Brown Check Shirred Midi Dress - OEM

The Emmy Dress from Damson Madder, in a brown check, with a shirred panel in the bodice, shirred elbow length sleeves, godet panels in the skirt, a square neckline and a button and keyhole detail, listed at 95 GBP with five of six sizes in stock. It is worth beginning with the bust column, because it is clean. Across the six sizes it goes 36, 38, 40, 42, 44 and 46 centimetres, stepping two, two, two, two and two. Every step identical, no wobble, no jump. This run has now found three perfectly uniform columns across its whole length and this is one of them, so the brand should be credited for it. And then the problem, which is the interesting part, is that a clean column on this particular garment is not enough. The bodice is shirred. So 36 centimetres flat, which doubles to 72 centimetres around, is the measurement of the shirring at rest, and the whole point of shirring is that it stretches. The panel gives the relaxed measurement and never the extended one, so the single most important number on a shirred garment, which is how far it opens, is the one number the page does not have. And that matters more here than it usually would, because the grade is two centimetres flat per size, which is about one and a half inches of circumference, and a UK size step is around two inches. So the bodice is being graded slightly behind the body it is cut for, and the shirring is taking up a growing share of the difference as the sizes go up. At size 16 the elastic is doing more work than it does at size 6, and the page does not publish the range within which it can do it. The second thing worth setting out sits in the care label, and it is small and it is a first. The instruction is machine wash at 30 degrees. That is a number. This run has been asking, on garment after garment, for a temperature in place of the word cold, and has not had one until now. The reference is the Emmy Shirred Midi Dress in Cocoa Check. Dongguan Bafinasa Garments Co., Ltd. develops comparable dresses on OEM and ODM terms, from cloth sourcing and shirring development 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

• Pit to pit stepping exactly 2 cm at all five steps, one of the cleanest columns in this run. See the note below
• A shirred bodice measured only at rest, with no extended measurement and no stretch range. See the note below
• A 2 cm flat grade against a UK size step of about 2 in, so the shirring takes a growing share as the size rises. See the note below
• Shirred sleeves with a frozen 29 cm length, and shirring adds width rather than length. See the note below
• Machine wash at 30 degrees, the first temperature in this run. See the note below
• A composition of 100% cotton on a shirred garment, with no elastic declared. See the note below
• Godet panels as stated, with no godet count, depth or hem sweep measured. See the note below

Customisable Options

• Cloth: cotton to the reference, with the weight in grams per square metre stated, or a cotton poplin, or a cotton lawn, or a cotton and linen mix, or a viscose, each quoted separately
• Shirring: a shirred bodice to the reference, with the relaxed and extended measurements both stated, or a shirred back panel only, or an elasticated waist, or a plain fitted bodice, each quoted separately
• Shirring Elastic: elastic thread to the reference, with the type and the extension range stated, or a covered elastic, or a smocked panel, each quoted separately
• Sleeve: shirred elbow length sleeves to the reference, with the relaxed and extended sleeve opening stated, or a plain short sleeve, or a long sleeve, or a sleeveless bodice, each quoted separately
• Skirt: godet panels to the reference, with the godet count, depth and hem sweep stated, or a gathered skirt, or a pleated skirt, or an A line skirt, each quoted separately
• Neck: square neckline to the reference, with the depth stated, or a round neck, or a V neck, each quoted separately
• Cloth weight, relaxed and extended shirring measurements at every size, shirring extension range and elastic type, godet count, depth and hem sweep, neckline depth, sleeve opening relaxed and extended, zip length and brand, button size and keyhole depth, check size and repeat, shrinkage and colourfastness, size set, colour development, private label and care labelling

Specifications

Size Chart as Published by the Reference

The pit to pit figures are flat half measures taken with the dress laid down, doubling to 72, 76, 80, 84, 88 and 92 cm around, or 28.35, 29.92, 31.50, 33.07, 34.65 and 36.22 in. The bust steps exactly 2 cm at every step. The bodice is shirred, so these are relaxed measurements and the page gives no extended measurement and no stretch range. The sleeve length is 29 cm and the total length is 106 cm at all six sizes. No size conversion is published for sizes 6 to 16.

