A beautiful yarn …
It all begins with a carefully-selected cotton yarn which is reeled up into a tight cocoon. The
machines knit it into a rib or jersey fabric. Many
kilometres of knitted fabric are stored in boxes
before being sent off to be dyed.
During the dyeing process, the fabric circulates
round and round a stainless steel machine in a dye
bath for 12 hours to ensure it takes on the full
depth of the colour.
Next the 350 metre long strips of soaking wet fabric are dried, “relaxed” and stabilised by specialists. Some are sent off to the screen printing room.
The workshop makes up prototypes and printing blocks based on designers’ drawings. Each pattern is printed colour by colour during a very complex process which demands high levels of expertise.
The next stage is making the garment. First the knit fabric is cut and then the different pieces are assembled by hand and the finer details added, all of which is a very intricate process. Each stage is rigorously quality-controlled, from the yarn to the finished garment: a Petit Bateau garment is tested thoroughly before it leaves the workshops.