HOW WE WORK

In every print project there is more than meets the eye. That’s why Maison Le Callennec remains by your side through every production.

So let’s start with finding out how things work at the Maison: good preparation of your design, the process, tarifs, timings, design dos and don’ts and general knowledge that will help making your print successful.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Maison Le Callennec create two bi-annual collections each year. You can register to get access to our online gallery and easily make selections and enquiries. On the production side, we act as an interface between the factory floor and you : we provide you with our expertise to develop the best prints, and we follow up your production through to completion to ensure you are delivered in the best possible conditions. We are by your side through the process to provide you with quick information on your production, and to help it run as smoothly as possible.

For larger production volumes we act as agents, opening the right doors, and ensuring you are delivered the service you need. 

5 QUESTIONS TO GET STARTED

We will need as much of this information as possible to provide the best solutions for your prints. When you think you’re ready, then it’s time to tell us about your project!

1. What quantity are you looking to put into production? Having a rough idea of your quantities will help us advise on the best fabric, printing technic and design.

2. What type of product and fabric are you envisioning? Every project starts with selecting the right fabrics to print on, for which we send samples and tarifs. 

3. When do you need to have your print delivered ? See our average lead times to avoid surprises.

4. Do you already have a design ? If so, share it with us from the outset to check feasibility. Or to take a moment to explore Maison Le Callennec’s collections to find one (you’ll have to register on first visit). Before sending, check our preparing for print fact sheet.

5. For new brands, we’ll need to know the market you are aiming to target and where your products will be distributed. The more you can tell us about this, the more we can share our experience.

TARIFS AND QUOTES

Print proofs

For each design that you ask us to print, we grade colours, test on the fabric of your choice and send you a printed sample proof for validation. We only need to do this once per design (differences in colours are considered a different design) and per fabric type, when validated we will use the same settings to print your production and re-runs. We’ve created degressive all inclusive bundle tarifs that apply to development work of several designs on the same fabric :

  • One design: 99€ h.t.
  • Two designs: 130€ h.t.
  • Three designs: 150€ h.t.
  • Four designs: 170€ h.t.

Applies to all our fabrics except silk. Transport comes on top. Make sure your design(s) comply with our preparing for print fact sheet.

Tarifs for prototypes and production

Each fabric has its printing tarif, which is degressive in relation to quantity (the more you print, the lower the tarif). Price is given “per finished printed meter”, it includes fabric, printing and all preparation and finishes.

Each tarif is given “for each design”, which means that we will take into account the length to print for one design to give a corresponding tarif. For example if you aim to have 100 meter of design “A” and 100 meter of design “B” printed at once, then the matching tarif is for 100 meter.

To receive tarifs and quotes, please tell us about your project. Make sure you’ve read our 5 questions to get started first.

Scarves

Once the fabric and the border finishes are selected, we write a bespoke quote. We will need to know about your design, your quantities and dimensions to advise you. Wherever applicable we suggest dimensions to optimise the use of the fabric width to get the most interesting tarif per unit. Find out more on printing scarves.

Studio Work

As long as they are printable, we can handle pretty much any type of preparation work on your designs. Some of these works include :

  • Pattern repetition
  • Colour changes
  • Scale changes
  • Retouches
  • Adapt to rotary printing

We can also adjust a design from our collection or create from scratch. Register to see our collections or tell us about your project to get started.

LEAD TIMES AND DELIVERY

The lead times below are the average time it takes for an order to be processed once we’ve received your payment in full or down payment. 

Printing proofs : 10 working days to 2 weeks

Production : 4-5 weeks

Try to plan as much contingency time as possible to avoid any delays further down your production schedules. Whenever possible we advise on two weeks on top of our lead times. 

Delivery lead times can impact your schedules. We take our responsibility for late productions when incidents happen on production lines or when faults are noticed on your fabric and it needs re-work. However as soon as your fabrics are taken away by the transporter, what they do is beyond our control.

We can deliver anywhere in express or economy rates. Tarifs depend on each order and match market prices.

DISCLAIMER

Every design file we receive is carefully checked for defects and potential feasibility problem. Although we will warn you if we see a fault in your design and may offer solutions, we cannot be held responsible for defects in your files. 

All our printed fabrics are quality controlled before dispatch. Sometimes, when a fabric does not comply with our quality standards, we will offer to re-print it at our discretion. However, one must bear in mind that due to its nature fabric is subjected to variations beyond our control, so some of these small “defects” are considered acceptable :

  • Slight defects in the weave
  • Slight variation in the fabric raw colour
  • A variation of up to ±5% in total length and width
  • Slight variations in colour tones
  • Occasional spots of ink or small traces

USEFUL THINGS TO KNOW

Preparing your designs for print and for scarves

There are a few dos and don’ts and some simple guidelines to follow. Check our getting ready to print fact sheet and our scarf production page for all our advice and guidelines.


Test fabrics before any transformation

We trust our fabrics will give you satisfaction however we or our partners cannot bear responsibility for a fabric we delivered once it has been transformed. So we recommend you test a sample  with a domestic wash, according to the instructions on the care label, before starting  further work using the fabrics delivered.


We print on fabric rolls rather than on finished garments. 

That means we don’t print directly on T-shirts for example, rather we print rolls of fabric that can be cut and assembled into garments or interior products. The only product we manufacture and deliver “finished” is scarves.


We don’t send out books of all our fabrics.

However, depending on your needs we make selections from our resources. Then we can come to you for presentations on appointment, we can welcome you in our studio to see fabrics or send out samples that match your projects needs. 


We print on our stocks of fabric.

To maintain quality, to speed up turn around time and to simplify the process for our clients we offer our own range of fabrics. They are fabrics that we’ve tried and tested, for which we have supplies and that’s prepared ready for printing. But if you are looking for a specific fabric, let us know, we may well have a similar quality in our catalogue.


The quantities delivered can vary from what you ordered

Micro quantities productions and scarves orders are not at risk. however on normal quantity runs, it is commonly accepted in the fabric printing industry that the quantities delivered may exceed what was ordered.

This comes from two main reasons :

  • Fabric stretches and shrinks. Due to the woven nature of fabric, it is impossible to know in advance by how much it may stretch or shrink. The common accepted rate is ±5%. Rest assured, once finished and ready for dispatch, the fabric is stable.
  • We use up more fabric than ordered to feed the fabric through into the machines, to plan ahead for possible defects and make sure that we don’t underdeliver in the end (which would be worse). In case of fault we discard the faulty fabric at no cost for you. 

If you’re over delivered, we will have to charge for the extra fabric, but we won’t charge more than 20% above your order if you ordered less than 100m. This drops to 10% for orders above 100m. So far, this has been the price to pay for accessing small volume production.  


Proof prints are similar to production runs, but with a difference.

The samples we print for approval are a reference for colours, scale and quality for the printed fabric that you will get when we produce your production orders. However they don’t receive all the finishing treatments that production runs do, so they tend to feel less soft and more rigid. Please avoid washing them as they haven’t been treated for colour fastness.


What happened to mutualisation ?

Once upon a time we used to offer a service where producing batches of orders could decrease tarifs. However that meant we had to process them all at once and everyone had to receive their orders at the same time. Since then things got even better. Now we can offer similar tarifs as we used to without the constraint of timings.

A few basics on fabric printing and answers to some faqs.