News

All of our lives has changed in just one week, the Coronavirus also known as Covid-19 has dawned on us before we know it, it literally shutdown the world... After a few days of accepting this new reality, I have found my ground again. I start to adjust my new work environment – home. I start to draw; paint; make art; design and create my story again…

At the mean time, I want to share a letter sent to me from a friend who is the head of a major hospital on how to protect ourselves during this period. The letter goes:

“ The Chinese has began to understand the characteristics of the Covid-19, it characterized by obstructing respiratory pathways with thick milk like fluids that solidifies and block the airways and lungs. They have discovered that in order to apply medicines, you have to open and unblock these airways for medicines to take effect. Their recommendation for what you can do to safeguard yourself are:

1. Drink lots of hot liquid, coffee; soup; tea and warm water. In addition, take a sip of warm water every 20 minus because it carries any virus that might enter your mouth into your stomach and the gastric juice can neutralizes it before it gets into your lungs.
2. Gargle with an antiseptic and warm water, like vinegar, salt or lemon everyday if possible.
3. The virus attaches itself to hair and clothes, any detergent or soap will kill it, but you must take a bath or shower when you get in from the street, avoid sitting down anywhere, go straight into the shower. If you can not wash your clothes daily, hang them in direct sunlight which also neutralizes the virus.
4. Wash metallic surfaces very carefully because the virus can be viable on these surfaces for up to 9 days. Be vigilant on touching handrails and door handles, be sure to wipe them down regularly at home.
5. Don’t smoke.
6. Washing your hands every 20 minutes using hand soap that foams, do this for 20 seconds and wash your hands thoroughly.
7. Eat fruits and vegetables, try to elevate your zinc levels, not just your vitamin C levels.
8. Animals do not transmit this virus, it’s a person to person transmission.
9. Try to avoid common flu because this will weaken your immune system and try to avoid eating and drinking anything cold.
10. If you feel any discomfort in your throat or sore throat, use the above methodic to attack it immediately, the virus enter the system this way and remain in your system for 3 to 4 days before it passes your throat into your lungs.”

I have heard study report from multiple medical sources and they are all very similar, I hope this helps, stay warm and save!

With Love,

Ying

How the Art Collection came to life

When people see the first Art Collection online, a few asked where did the idea come from…? What inspires me and why show an Art Collection with 5 times the price of our ready to wear at a time that the market is driven by sales…?

What's the story behind your label?

Initially, I wanted to do a brand that's completely based in New York, from the designing to the sample making to the production, everything in New York, and now as we go along the idea becomes more clear, and more sustainable. We are currently 38% sustainable, but we have a goal to increase that number every season, and on top of everything being based in New York, the label is an idea that represents the power of feminists, that's how I'd describe it. So, we are targeting women in the workforce, who dress for work and for an outing and not afraid to show the feminist side in a subtly yet elegant way, and of course, the brand has an Eastern aesthetic, because that's associated with my background.

How do you incorporate the Eastern aesthetic?

Sometimes it's just the feeling. It's not really about a specific color, it's the style, the message, for example, last season in London, in February, a lot of our clothes were the high neck, which was found a lot in Asia 100 years ago, so that type of style.

You were talking about sustainability, why is sustainability important for you?

Because fashion is one of the biggest polluting industries in the world, and I think it will make a huge difference if our generation works towards that goal. That is very meaningful for us.

Where are you sourcing your materials from?

Right now, we source our material within New York, however, in the new season, we hope to travel around the world in the hope of finding more sustainable suppliers.

Where did the idea to hand paint collection pieces come from?

We look for something unique each season. My inspiration for the AW18 collection came from the Château de Versailles, Paris, so the feeling of traditional colours like Blue and Gold, are represented in the collection. Also, hand painting makes sense to us, as a smaller brand, because if we were to use prints, we may not meet the supplier's minimum. So with this collection, everything is made to order. 

What are you planning to do in the next few seasons?

So last season we showed in London, and were also quite lucky there, as we had lots of interviews. I also feel the consumer in the UK embrace individuality; a lot of people go for the smaller brands. However, when I went to London, I realized that there is no tradeshow that caters to our category, as our section was very quiet at 'Pure', so many buyers don't go there to buy our category. I was talking to other people in the industry, in London, and they said I should try out ‘Scoop’ as this is a tradeshow catering to the higher end of the market in London. So I reached out to the organizer and she loved the collection, but when she saw the price point, she said they don't reach out to the right buyer for us. I asked for her (the organizer) recommendation in Europe, and she told us we should try ‘Vendome Luxury' in Paris, so that's where we’ll be next season. That will be the SS19 collection showing in September. 

What are you currently working on?

Right now we’re working on collaborating with charities, so you can see more of the ideas that we value, and how we act as a brand. In regards to this, we want to do it in a creative way, and our business to give back to society, that's our ultimate goal. So we plan to partner with local charities, for example, right now we are based in New York, but once we start traveling for sourcing, in order to become more sustainable, we want to give back to that part of the world in some way. We’re hoping to partner with charities that help children discover their talent, that's what I'm passionate about.

