Textiles from China, season, colour and quantity

For an apparel brand, a fabric distributor or a firm importing home textiles into a warehouse. The goal is a repeatable lot and landed cost per metre or piece that fits wholesale.

A fabric roll needs composition, width, gsm and shrinkage after wash. A ready garment needs size, stitch, label and a size break. If the brief only says cotton, the factory picks cotton that suits it. Those are not the same papers and not the same inspection.

A cut from your pattern is closer to product development than buying a ready model. If the season date cannot take a new cut, narrow the programme to models already on the line.

Zhongda is a fabric market. Baima and Shahe are full of ready models and traders. They are a good entry for price research. They are not a substitute for the plant that cuts your lot. Ask where the goods are actually made and who holds the measure.

An account that promises the same only cheaper often swaps the lot without notice. Papillon goes to the plant before a serious deposit: who dyes, who cuts, whether the colour standard is locked. The shortlist is two to three factories on the same brief.

On-the-ground practice is also in the Guangzhou textiles guide. Here is the chain to the warehouse: spec, sample, lot, inspection, duty.

A purchase order is not colour and piece count. Without a standard the dispute starts when goods are already on the way.

Colour is approved on a physical sample, not a photo. Another shade of the same navy shows on a rail in the shop. The standard stays with you and at the factory. If you run several colours, each has its own minimum metreage or piece count.

Approval is written. A message that colour is fine is not a record. If the sample is from an old roll and the lot from a new dyehouse, the first metre of the new roll passes the same check before the rest is cut.

Scrap is normal. The purchase order holds the percent you accept and what happens above it: rework, discount or a new roll. If that is not written, the dispute starts at customs, when it is late to return a roll to the line.

The standard is approved, and the lot is another roll. That happens when the dyehouse is not the same or the sample was from old stock. That is why the first metre of a new roll goes through the same check before the rest is cut. Inspection at a warehouse at home only confirms the damage.

The second fall is the size break. If sizes are not written before cutting, the factory fills what is easier, usually middle sizes. The shop then has a pile of one size and an empty rail of another. The size break is part of the purchase order, not a request after the invoice.

The third fall is composition on paper. The label says one percent, the invoice another. The broker stops, and you pay storage. Composition, label and invoice must match before loading. That is not a small translation thing.

The sample goes by air. The lot goes by sea unless the calendar can no longer wait, and then air of a lot eats margin. Backwards from the date goods must be in the shop you count customs, sea of about 35–52 days, make of often 4–10 weeks and a sample-correction loop of 2–5 weeks. Shortlist research is 1–3 weeks.

Textiles are light, but cartons eat volume if they stack poorly. A smaller lot often goes LCL. A seasonal programme that fills a container goes FCL, more predictable and with fewer handlings. We calculate both before the purchase order.

HS depends on composition and whether the goods are fabric or a finished piece. The Serbia China FTA from 1 July 2024 can lower duty only with a correct certificate of origin. Duty-free is not the default. The invoice must follow composition on the label. If percents differ, the broker stops. Papers are assembled before shipment.

On sourcing execution above 2,000 USD independent quality control is standard: measure, colour, stitch, label, quantity. Landed cost per metre or piece adds goods, freight, duty, VAT and scrap. Put in the brief whether it is a roll or a garment, composition, quantity per colour, season and target price.