Where does it all start?
Learning where the product comes from and how it has been created is part of the Values of the brand. So lets start this journey!
The yarn in this swimwear fabric plays a huge part in the brands sustainability credentials. The polyester content of this swimwear is made from single use, plastic bottles, these bottles are collected from bins , sorted, melted and extruded into the polyester yarn. Plastic recycling at it's best!
If we could do this in the UK we could drive a circular economy here, this would reduce our plastic waste and create wealth. Check out the full journey of the recycled plastic waste bottles being re-purposed into yarn - click button below to watch the journey.
The swimwear fabric is produced
The image you can see here is a circular knitting machine. This machine knits the swimwear fabric for the Jody and Lara swimwear. The white rolls you can see at the top of the knitting machine are the elastane which is knitted into the fabric to provide the stretch, recovery and sports performance you expected from our swimwear. The high performance stretch fabric with UPF 50+ is being rolled up at the bottom of this machine inside the cage at the base
Finally it is sewn together
Months earlier the swimwear designs are created here in the UK exclusively for Jody and Lara.
When the fabric arrives at the manufacturer in China, the team has the patterns for the different sizes which have been developed and fitted on children here in the UK. The fabric is digitally printed to the pattern sizes, colours and designs we need. The care label is printed inside the garment. The panels are cut out and stitched together using lap seams, which allow the fabric to stretch without the seams breaking.
Once the garments are made they are quality checked. One of the garments is sent to a test house in the UK to check it meets the performance criteria we expect, particularly as we state this is UPF50+ swimwear, we check to ensure that this is correct. Why not check out this video to see one of the shorts in the California Sunshine range being made.