This has been a shocking week for those who know and admire both Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade. Bourdain is one of the greatest American Celebrity chef, author, storyteller and television personality who won almost every award in his industry. Spade created what many women would consider the ideal way of living. Spade’s namesake brand had mainstream success in her 30’s, her world was filled with creativity, beauty, family and meaningful work. Both took their own lives this week and it was a one-two punch to our belief that there are some people who are living the perfect life, the life seemed so idyllic and enviable is a mystery to people… And yet, these two could not bear to live their lives any longer.

We can’t help to ask ourselves “What truly make you happy? What do you want in life? What do you value most in life and what do you do after your dreams come true?” It really gets us in deep thinking. Perhaps we should all take a step back in the process to ask ourself these questions.

The experience of death changes the way we look at life and it adds value to our perspective... We believe the best way to deal with death is the idea of new birth. The birth of new creations; new ideas; new relationships; discovering new talents; new projects and generating new excitement... life surely have up and downs as parts of everyone’s journey across all age, gender and ethnicity. It should be and is an exiting journey. The thoughts we chose play a very important part and we truly have control over it. We should all take charge of it! Don’t let anyone or anything have control over your thoughts or emotions. The only thing we can do is to lighten up everyone around us but we need to start with ourselves!

One of our missions is to empower woman and embrace feminism. Let’s learn from our experience and lighten up the world with the ideas of new birth; creativity and celebration!

Love

Ying Cai Team

Study shows that in the 1960”s 95% of our clothes were made in the U.S. Today there’s only 3%. Yet, the retail price has increased by 70%. Most fashion companies including luxury labels shifted their productions to the part of the world where forced labor and child labor are prevalent; 98% of workers do not receive a living wage and systematically building and supporting extreme poverty somewhere in the world…

 As an ethical luxury label founded in New York City, we work to create opportunities for economic growth in the apparel industries in New York City. Only work with ethical manufactures who function under fair-labor conditions and providing their workers with benefits.

 Since the early 90’s, retail price point has increased by 70% and cost has decreased by 6%. The consumption has increased by 500% thinking that we are saving by buying cheap but we actually end up spending more on quantity of low. 400 billion pounds of clothing are thrown out and sitting on landfills each year. Is it time for euphoria? Where? To celebrate what? Isn’t it time to get back to the essence of luxury? Conspicuous waste is a dead-end street for the luxury industry, we now need to promote conspicuous taste as a signal of consumer’s cultural ability to select green conspicuousness.

 As much as it’s a hug challenge to be an emerging brand, We are committed to using environmentally friendly materials whenever possible. We are currently at 38% sustainable with our souring and with a goal to increase that number each season by traveling around the world in search for sustainable material suppliers.

 Our mission is to deliver superior quality and ethically-produced product to consumers and returning a share of our profits directly back to the community where we source and produce from by working with local charities.

 With attention on corporate social responsibility and ecology, we, as new generations in fashion - one of the world’s largest and most polluted industries, has huge potential to be an innovator to lead and push towards more sustainable solutions on a global scale to keep the beautiful world we live in as the way it is. We as a creative company, believes using business and creativities as a force for good, and that is why we do what we do.

Love, xx

Ying Cai Team

Who can resist a beautifully wrapped package, especially during the holidays. While it's true that what's on the inside is what really counts, beautiful on the outside is also a meaningful part of delivering a gift. 

We can show how much we care by taking the time to wrap gifts with visually beautiful boxes, papers and ribbons, even hiinting at what's inside the package through creative elements.

For example, if you're giving a white floral perfume, find a small white flower by simple tying it into the ribbon.

If you're giving a velvet scarf, find a yard of velvet ribbon in the same color, including vintage velvet ribbon which you can find online.

If you're giving a Japanese inspired gift, for example a beautiful teapot or dishes, create an orgami effect with paper folding, using several layers of beautiful handmade papers.

The best things often do come in small boxes so when you are giving a ring or bracelet inside its own box, layer that box into a slightly bigger box, and tie it up with a silver or gold ribbon, with a tiny hand written card.

Many luxury brands offer packaging that is as beautiful as their products - who can resist that Tiffany blue box and silky white ribbon for example? Ralph Lauren's navy blue box with gold lettering always signals quality inside, and the iconic Hermes orange boxes are as collectible as the scarves that come inside them.

Little luxuries can also include gifts you make yourself - for example, tiny chocolate truffles, kitchen-made soaps, fresh herb bouquets...

Get creative and find ways to add extra love to the luxuries you give others, and your gifts, whether expensive treats or handmade treasures will add joy and remain in the memories of the recipients forever.

At Ying Cai, we take extraordinary care when we wrap every product we ship, anticipating the response of our cliants and the friends they give our products to. Fashion is an experience, a feeling, a pleasure that starts from the beginning.

Wishing you all a holiday season filled with all your favorite people, things and feelings,

Ying

Earlier this month, online retailer Nasty Gal shocked fans by filing for bankruptcy. The e-commerce darling, which sold original designs, vintage pieces and items from other brands, became a social media hit thanks to innovative branding. Fellow millennial favorite American Apparel’s demise was not quite so surprising, having long been simmering in the pot despite the brand’s popularity. While both companies cited a number of reasons including legal troubles and mismanagement for their financial crashes, a major, troubling factor was also key—they kept most of their manufacturing within the United States.

