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Week 3
How was your week ? Ours has been filled with meetings at the factories we work with in Portugal. It’s a real pleasure to come here two or three times a year. Not just for the reasons everyone knows about – sun, beach, surf… 🌞🏖️🌊 we’re deeply in love with Portugal and the people we meet here – but because coming here means overseeing every stage of the process and working hand in hand with fabric manufacturers, patternmakers, workmanship, new product development and so on. We’re lucky to be able to work on what we love, which is why today we wanted to share our working process with you.
A small detail that changes everything: at Latitud Fuego® we do everything from scratch.
✅ We design our own garment patterns.
✅ We define every detail with the garment workshops, producing in Portugal.
✅ We work with fabric manufacturers and dyeing companies, seeking out organic cotton fabrics, recycled and water-based pigment options.
✅ We pay attention to the details: custom labels, recycled papers and cardboards, compostable bags, etc.
✅ We still have a lot to learn. Plenty of room for improvement. Thank you for supporting us and following our evolution. 🙂
Why are we telling you this? There are many other options on the market: other brands choose ready-made garments made in other countries around the world, with predetermined colour palettes and standard patterns. We chose a different path: and it is NOT the easy path. But it is the path that feels right to us. Let us share it with you:
1. THE IDEA.
It all starts with an idea. A story to tell. What drives us is finding local stories to share with the world. Clothes are the canvas. We work on concepts that foster our overall creative development: “Welcome Surfaholics”, “Forces of Nature”… always with a connection to our surroundings. The Canary Islands are a constant source of inspiration, and we owe them our utmost respect and admiration.
2. FABRIC.
Quality starts with the fabric. Eco-friendly, recycled, sustainable… choose the best possible option. Look after your skin, and also ensure the product has a second life. Fabrics made from a blend of natural and synthetic materials cannot be recycled. Look for a manufacturing country that aligns with the values of your brand and your garment. Portugal stands out for the quality of its natural fibre fabrics such as cotton, tencel or linen – keat fabric garments in general – but also for high-quality technical fabrics, including upcycled or recycled polyester options. One detail: for our outdoor ribstop cap, we work with Seaqual™, a yarn made from plastic waste recovered from the oceans (such as bottles and fishing nets) and from land-based sources. But we're not trying to greenwash anything; one thing is clear: the most sustainable garment is the one that isn’t made.
3. SHAPE
It’s important to keep in mind those garments that have made you feel comfortable throughout your life. A sweatshirt handed down from your father, the oversized T-shirt you bought at a flea market in Stockholm, or the cut of the official technical shirts worn by wrestlers of Lucha Canaria (😉). Inspiration is all around you, keep your eyes open. The drop shoulder, the width of the neckline, the inner half-moon... All these details will need to be included in a technical style sheet. Then, sizes matter. We decided to offer just two main sizes to encourage people to be less obsessed with ‘fitting into’ a specific size. Optimising fabric usage is another important factor to reduce waste as much as possible.
4. COLOR
There are generally three ways to choose the colours for a garment.
- By providing a Pantone number. Note: for fabrics, Pantone has a special colour chart called Pantone TPX.
- By providing a sample of fabric or a reference garment.
- By selecting from a colour chart when the colours are specified by the manufacturer.
After that, you ask for a lab dip, which is a small-scale sample of fabric dyed in a laboratory to match a specific color. So when we at Latitud Fuego® say “well… we’ll do it in white”, we actually have to specify which of the five different whites we have: white ppt, off-white, ecru, faded ecru (not yet available)… not to mention the derivatives like oat, bone grey, faded beige, etc. haha 🤦🏽♀️ Meet Corona, one of the last "white" t-shirts. 😉
5. ACCESSORIES: LABELS AND DETAILS.
The first garments we made, before Latitud Fuego existed, didn’t have a label. We printed the details on the inside. Over time, we realised that having a label gave us an opportunity to tell stories. Take the one of Famara, for example. Our main labels includes details on how to care for the garment, the materials used and where it was made.
We usually change the main label for each collection and treat it with the same importance as any other design.
The metal buttons you can see have been added to the corduroy jacket we launched recently, and we’ll gradually be unveiling the new ideas we’re currently working on.
6. PROTOTYPES
This is my favourite part – Zoe speaking – because when it comes to a new garment that’s very different from the others, it’s the first chance to see if you get butterflies in your stomach. It probably hasn’t been made from the final fabric and won’t have any prints or labels yet, but you can get a very reliable idea of what it will be like. We’ve never underestimated even the most basic garments. Our T-shirts, for example – I’d say we made at least seven different pattern adjustments until we found the perfect T-shirt shape we were looking for. Adjusting the sleeve, checking the length, reducing the neckline… And all this to ensure that the only two sizes we have fit very different body types well.
And today we still request prototypes when we launch the cropped versions, and more recently with the new shape we call mid-length. Have you seen it? Now think of a hoodie: hood, pockets, drawstrings… now the corduroy jacket: seams, cuffs, collars, custom buttons…
7. PHOTOSHOOT SAMPLES
After all the changes and adjustments, we receive these samples before final production. Why 'photoshoot samples'? Take note: here’s how it works.
You organise the photoshoot using the samples. From the photoshoot, you’ll get the images needed to put together the lookbook, prepare the website and launch the campaign. Make the most of this time. In our case, the finished garments will still take about three months to arrive, including transport to the Canary Islands. Yes, good things takes time. 🙂
8. FINAL PRODUCTION
That’s when everything arrives in boxes and you end up paying a fortune in customs duties, haha. Nothing exciting going on here. Recounting stock, entering everything into the system, and processing pre-orders.
All Latitud Fuego® garments are pre-washed, ironed and folded. They are protected by a compostable bag made from potato starch. This ensures they reach you in perfect condition.
What you see below is a summary of a few details. The first T-shirt shown is the ‘Wave of the Day’ in roasted orange, made from heavyweight cotton – 100% organic cotton – and is a long-sleeved style. Also 'Currents' is same color.
9. CAMPAIGN
Launch, promotion, campaign. Call it what you like. Although, to be fair, the fashion brands you know run campaigns with generous budgets and huge media investment. This is not us. Under this ‘collective of human beings creating under the sun’ that we call Latitud Fuego®, there is a wealth of talent. Below, we present the film we recently shot with Martín Salvador for the 'Forces of Nature' Collection:
??? EXTRA
Keep an extra ball to hand. You never know when a simple label might turn into a new print. Include an unexpected collaboration in that collection. Add extra layers of value. Come up with a social project to help a particular group. Connect ideas. Connect people. Think about where you bring the magic. Every brand must find its own. Go ahead and make mistakes. We’re in no position to give advice, we chose the path that wasn't easy but we enjoy doing this. Clothes are just a canvas. What matters is what lies beneath. 🙂
Geo & Zoe.
Thank you for your support.
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