My Trip to Lisbon!

Last week I was lucky enough to go on a trip to Portugal to visit our Cashmere sock manufacturers for the first time.

Having never been to Portugal before I took the opportunity to explore some of Lisbon before travelling to a small city north of Porto, where our manufacturer is based. 

The weather was beautiful and I spent one afternoon wandering around Lisbon’s back roads visiting small boutique shops and admiring the cities rich mosaic of intricately tiled buildings.  Walking up to the Castle Sao Jorge there are spectacular views over the whole of the city.

Catching the 8am train from Lisbon, three hours later I was greeted by spectacular views of the Dom Luis Bridge as I arrived in the Historic city of Porto.  Unfortunately I only had an hour stop off here before catching another train to the small city of Guimaraes. This local train, although above ground, felt very similar to the London Tube, only far cleaner and much better air conditioned!

Being from a knitwear background I was very excited to see how our cashmere socks are made and to meet the people behind the making of them. After a quick showroom chat with our girl on the ground Elsa, I was introduced to her production manager who took me into the workshop where the socks were being made. The huge, noisy workshop was piled high with socks and every type of yarn imaginable.  Packaging staff sat around one large table tagging and bagging each paid of socks individually by hand, behind them, an even larger room full of rows and rows of machinery.  Here I was shocked to discover that of the 200 machines opporating in the workshop, only 2 make our special cashmere socks.

It was a great experience to meet the workers and learn about the different machinery and manufacturing techniques and so important for us as an ethical brand, to build solid relationships with our manufacturers.  And I’ve even got our inspiration for next year’s socks sorted!

Emily x