Working together
How to Work With Us
A lace order moves through the same steps every time: finding or developing the pattern, agreeing it on a real sample, quoting it, confirming it, making it, inspecting it and shipping it. This page sets out that path in the order it happens, together with what you send and what comes back at each step. What we do not do is skip a step to look quick.
The path
Ten steps, in this order
Each step exists because the one before it cannot carry the decision. A pattern is not confirmed by a picture, an order is not released by an enquiry, and goods are not shipped on production alone.
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Send requirement
A pattern number, a reference image, a photograph of a swatch, a sketch, or a description of what you are looking for. Nothing has to be complete and nothing has to arrive in a particular form: the first exchange is deliberately kept light, because we would rather read a rough message today than send you a form to fill in first. If you already have a pattern number from us, that one line is enough to start.
- You send
- The reference you have, and what the lace is going into.
- You get back
- A person reading it, and the questions that actually change the answer.
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Search and develop
The archive is searched first, and most requests are answered from it: we have been building lace patterns since 2003. The search is wide and machine-assisted, then filtered by a person, because sending you a hundred unedited matches costs you the time we were trying to save. Development starts only when nothing we hold can meet the requirement you cannot compromise on.
- You send
- Feedback on what we show you: what is right, what is wrong, and why.
- You get back
- A short list of patterns that could work, and an honest answer when a development is the better route.
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Preliminary review
Before anything is posted, the direction is agreed on photographs and video: how the pattern reads, what it would be made from, how it would be made, and which of your requirements are fixed. This is where a request becomes something that can actually be produced, and where we say plainly what we still need from you.
- You send
- Confirmation that the direction is right, and any specification you have already fixed.
- You get back
- Photographs and video of the candidate pattern where we have them, and a clear answer on what is possible.
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Physical sample
A physical sample is the confirmation; a photograph is only a direction. Once the direction is agreed, a sample is sent so your designer, your buyer or your garment maker can handle the lace themselves. The sample you confirm is the one we keep as the reference - for bulk production, for inspection, for repeats and for any question that comes up later.
- You send
- A delivery address, and your confirmation once your side has handled the sample.
- You get back
- The sample itself, and - where the pattern needs a colour we do not hold - a lab dip to approve before anything is made in bulk.
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Quote
A quotation is a conditional commercial offer, not a price on a page: it names the pattern and its version, the colour, the quantity, the unit price and currency, the trade and delivery terms, the payment terms and how long the offer holds. Price follows material, yarn, motif complexity, machine, process, weight, quantity and those terms, which is why we quote your order rather than publish a list.
- You send
- The quantity you are planning, and the specification you need.
- You get back
- A written quotation with its terms and validity; where the quantity is still open, an indicative or stepped price with its conditions stated.
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PO
Your purchase order is checked line by line against the final quotation - pattern and version, specification, colour, quantity, unit price, currency, delivery date, payment and trade terms, packing and any special requirement. If the two differ we come back to you before anything moves, rather than quietly following one of them. A confirmed order is also not the same as a released one: the sample, the colour and the specification are checked as settled first.
- You send
- The purchase order, detailed enough to be checked against the quotation.
- You get back
- A confirmation, or the differences we found, before production is released.
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Production
Production is planned around the pattern itself: our own factory where it fits, and the integrated Jiaxing supply chain where it does not, chosen on machine, process, quality, quantity, cost and date. Whichever line runs the work, you keep one person on our side who is accountable for your order. If a risk to quality, quantity or date appears, you hear it from us - what happened, what it affects and what we propose - rather than finding out on the delivery date.
- You send
- Any change to the order as early as you can: a change is re-evaluated as a change, never applied silently.
- You get back
- One accountable contact for the order, and notice of any change to the plan.
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QC
Every lot is inspected in-house before shipment, against the sample you confirmed and against the order: colour, hand, motif, construction and specification. Production that runs on a partner line goes through the same inspection - goods do not leave on a partner's word. Your approval at the end of the order is a commercial confirmation and does not replace our inspection.
- You send
- Nothing at this step: the sample you confirmed is already the standard.
- You get back
- The inspection result, and goods released against it.
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Pre-shipment confirmation
Before the goods leave, you get what your side needs in order to approve the shipment: a bulk sample, photographs or video, whichever your buyer asks for. Packing requirements - roll length, packing method, labels, marks - are carried out as they were written into the order, not arranged at the last minute. A single large order, or one feeding a staged production, can be delivered in several lots, and the balance stays tracked until the whole order is complete.
- You send
- Your packing and marking requirements with the order, and your approval where you want to give one.
- You get back
- Material to approve the shipment on, and packing that follows what was agreed.
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Delivery
The goods ship on the trade and delivery terms confirmed in the quotation, and the order stays open on our side after they arrive: receiving, a question about quantity, or a complaint is answered from the records behind your order - the pattern, the lot, the rolls, the inspection notes, the packing list - rather than from a recollection of how it went.
- You send
- Confirmation of receipt, and any question about the goods once they are with you.
- You get back
- An order still being followed, and a case worked through to a conclusion.
Pace
Two things that set the pace
A direction first, a sample second
Photographs and video come before anything is posted, so the direction is agreed before sample and courier costs are spent on a guess. It also keeps the roles clear: a picture settles a direction, and only the physical sample confirms the pattern.
The archive first, development second
A pattern we already hold is faster and cheaper than one that has to be built, so it is offered first. When a price cannot move, the alternatives are a similar pattern, a different material or a different construction - never a confirmed quality quietly lowered, and never anything changed without telling you.
Per order
What is confirmed with your order
Four things on this path are decided by the order rather than by the website, and we would rather say that than print a number that would not hold for yours.
- Samples and courier - not a fixed rule. Small quantities of a pattern we already hold are usually free, and a development is judged on its cost, its complexity and the project. Courier is arranged the same way, case by case.
- Price - quoted for the pattern, the specification and the quantity in front of us, with its currency, trade terms, payment terms and validity written into the offer. There is no public price list.
- Lead time - counted from a confirmed order, not from the first message, and only after the pattern has been reviewed. The approvals your side gives are as much a part of the date as our schedule is.
- Payment terms - agreed per customer and per order, with the terms a new relationship can support stated in the quotation.
After the goods arrive
The order is not over at the port
Quantity and weight
Settled on the measuring method agreed with you and against the records behind the order: the pattern, the lot, the rolls, the inspection notes and the packing list.
A complaint
Looked at properly: what happened, compared with the sample you confirmed and the order, then the cause, then a remedy. When the goods came off a partner line, the responsibility to you is still ours.
The lot behind the piece
If a fault could also affect other lots, we check whether it is systematic rather than answering only about the piece in front of us.
Next step
Start where every order starts
Send the pattern or the reference and what the lace is going into. From there we can search the archive, agree a direction, and take the sample, the quotation and the dates from there.
Email gdp@lace-dog.com
Phone / WhatsApp 86-13185381515 WhatsApp