Organic Cotton Mesh Slip Midi - Sheer Cotton Slip for OEM

A midi slip listed as 100% organic cotton, unlined, pull-on, in a lightweight mesh with a lace trim and adjustable straps, machine wash cold, made in Portugal, ranked third in the retailer's slip list, at 98 dollars. The listing states plainly that the garment is made of a semi-sheer fabric and that underwear will be visible. There are no reviews and no fit votes, so there is no score to quote. This is the cheapest garment we have covered in this series and it does something that garments costing twenty five times as much have not done, which is worth saying because it settles an argument we have been having with retail pages for some time. There is also a measurement here that would be alarming on a dress and is not alarming on this, and the reason is the category rather than the garment, which is a distinction worth drawing. And the care instruction places the same obligation we identified recently on a much more expensive dress, except here it lands on a fibre that shrinks a great deal more. The reference is The Midi Slip Dress by Cou Cou Intimates in White. Dongguan Bafinasa Garments Co., Ltd. develops comparable cotton slips on OEM and ODM terms, from fabric sourcing to retail or FBA ready packing. We publish this as a development reference and build your own version of it, and we do not supply the branded original or reproduce anyone else's label.

Key Features

• 100% organic cotton as stated
• Lightweight mesh fabric as stated
• Sheerness stated on the listing: made of a semi-sheer fabric, underwear will be visible
• Adjustable straps as stated
• Lace trim as stated
• Pull-on as stated
• Machine wash cold as stated
• Made in Portugal as stated

Customisable Options

• Fabric: organic cotton lightweight mesh as the reference, with the weight set from a tested sample
• Shrinkage: we would pre-shrink before cutting, for the reason set out below
• Sheerness: stated on the page, as the reference does, and we would keep that
• Straps: adjustable as the reference, which we would keep
• Length from mini to maxi, trim width, size set, colour development, private label and care labelling

Specifications

Size Chart

The published size S gives a 23 inch bust, a 22 inch waist, a 32 inch hip and a 43 inch length against a model at roughly 33, 24 and 35. Ten inches of negative ease at the bust would be a warning on a dress. On a slip, which is cut to sit close to the body, it reads differently, and we would measure it on a body rather than assume.

Occasions and Styling

Suits layering, wearing at home and warm weather. A cotton mesh slip is a layering piece and an underlayer as much as a dress, and it is worth photographing it under something as well as on its own, since both are how it will be worn.

Production and Quality Control

There are no reviews and no fit votes on this listing, so there is no score to quote. There is a sentence on this page that settles an argument, a measurement that has to be read by category, and a care instruction that carries the heaviest factory obligation we have identified.

The cheapest garment in this series says the thing the expensive ones do not, and that is the first thing, and it is worth stating because we have been making this point for a long time without a clean example. The listing says the garment is made of a semi-sheer fabric and that underwear will be visible. That is the whole of it, two clauses, and it is exactly what we have been asking for. We have argued throughout that saying a garment is sheer costs nothing on a page and prevents the returns that follow when a customer discovers it herself, and we have held up one listing as the best example we had seen because it said the garment was transparent, said underwear would show, and then added that underwear was not included. That last clause is a nice touch but it is the first two that do the work. Now consider what we have met instead. There was a gown whose name meant translucent, where we said a hint that depends on the customer's vocabulary is not a warning at all. There was a sheer maxi filed by the retailer under sheer dresses where the garment's own description said nothing about it, so the customer was left to work it out from photographs, which is the least reliable way. There was a backless mini where the retailer's badge said backless and the page never mentioned it. Those garments cost several hundred to several thousand dollars. This one costs 98 and it says so in plain words. So this is not a matter of price, or of care, or of whether a brand knows. It is a decision about whether to write it down. It is also worth noting what makes it easy here: this is a mesh cloth, and a mesh has holes in it by definition, so there is no version of this garment that is opaque and no photograph that could pretend otherwise. The brands that stay silent are usually the ones whose cloth might pass unnoticed in a photograph, which is precisely the case where the customer needs telling.

The same number means different things in different categories, and that is the second thing. The bust is published at 23 inches against a model at 33, which is ten inches of negative ease, and there is no elastane in the composition at all. On a dress we would treat that as a warning and immediately ask what mechanism could produce it, and on the last two garments where we met a figure like this we concluded the number was probably measured differently: once a flat half measurement, and once a front width on a garment with an open back. Here we think the answer is neither, and it is worth saying why. This is a slip, made by a brand whose business is underwear, and slips are cut to sit close to the body because that is their job: they are worn next to the skin, often under something else, and a slip that stands away from the body would bunch and show through whatever is over it. So a slip is supposed to be smaller than the body in a way a dress is not, and a certain amount of negative ease is not a red flag in this category but the point of it. The general lesson is that a measurement cannot be read without knowing the category any more than it can be read without knowing how the garment is made, which is the point we made about the open back and the gathered waist. A slip, a compression gown and a shift dress can all publish the same number and mean three different things by it. We would still measure this on a body, because ten inches is a lot even for a slip, and because a customer who does not know the category will read it as a dress would.

Machine washing cotton puts the heaviest pre-shrinking obligation on the factory, and that is the third thing, and it is a bigger obligation here than the one we identified recently. We looked at a polyester and viscose knit maxi that was also machine wash cold, and made the point that a machine wash instruction is the only one that places the burden on the factory rather than on the customer: every other instruction tells her what to do, and this one tells her she can put it in a machine, which means the garment had better survive a machine, and whether it does was decided months earlier. That garment was 40% viscose. This one is 100% cotton, and cotton shrinks considerably more than viscose, and it keeps shrinking a little over the first several washes rather than settling after one. So if this slip is cut and sewn from cloth that has not been shrunk first, the customer will wash it and it will come out smaller than the size chart, and on a garment already cut to sit close to the body a few per cent is the difference between a slip and a too-small slip. The obligation is the same as on the other dress, only larger: pre-shrink the cloth before cutting, and test the washed dimensions rather than the as-cut ones. There is one further point specific to this cloth. It is a lightweight mesh, and an open structure has less dimensional stability than a closely woven one, so it is more inclined to distort in a machine than the same fibre in a plain weave would be. We would specify a wash bag in the care instructions, which is a small thing that materially reduces both distortion and snagging on the lace trim. Every bulk shipment gets a measurement report against your approved chart.

Optional upgrades include pre-shrinking specified before cutting and washed dimensions tested, a wash bag recommended in the care instructions, the sheerness stated on the page as the reference does, adjustable straps kept, alternative trim widths and placements, alternative lengths, extended sizing, colour development and private label, hangtag and care labelling.

Pre-production sample approval, in-line inspection during cutting and sewing, and a final AQL inspection before packing, with measurement reports and photos shared before shipment.

Send us your tech pack, a photo or a reference garment and we will quote within 24 hours. Contact bafinasa@bafinasa.com or WhatsApp +86 13827222469.