Our Proposed Body Chart

Occasions and Styling

Suits autumn and everyday dressing. A brown checked cotton midi with a shirred bodice works with a flat boot and a knit, and the godet skirt moves well.

Production and Quality Control

The reference publishes three columns for all six sizes, grades its bust column perfectly, gives a care instruction with an actual temperature in it, states the fibre to the percentage, names the neckline, the neck detail, the bodice construction, the sleeve construction, the skirt construction and the closure, names the country of production and carries six photographs. It gives no cloth weight, no relaxed or extended shirring measurement, no stretch range, no godet count, depth or hem sweep, no neckline depth, no sleeve opening, no zip length, no check size or repeat, no shrinkage, no colourfastness, no size conversion, no model, no fit statement and no elastic in its composition panel. Three things follow: the shirring that is measured at rest and not in use, the grade that asks the shirring to do more at the larger sizes, and the temperature that finally appears.

Two, two, two, two, two, and thirty six, and that is the first thing, and the credit and the problem arrive together in the same number. The pit to pit goes 36, 38, 40, 42, 44 and 46 centimetres across six sizes. Every step is exactly two centimetres. This run has now found three perfectly uniform columns in its entire length, and this is one of them, so the brand should be credited: the pattern was graded properly and the numbers were published as drawn. Now the problem. Thirty six centimetres flat doubles to seventy two centimetres around, which is about twenty eight and a third inches. And the bodice is shirred. Shirring is smocking worked with elastic thread, and its entire purpose is to contract at rest and open under load. So seventy two centimetres is the measurement of this bodice doing nothing, and the number a customer actually needs is the measurement of it doing its job. The page gives the first and not the second. There is no extended measurement, no stretch range, no ratio, nothing. And this run wants to be clear that this is a different failure from the ones it usually finds, because it is not an omission caused by laziness about detail. A shirred garment has two meaningful dimensions at the bodice, and publishing one of them is publishing half a specification. It is worth putting the numbers on it, because they show why the missing figure is not academic. A UK size six body has a bust of roughly thirty inches. The dress measures about twenty eight and a third inches around at rest. So the bodice is smaller than the body it is labelled for, and the shirring is what makes up the difference. That is exactly how a shirred bodice is supposed to work, and it is not a fault. But it means the garment's entire fit depends on a range that is never stated. And it gets worse across the sizes, for a reason the clean grade makes visible. The grade is two centimetres of flat measure per size, which is four centimetres of circumference, which is about one and a half inches. A UK size step is around two inches. So the bodice is being made about half an inch bigger per size while the body it is cut for is getting two inches bigger. The shirring therefore has to open further at every size up the range, and by size sixteen it is carrying a substantially larger deficit than it carries at size six. That is a real design question and the page gives no way to answer it. It is worth adding what is missing from the fibre panel, because it belongs to this. The composition says 100% cotton. Shirring requires elastic. There is no elastane, no elastic thread, no rubber, nothing. So a stretch mechanism that is visibly present in the garment, and that the fit of the garment depends on entirely, does not appear in the composition at all. This run has spent a great deal of this run asking whether a garment has a stretch mechanism to account for its measurements, and has usually found either a claim of stretch without a mechanism or a mechanism without a number. Here is a mechanism with no entry in the panel.