The higher wages and management costs of the “Made in USA” label, although ethical, come at a very expensive price. Midrange brands trying to maintain that status have met with obstacles that fast-fashion competitors can sidestep by offering similar designs with minimum financial hassle.

The global fashion market is now an almost $3 trillion annual industry. While one may think that high-end designers with their expensive price tags are the prime contributors, most of the profits can be attributed to the fast fashion industry. TJX companies, a discount and off-price retailer, for example, generated nearly $31 billion in revenue in its 2015 fiscal year alone. It comes as no surprise then that one in every six people alive in the world today work in some part of the global fashion industry. This makes it the most labor-dependent industry on earth, majority of which is outsourced into the developing world, particularly in Asia, where Western household names dominate. According to Workers Rights Consortium, an independent labor rights organization that monitors the working conditions in factories around the globe, H&M is the largest clothing manufacturer in Bangladesh.

Until the 1960s, America was still making 95 percent of its clothes. In 2015, only 3 percent was produced in the United States and a staggering 97 percent was outsourced. Most fast-fashion retailers see much sense in offshoring their manufacturing practices to countries like Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, China and Vietnam because of their low wages, lax local labor laws and agreements of free trade.

“The cheaper the price, the more the profit” rhetoric also stems from the fact that most Americans don’t really care about how the clothes are made as long they’re cheap. Indeed, a 2013 Gallup poll stated that over 55 percent of American consumers make absolutely no effort into finding out where the clothes were created when shopping. New brands are aware of that and hence paranoid about taking the financial risk of local manufacturing. “The entire industry is asking for cheaper prices. Brands will publicly state that that’s not the case, but, off the record, if you ask any factory its biggest issue right now, I don’t care what country they’re in, they’re going to say ‘intense pressure from their clients to lower the price,’ ” Edward Hertzman, founder of Sourcing Journal Online, a trade publication covering the apparel & textile supply chain, told Business of Fashion.

With something new coming into the stores every week, instead of two seasons, brands now have 52 seasons a year. In order to support this mass production efficiently while maintaining their low prices, they see sweatshops and fashion factories in third world nations as a viable and profitable option. “When the Western retailers lower their prices, we are forced to comply and lower our prices and this directly affects what our workers make,” a disgruntled garment factory owner in Bangladesh told Observer on the condition of anonymity.

Currently, over 4 million people work within these sweatshops and an average worker in Bangladesh, makes about $67 a month, which comes up to only a little over $2 a day. Today, they are amongst the lowest paid garment workers in the world. Additionally, over 85 percent of these workers are primarily women who have no health benefits or any form of financial security. Unionization is illegal and working conditions only get intolerable. But these low wages and unsafe working conditions are all excused by most large companies under the assumption that they ultimately “provide jobs” to those who need one. Unfortunately, even tragedies such as the Rana Plaza sweatshop collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that killed over 1,000 workers, has done little to change their point of view.

“Opportunities were missed to reinvent the supply chain and I cannot say with any confidence that there will not be a repeat of Rana Plaza in terms of scale. Hundreds of people have lost their lives, been injured or had their health compromised by producing garments since Rana Plaza and the garment industry remains dangerous, polluting and energy intensive when it need not be any of these things. Retailers were allowed to control and lead negotiations in the aftermath and were not selfless enough in the way that they approached them,” British author and journalist on 2015 fast-fashion documentary The True Cost Lucy Siegle said in an interview.

But how hard is it for a multitrillion dollar industry to ensure fair living wages of its workers and guarantee the most basic of human rights?

“So many of us have been told the sweatshop story based on a false zero sum ratio. It’s explained as either improve conditions or take away jobs. We can build better systems to keep these jobs while also implementing conditions that respect the most basic human dignity of the workers and longterm health of this planet we all call home,” said Andrew Morgan, post production — he was director of The True Cost. “I can think of no other industry today that so clearly forces us to face the implications of globalization, human rights, women’s rights, and the environmental collision course we’re on,” he added.

The risks of the flawed supply chain are ultimately carried by those most vulnerable and at the bottom, who have no alternative but to be a part of it. They are the ones paying the price for the cheap clothing we buy. However, the industry is slowly but surely changing, starting at the top. There has been an apparent, albeit slow, shift in the effort to change these manufacturing practices. Kering, the company behind top designers including Stella McCartney have paved a new path in the fashion world, to sustainability. Earlier this year, Burberry announced plans to invest £50 million to expand and move most of its production to the North of England. People Tree, Brooks Brothers and Zady are brands catching up with category leader Reformationin the sustainable style race. 

Our brand is a young luxury designer brand created in New York City, our garments are always going to be made in New York city in a sustainable manner and our workers are covered with premium health benefits.

The biggest step towards sustainability and humanitarian-inspired shopping can only be taken by the consumer. The “Made In USA” label may come at a higher price, but it definitely is the more ethical one.

Most part of this article was shared from the 'Observer'

YingCai, Inc

Nov 30th, 2016 New York City