40 office staff clapping, cheering for me, giving me flowers. It was insane. And I remember walking the factory floor and I just didn't, I didn't like the factory. I remember going through their sample racks. I didn't like any of the brands they was working with something felt something felt very very off and it just felt a lot and so you know traveling between loads of suppliers and doing this interview process might not actually be the best use of your time and money because yeah once I got once I got into that supplier I remember seeing a cap sleeve hanging up and I remember thinking like how have they done how have they different brands label in it and it felt super different.

34:15But I basically saw like a range of odd news dresses hanging up. When I got close, they obviously wasn't the same quality and they had all these different brand labels in. And I just remember thinking like, why, why am I here? Like, you know, where, why haven't I done the due diligence? And when I'm asking them, you know, how many, how many, how many units do you send out a month? Like, what's your capacity? like across all brands how many units are you sending out a month and they said something crazy to me like 900 000 units and i was just like why am i here like i don't want anyone who is pushing 900 000 units a month like that is insane that is that is insane and i think you're gonna if you go to china on this interview process you're gonna try and be like overwhelmed by all like them wanting to onboard you um but in actual fact allowing yourself to have like calls with these people and ask really neat great questions will just like whittle it down only go to china when you're like really sure and like maybe like four or five that you want to choose but i promise you you can find your perfect supplier virtually save the investment of a china trip for when you are building that relationship with that supplier that you've chosen um another red flag to look for in suppliers and it might not always be something that you can do before you place an order with them but basically again when I was um doing this whole thing I was I just had someone in the company that was really giving me all for advice um externally when I was doing this whole like oh maybe I should like spread myself a little bit thinner before we was even like a huge brand And when we started doing the crystals for party, I was like, again, this is kind of like a new category.

36:13Let's let's find another supplier for crystals. Like I want to just do things slow. I want to test things. I don't want to go all or nothing with another supplier because I don't really want to be doing this anyway. Like I like my suppliers, like I'm doing this against my will. So we produce the crystals with this supplier. Who, to be totally honest, their factory was lovely. There was an amazing company. You know, I visited them on my first trip to China. I was really, really like stunned by their embellishment and their work. We put the order in. And I remember this. I will never forget the Christmas of 24 that they ruined.

36:54One thing you need to start doing with suppliers, especially when you've got a new supplier that you're doing an order with, is you must do post-production shipment. So this is where the supplier will finish the order and they will send you a size run of each SKU. And then we in office will check that it is like the sample that we have ordered. Instead of it just going straight to the warehouse and us not knowing that we're just trusting that it's exactly the same. Obviously, we're doing QC in China. We have to check over ourselves. We need a brand level eye doing spot checks on this SKU. so we do post-production it comes through the gorgeous hand-sewn crystals have been glued on they've been like disgustingly glued on in random areas you can see the thick glue it's literally disgusting and we actually paid a premium to get these crystals in and yeah that's what happened to the crystals when they first launched they production was done and they was the hand sewn crystals that we was sold and we was like this is literally going to change the brand this is amazing crystals have then gone on obviously to be super successful and amy makes them amazingly um they were glued on by this awful factory and i think that is another thing that you need to be doing when you are when you are producing anywhere else in the world external to your company.

38:24It's even important with our suppliers that we know and trust that sometimes, you know, mistakes happen and we are going to spot things that look quite different. So yeah, post-production when you first work with suppliers is absolutely essential, but I just think it's really useful to keep it up because spotting a problem before you pay thousands in freight important duty is incredibly important. Are there any more like red and green flags that I want to call out? I think, again, I really need you to go to this Substack article if all this that I'm saying now is really making you think like, well, but I think to kind of like close out this episode is communication is absolutely key.

39:08Like obviously me and my suppliers have an amazing relationship built over six years we you know we're each other's like family and friends at this point but you know in between these china trips communication is absolutely key like we're not just like emailing each other and sending tech packs over we are having like weekly calls with these people um about you know catching up on what samples are in production what production is finishing soon we're catching up on wholesalers you know how they want their orders packed how their barcodes need to be every single brand has different needs and we're constantly staying close and getting face time with our suppliers like you have to you have to build this relationship outside of emails as much as possible and that is a challenge when you do live on the other side of the world you need to take into you definitely need to take into account time zones like for example we was gonna put that tweed contrast midi order in on a friday and in my head i'm like why are we going to do that on a friday at 5 p.m in china when we wake up so i you know i'm working to try and get that order into them so it's friday morning instead of friday night like things like that you constantly need to be thinking about the time zone and communication and face time with your suppliers and even now like as we're scaling I've put myself in a position where I can travel to China up to four to five times a year because one China trip for us now isn't enough it was certainly super super helpful once or twice a year and when we was kind of like scaling to where we are now like one trip a year one twice a year is perfect to most of the founders that I'm speaking to but as we're scaling as we're re-strategizing as we're testing new things I know in order to achieve this with my suppliers I need to be traveling there a lot more often so that's why I you're probably going to see me going a lot more often I do not want you to think that you need to go to China like every other month because you don't how should we run off this episode I don't know I just feel like with the China trips there's there's just when you're onboarding a supplier when you're finding a supplier and when you are building a relationship still six years in there is just so much to say about producing in China finding a supplier maintaining relationships you know going into new categories with them sourcing new suppliers for new categories there's just I could do I could write a book I could you know film a whole movie on China but yeah I just always really love to champion Chinese production and I love to just champion Odd Muse because honestly guys I say it and I say it over and over again we're owning it this year we are one of the biggest hearts in the fashion industry and I'm just so proud of myself over the years and my team and just the brand as a whole for just really choosing to grow with someone because as much as it needs to be mitigating risks margins and whatnot it's just been the biggest joy in my journey to just be with these hilarious people that I just love so much and I enjoy traveling like these weeks in China are just the joy of my life I get so much I get so much work done you know I love finishing a week being super super productive but to be able to like finish a week and not be overwhelmed and you know feel like I actually had a lot of fun is just weeks that often don't exist in our lives like we either had to have a really great great work week or a really fun personal week and I managed to just achieve both in these weeks in China so I hope that is an amazing insight into what a week in China looks like red and green flags but you do have a lengthy piece of work on my sub stack to complete if you are seriously looking for a supplier whether that's China or not and I've left you some homework so make sure you go to my sub stack and remember to stay pretty and stay busy um I'll see you in the next one let me know if you enjoyed that episode I actually really I could like I said I could talk about China all day long but I'll see you in the next one I hope that you're listening to this on Spotify and I'll see you in the next episode