Thinkpiece #1: The Doublegauze Problem

As you might have already known, the production of this season's Emerald textile was delayed for a month, after Ace & Jig reported some difficulty in producing the textile due to its "intricate nature." Having seen it in person, I have to agree. It's beautiful, intricate, and frankly worth the wait.

However, today I received an email from Accompany (where I preordered the Paz Dress in Twine) informing me of production issues/delays in the Twine textile as well. Full text below:
Hi there,

Thank you for shopping with Accompany! We are reaching out to let you know that we have just been informed by Ace & Jig that the Paz Dress in Twine has unfortunately been delayed in shipment due to production issues. Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience!

We will be sure to keep you updated on the status of your order, and will let you know as soon as we have more information regarding the estimated delivery of this style.

Thank you for your patience and understanding, and please let us know if you have any other questions regarding your order or if there is anything else we can do to assist you!

Sincerely,

The Accompany Team
While I would also contend that Twine is worth the wait, it's certainly disappointing that the two doublegauzes are the ones with production issues. The doublegauzes and doublecloths have always been the things that make Ace & Jig so unique and magical to me, and I personally gravitate towards those when considering my purchases.

The past few seasons, I've already felt that there are fewer doublegauzes than there once were. A look back at previous lookbooks, confirms that there has been a steady decrease in doublecloths/gauzes over the years. 2014 was the magical year of peak doublegauze/cloth, bringing us beauties such as Holland, Royal, Gesso, Diamond, Bonfire, Coverlet, Hopscotch... and those are just the unicorns! By comparison, the past two seasons have only contained 6 doublecloths/gauzes combined. Though the total number of textiles produced per season has increased, the number of double-textiles has noticeably decreased year over year — a troubling trend.

And it's hard to blame a Ace & Jig, small company experiencing rapid growth, for this. I imagine it is more challenging to produce these double-textiles, since it really is much like weaving two fabrics vs. the relatively easier singlecloths, but these numbers and delays trouble me in the context of the conversations that have been happening in the #aceandjig community about quantity/quality and the XO frenzy, and the thought-provoking #whomademyclothes discussions. Could we be slowly approaching a future without doublegauzes, because they are too time-consuming or costly? Is it possible that production is now stretched too thin to allow for quality sewing and more elaborate textiles?

Since it would appear to be an either-or proposition, I wish we could go back to the days of mostly double-textiles and fewer styles. And for those styles to be the best styles possible. @river_margaret had some interesting thoughts in this realm in one of her recent posts. I have more thoughts on this as well, but will try save that for another post, while I marinate on some of these thoughts.

And don't misread any of this as a burn on Ace & Jig the company, or any of the lovely women who are working hard to keep this thing going. At the end of the day, I don't know the whole story, and I don't expect to personally have much sway over Ace & Jig's business practices or designs. But as a diehard Ace fan who misses the "good ol' days," I hope that this post is seen and incites some thoughts about how they may choose to move forward by looking to what made them so great in the past.

As ever, I would love to hear your thoughts as well, readers. Doublegauze or singlecloth? More styles or fewer? Novelty or familiarity? I look forward to discussing! 

UPDATE: Ace & Jig has posted an update about their Emerald textile on Instagram. They're still working hard to make it, as it's very technically challenging, but it sounds like Emerald will be coming soon!

5 comments:

  1. In a perfect world (or my perfect world 😉) everything would be double gauze or doublecloth & reversible! Interesting note about the decrease in these textiles over the past few seasons. I personally have also felt more overwhelmed than ever with Spring 2017-I wonder if anyone else feels this way? Maybe it's my imagination but I feel like there are so many styles and textiles this season, more than before. Sometimes less is more! Thanks for providing this space to ramble aimlessly! -Carrie Lee

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    1. If you find that world, let me know! I want to move there too! The decrease in doublegauzes and cloths is something I've noticed and lamented in my mind for a few seasons now, so thank you for the small vindication!

      It's only when these conversations around quality control and quantity of styles has come up recently in the community that I've considered that there might be a link between the two phenomena... If my assumption is correct that doublegauzes are harder to produce, and the decrease in those textiles has correlated with an increase in the number of textiles per seasons as well as the number of styles... then they may all be connected... Perhaps speculative at best, but the raw data is immutable.

      I'm wondering if it might be worth making some kind of chart or graph... ultimate nerd alert.

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  2. Wendy, please please please turn this data into a graph.
    From a business standpoint it makes sense to decrease the issue textiles and make more of the things which can be done quickly and easily, but double gauzes and double cloth will always hold the highest places in my heart and my closet.

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    1. True! When you put it that way it does make sense... But I just love the double textiles SO much more! Once i figure out how the heck to graph something in excel, I will be on it!

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  3. I would love to know which of these fabrics have ended up your favorites. I think it's so interesting to see which ones become those truly special textiles when all is said and done.

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