With many hands making light work, a whole truckload of wool fabric was moved into the warehouse in no time and piled up neatly.
Zhou Qiqi wanted to lend a hand, but Zhang Guoqiang and Zhao Damei both stopped him.
They all understood Zhou Qiqi's personality and felt that her brain was much more valuable than her physical strength, so they couldn't let her do such rough work.
Zhou Qiqi didn't mince words. She grabbed a roll of fabric and headed briskly straight for the workshop.
She went straight to Master Ma's most handy sewing machine and deftly cut and sewed.
The sewing machine made a "clack-clack-clack" sound, and the fabric obediently parted under the needle tip, revealing the rough edges.
Soon, the classic silhouette of the "Guanghua" series coat began to take shape.
When Zhang Guoqiang and the others finished unloading the goods and came over, wiping their sweat, they saw Zhou Qiqi with her sleeves rolled up, wearing an apron, and several large basins in front of her. She was holding an old enamel mug and carefully adding water to one of the basins.
Zhang Guoqiang was stunned for a moment, then leaned closer and asked hesitantly, "Master Zhou, are you planning to... take a different approach and dye it yourself?"
He examined it carefully when he unloaded the goods and confirmed that it was indeed material from that small factory in Province B.
He hadn't even considered getting samples from this company because the colors they used were really subpar—dull, uneven, and nowhere near as bright and vibrant as imported fabrics.
His first thought was that Zhou Qiqi was forced to take matters into her own hands to fix the defects in the material.
He sighed and explained,
“I’m also friends with the factory manager. It’s not that the factory hasn’t tried; they’ve tried to use the imported industrial yarn dyeing system, dyeing the whole batch of fabric in it, hoping to achieve an even dyeing. But our foundation… the machines and processes are lacking, the fiber treatment isn’t right, so the dyeing just doesn’t have the right feel, and large areas of the color are uneven.”
As he spoke, he grew worried, "Breaking through this technology won't be so easy..."
Zhou Qiqi raised her head, but instead of a worried expression, a bright, slightly rebellious smile spread across her face.
"Uniformity? Director Zhang, why must we pursue uniformity?"
She wiped her hands on her apron, her eyes burning.
"Is 'uniformity' the only standard of beauty? Why do we always have to follow the paths drawn by others? Perhaps our domestically produced wool fabrics have another path to success hidden within them?"
As she spoke, she carefully took out several pieces of sample fabric that Zhouzhou had "ruined" the night before, as if presenting a treasure.
Zhang Guoqiang and Master Ma have both spent their lives working with fabrics. Although they are not without design talent, they have a very keen eye for detail.
With just one glance, the two of them gasped simultaneously!
That dull gray wool fabric, dyed with a single color, certainly doesn't look high-end.
But after being splashed and dyed with multiple colors, the stiff and rigid feeling from before miraculously disappeared!
The colors transition and blend naturally, like fine ink spreading with water, layer upon layer, creating an indescribable artistic conception and sense of sophistication—it's simply wonderful!
The two men stared in disbelief, especially Master Ma, whose fingers couldn't help but gently trace the blurred patterns. He swallowed hard and murmured, "This...this feeling..."
"beautiful!"
After holding it in for a long time, Zhang Guoqiang finally uttered a single word, his eyes lighting up.
Even Zhao Damei, who was standing next to her, was stunned. She wasn't very educated and couldn't describe how sophisticated it was; she just felt a jolt in her heart and simply blurted out:
"It's so beautiful! It's just like the pictures printed in my eldest daughter's Chinese textbook!"
Zhou Qiqi smiled; this simple and unadorned praise was more pleasing to the ear than anything else.
She immediately pulled out the design drafts she had worked on overnight from her bag and unfolded them on the sewing machine table.
"So, this is the upgraded version of the 'Guanghua' series—Ink and Wash Guanghua!"
The design still features the iconic clean lines, but the colors on the garment pieces are no longer dull, single solid colors, but rather flowing, diffused ink-wash style.
The ink's shades, varying in intensity; the blue-gray like the sky after rain; the purple hues of twilight...
It retains the essence of "glory" but gives it a brand new soul that belongs to Eastern aesthetics.
Zhang Guoqiang and Master Ma huddled together, their eyes glued to the blueprints, and after a long while, they both let out a long breath and said in unison:
"It's so beautiful! Qiqi, you're amazing! Our factory is saved!"
Zhang Guoqiang rubbed his hands together excitedly, as if he could already see the finished product shining brightly.
"This is so much better than the old one! No wonder you were hauling materials all night!"
He asked impatiently, "Then let's hurry up and have the factory in Province B dye it to this effect and send it over?"
"No, Director Zhang."
Zhou Qiqi shook her head, her eyes gleaming with unwavering determination.
"This unique ink-wash charm can never be achieved through industrialized tube dyeing or roll dyeing. Uniformity is precisely its mortal enemy!"
She picked up the cut piece of clothing and pointed at it with her finger:
"My idea is that our factory should do it ourselves! We should hand-dye or brush each piece of cut clothing."
She gestured,
"The duration of the dyeing process, the force and direction of the brushing, and even slight differences in the dye ratio will make the dyeing effect of each piece of clothing unique, full of the warmth of handcraft and the spirit of nature!"
Zhou Qiqi's voice was clear and full of power:
"This perfectly avoids the shortcoming of domestic dyes being difficult to apply evenly! Moreover, the 'imperfection' inherent in handmade dyes is what makes it so precious."
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