You designed a sleeve that drapes just so on the sketch. In production it looks like a regular sleeve.
The hidden risk
Some elements — drape, fluid folds, soft volume, asymmetry — live or die on fabric behavior. Suppliers won't tell you the fabric changed; they'll just keep producing 'to spec.'
How to judge
Test the element on a small swatch with the production fabric, not the developer's swatch. If it distorts there, it'll distort at scale.
What the supplier must provide
Production lot fabric for design-critical swatches, not showroom swatches.
How DONGFAN handles it
DONGFAN's design-critical swatches use the same bulk lot that will go to production, so what you approve on the swatch is what you get at scale.
Buyer checklist
- Use bulk-lot fabric for design tests
- Test drape on the production fabric
- Mark distortion-prone elements
- Ask for the same dye lot for swatches
- Walk the sample, not just look at it
- Lock fabric before final sketch