Behind the Scenes - Where Our Pyjamas are Made

This month we went to visit our wonderful team in Portugal who make our chic and comfortable pyjamas. The team are based on a large sight in the North of Portugal that is family owned.  You enter it via a long tree-lined drive with lots of greenery surrounding the multiple buildings.  It is a vertically integrated factory which means that the cotton is spun, woven, dyed and finished all on one site.  The beautiful pyjamas are also crafted all on the same site - meaning fewer air miles and better transparency. By 2025 the factory are aiming to produce 60% of the energy they use. 

They make all of our pyjamas using Better Cotton Initiative Cotton (BCI Cotton). This cotton is grown in a more sustainable way and benefits farmers by improving working conditions and providing higher standards of living. The communities benefit from inequalities being confronted and women being more empowered. 

It is a team of highly skilled women who make our pyjamas. They each have a specific job to do in the creation of the garments - be that the making of the button holes, adding the interfacing or working on the piping. The pieces are passed around from station to station until the garment is finished and passes through Quality Control. At the beginning the patterns will have been created from mock-up samples and a sophisticated computer programme works to place the pattern pieces on the fabric in the most economic way so wastage is minimised. 

A day at the factory is split into two shifts - the first team work from 6am-2pm and then the next 2pm-10pm. The women were all very friendly - not all speaking English and lots had worked there many years. There is also a Nursery on site with 210 children attending. 

 For us at Sian Esther it is really important that we build trusting and mutually beneficial relationships with our suppliers who are able to create quality pieces and are actively striving to do better in terms of sustainability and for their people. 

Next on the blog will feature our Guide to Porto.