Kumusta VINTA Lovers!
I know I just shared an update very recently, but with the recent sale and new product drops it seems like we cannot make stuff fast enough for y'all! This is a super great thing for the business in some ways, so we want to thank you all for your support! That said, the constant "sold out" sticker on our products is not super fun for you, the shopper. And we are honestly trying our best! We have been bombarded with emails and dm's regarding when the restocks are coming...I wanted to write this update and give you all some context.
In general we have always championed the #slowfashion movement, and not as a marketing ploy! It is because the way we do things actually take more time. Like so much more time. Some of our long-time fans know that we have a small team of women who work in our atelier who make our gorgeous garments from start to finish. So a team of 8 women. Eight (8). That includes pattern maker, cutter, sewers, and embroiderers. This team of 8 is responsible for making our ready to wear products (at full capacity we are making only 25-40 pieces of each design), as well as our custom orders, which have already more than doubled compared to last year! Yay! But... we are facing some challenges right now.
Most recently, one of our atelier team members was exposed to covid and ended up getting sick. We had to shut down for a couple of days to get everyone tested...twice. That said, we lost an integral team member for 3 weeks (but she has recovered yay!). And another integral (ok ALL of our team members are incredibly integral because there is so few of them!) team member, had a planned leave of absence of a month, to visit her 93 year old mother in Bicol. She had not been able to visit her mom for more than a year, with the pandemic and all.
Speaking of the pandemic, things in the Philippines have not improved much. There was a new lock down imposed recently, and vaccine roll out is mostly non-existent. With the exposure of one of our employees, we have had to go back to our initial astringent covid protocol (we had implemented in March 2020), and that is, if they want to work, they have to stay in the VINTA house, where they have a safe and comfortable "work from home" situation. With that though, we now we have lost a couple more of our integral team members who need to go home everyday for childcare. It's been very difficult navigating these challenges, making sure everyone has access to their livelihood, but still making sure everyone is safe.
At this time we have a job posting on facebook for machine embroiderers who can "stay-in" to replace that ones we had who are now on leave. If you have relatives at home who are looking for employments please connect us by messaging info@vintagallerycom. We also have just hired a couple of new sewers to the team, but they are still getting the training to ensure their work passes our very high quality assurance standards. Hence...slooowwww fashion.
We are trying our very best to get you the best quality product, but that takes us some time. Our restocks timelines cannot be expected to be like fast fashion time lines. We appreciate your patience and understanding. We, Sydney (who answers all customer service emails and custom order coordination, and all operations management!), Nikki (who wraps up all your garments so beautifully and ships them out, does all our IT and back end, AND models!), and I (y'all know I shoot all the photos- even the ones I model, design all the garments, including couture orders, and run the company at large) thank you so much for your support! It means the world to us.
P.S. The Lingling-o pendants (which are handcast in the Philippines) are hand assembled by, yours truly ;) I am trying to assemble as quickly as possible, but y'all buy em out faster than I can make them! Thank you for your patience and support!
Ingat palagi,
caroline and the VINTA Team
