Our first trip to China

Okay, so I am the first to admit that our first china trip kind of came up and hit us square on this last week. We all live in this crazy busy world and I think that the last few months for us have been on fast forward and then we added in our China trip and then suddenly it was here and we were madly trying to get ready for it.

When I say madly getting ready I mean our Visa’s arrived back only a 2 days before we left, and Katie was packing the night before our early morning flight out. Thank the heavens to Michelle at Helloworld in Mackay for taking care of us and making sure all we had to do was pack our bags and turn up at the airport.

Our First Day

We spent our first day at the International Leather Markets, searching and searching and searching through literally thousands of leathers until we found the best ones. On our list was:

• Quality super soft vintage looking leather
• Quality sheep leather for our ballet flats so we can ensure they are super soft around the toe area and will very quickly mould to your feet so everyone LOVES them
• Quirky printed leathers and textiles (because that is what I love)
• A quality and ethically produced range of leathers that we can use as our core range
• Metallics and Hides for Summer 2020

After finding our picks, we left the first building and went to the second building and found the Elastic section and then the buckles and then the Eyelets and our eyes opened wider. We put our big girl pants on and learnt the phrases we needed to ask for colours and leather types and find out about the qualities.

The first night we then turned our Motel room into the craziest arts and crafts project ever laying out all our leathers and making sure we had all the sorts we needed and that we were not missing any colours. We made a list of what else we needed to source and then the second day we were off to the Leather Markets again.

Our Favourite Part

Then came our fav part of the trip, fit testing and quality controlling our Winter 2020 collection which is due for delivery in February. I think our smiles were contagious as soon everyone was joining in as we celebrated each style and colour combo (yes there is one crazy one in there to cover my requirements of colour) but for our first Winter collection we think we nailed it. The boots slide on, the fit is perfect, the lining is so soft on your feet. We are so excited for you to try them.

That's A Wrap 

Overall our first trip was a huge success and we definitely learnt a few things.

1. Katie’s ability to make me laugh by saying the most random things is the same in China as it is in Australia
2. We are tall tall people, and I think we created more attention than we should have from our height and Katie’s blonde hair
3. We learnt how to eat traditional Chinese Hot Pot (maybe kind of didn’t realise what we were getting ourselves into but OMG it was amazing). For those that don’t know what it is, you basically get a large boiling broth on your table and cuts of raw meats and veg and cook them in the broth. I know our waitress Eve will never read this but she was incredible in using google translator to explain everything to us
4. We are truly blessed to live in Australia

We are excited to be be back home this week but so grateful for the opportunity that we have had to experience this and that NEVER EVER did I think that I would be over in China completing a collection of shoes for Big On Shoes when I started Big On Shoes little alone the start of this year. As our mum says- put it out the universe and it will always come back to you.

Happy feet from me to you

Melissa xx