Twenty nine, and that is the second thing, and it needs care because it partially answers a criticism this run has made many times. This run has found a great many frozen sleeve columns and has said each time that a sleeve repeated across every size is a sleeve that will be short on everyone above the smallest, and has said that this is a real cost rather than a technicality. Here the sleeve is 29 centimetres at all six sizes. But the sleeves are shirred. And shirred sleeves stretch. So a larger arm does get more room, and the criticism does not land in its usual form. This run should say so rather than repeat a formula. Having said that, there is a version of the criticism that still lands, and it lands harder for being precise. Shirring adds circumference. It does not add length. The sleeve opening will widen to take a bigger arm, but the sleeve is still 29 centimetres long, and the arm inside a size sixteen body is longer than the arm inside a size six body. Elastic cannot fix that. So the shirring solves the problem it happens to solve and leaves the one it does not. And the same applies to the length of the dress, which is 106 centimetres frozen across all six sizes, while the bust grows by ten centimetres. So the whole garment gets wider and not longer, in both directions. It is worth adding the sleeve description, because it belongs with a point this run is making across this batch. The description says elbow length sleeves and the chart says 29 centimetres. This run cannot be certain these disagree, because it does not know where the tape starts and the page does not say. But it is worth flagging, because an elbow length sleeve measured from a shoulder is normally closer to 35 or 40 centimetres than to 29, and this run has just measured a short sleeve on another garment in this same batch at 39 to 42 centimetres. So across one batch, an elbow length sleeve is 29 centimetres and a short sleeve is 39. The words have come loose. It is worth closing on the godets, because the same shape of omission appears there. The description says godet panels add fullness and volume, creating a flattering silhouette. The godets are the mechanism by which the skirt does the thing the page says it does. There is no godet count, no godet depth, and no hem sweep. So the skirt's silhouette is described in prose and measured nowhere, and flattering is doing the work of a number.

Thirty degrees, and that is the third thing, and it is small and it is worth marking because this run has been asking for it for a very long time. The care instruction reads machine wash at 30 degrees. That is a number, in degrees, on a garment page. This run has met cold on a great many garments and has said each time that cold is a word and not a specification, because cold means different things in different places and tells nobody what to set a machine to. This is the first garment in this run to publish an actual temperature. And it is worth saying what makes it notable, because the garment is the cheapest one in this batch by a wide margin and cheaper than most of what this run has looked at. At 95 GBP, against 355 GBP for another garment published in this same batch, this dress grades its bust column perfectly and publishes a temperature, while the garment at more than three times the price has a bust column that steps three, one and two and puts dry clean only on 100% cotton. Price and specification quality are not related here, and if anything they run the other way. This run has been saying for batch after batch that these omissions are choices rather than costs, and a 95 GBP dress with a clean grade and a numbered temperature is about as direct a demonstration of that as could be asked for. It is worth adding what is still missing from the care label, because the credit does not close it. There is a temperature and nothing else. No cycle, no washing inside out, no washing with like colours on a dark checked cotton, no bleach instruction, no tumble instruction, no ironing instruction on a cotton dress, and no shrinkage figure. Cotton shrinks, and a 106 centimetre dress that shrinks three per cent is a 103 centimetre dress, and the difference between those two on a body is the difference between a midi and a shorter midi. It is worth ending on the two absences that matter most on this particular garment, because they are the ones that would have resolved the shirring question. There is no model. A model height on a 106 centimetre dress would tell a customer where the hem falls on a body, which is the single thing a length number cannot convey on its own. And there is no size conversion for sizes 6 to 16, so a customer who does not already know her UK size has nothing to work from. It is worth noting which size is missing from stock, because it is the one that fits the argument. Size 16 is the only one unavailable. That is the size at which the shirring is carrying the largest deficit, and the size a customer can no longer check. Every bulk shipment gets a measurement report against your approved chart.

Optional upgrades include publishing the relaxed and extended shirring measurements at every size and the extension range, declaring the elastic in the composition panel, grading the bust at about 2.54 cm flat per size if the UK step is to be matched, grading the sleeve length and the dress length across the sizes, adding the godet count, depth and hem sweep, the neckline depth, the sleeve opening relaxed and extended, the zip length and brand, the button size and keyhole depth, the check size and repeat, the cloth weight in grams per square metre, a cycle, a bleach instruction, a drying instruction and an ironing instruction to sit beside the temperature, shrinkage and colourfastness figures, a size conversion, a model height and fit guidance, cotton poplin, cotton lawn, cotton linen and viscose, a shirred back panel, an elasticated waist, a plain fitted bodice, gathered, pleated and A line skirts, round and V necklines, size set, colour development, 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.