Lotus SilkLotus Silk & Boutique was established in 2003with the aim to design contemporary and uniqueclothing, scarf & shawl, Bag & Purse, fashionaccessories and home ware. Products are allhandmade with silk and/or cotton. “Lotus Silk”brand represent luxurious designs with ecofriendly design concept.

Lotus Silk has a strong social orientation. Thecompany stands for equity and socialresponsibility. Our mission is to promoteCambodian products with innovative designs,value Cambodian women’s work who are head ofhousehold such as windows, disable, jobless. Inthis objective we train and offer employment towomen in order to help them build a sustainablelivelihood.

Our productsOur silk products are mainly thecontemporary fashionable scarves,shawls, scrunchies, Fashion jewelleries,some home stuffs. All the products followthe brand’s trendy and fashionabledesign. The scarves and the hairaccessories are elegant and colorful; thebags are made out of rich vintageJapanese textiles. Lotus Silk’s collection isunique and well finished with the passionfor detail.

Our productsWe do tailored dresses for walk in buyersthat were conceptualized by using“vintage” fabrics. Our production capacityis small at this point, as we are juststarting to get exposed on exports.

Most of walk-in buyers in our shop are alsothe export buyers asking us to send theirorders to their respective countries.

That is why we realized our exportpotentials through our walk-in buyers.

Custom Design

A BEND IN THE RIVERPerformed by Khmer Arts Ensemble

• Business– How to make a practical business projection plan

• Products– Increase of new product lines and designs– Structured Collection and design Plans

• People– Need access to different weavers– Staff Sales Capacity Development

• Raw Materials– We need access to different accessory materials to

do our collections– Suppliers of Silk Fabrics

• Technical Assistance– Identification of Business identity – Business meetings with real buyers– Understanding International Quality Standard– Understanding laboratory testing– Linkage and information to fashion trend– Find New Buyers

Our Challenges• Production

– Dyeing facilities (in-house) for sampling and small orders.

– Weaving – sample maker (in-house ) production.

– Standardization of sizes / how to make product specification

– Need to know how to make silk soft.– Need a side by side mentor to help us with

the our transaction with buyers, as different situation may arise. We need somebody we can ask what to do next.

• Marketing– Communication to buyers oral and written;

and strategies in communicating with buyers

– How to make catalog and marketing materials

– More participation on Trade Show– Linkage to buyers : international and local

markets – How to strengthen our business identity

Business :Structured Export PlanBefore we just “wished” to getstructured. I have experiences with allthe project planning and also receivedsome other training from otherOrganizations but still, we can not makeour own business Plan as I do not havesome direct support or consultant ormentor . All the things we want are justall in our mind or in a scratch of paperand lose it after a while.

Now, with the help of ITC, we weregiven more focused and "one on one”mentorship about our export plans. Wewere asked to review and recall ourhistorical performance, and from there,we derived our practical projections .

And from there, we enumerated“What are the things we need to doto meet our target “ and “How arewe going to do it”, and “ what arethe supports we need to meet it”,and put it in a document file.Then, the cycle monitoring andevaluation are applied and recordedthe lessons learned and improve forthe better!!!

Products: Increase of Product Designs

Through ITC support, a Brand Book and Swatch Book was develop to enable usgear our collections towards our identity.To enable us compete, we should have our own concept of product and owncolor combination so buyer cannot just find our combination and concept fromother stores.The brand book and watch book are now are design guide that we are following.

Products: Increase of Product DesignsBased on the brandbook to identify andpush our productand businessidentities assupported by ITC,there are fiveconcepts were wecan develop our newranges and wherewe can best fit in ;(1) Lotus Symbol (2)Aquatic Hues (3)Vintage Inspiration(4) Fresh and TrendyStyle (5) CambodianCirca 1960s.

Products: Increase of Product DesignsAnd the productranges that would fitinto the five conceptdesigns mentionedon the previouspages are as follows;(1) Clutch bags /

evening bags(2) Sewn scarves(3) Head band(4) Silk jewelleries

Products: Increase of Product DesignsOn top of the collection book and swatch bookbecause of the exposure of our products from thefair sponsored by ITC, we met some buyers whoadded changes to our existing scarves and made Itmore interesting and now they are ordering.

Showroom Renovation

Before NOW

Access to Weavers

We do have plans in coming up with one in-house weaving loom for our shop,to do the samples for us. Once samples are done, this will be displayed in theshop and / or send to the buyer to get an order.

Once we get the orders from the sample, we would like to link our productionto work with group of weavers in the villages who has the capacity , specialtyand skills in producing our product.

We would like to meet weavers any time soon so we can study and assess ourpotential to work in volume requirement.

We also would like to have a simple dyeing facilities in my shop..so we canquickly dye samples by ourselves, work on the coulor formula,…. Beforesending to the producers.

Access to Raw Materials

I am aware that the team had a very productive trip in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoiabout this.

I was in Australia for presenting in a conference of my social project (FlotatingGarden) of during those days and I missed the most important information.

However, Since most of the materials I will need is available in Ho Chi Minh,and I have the references, I can schedule myself anytime to get the rawmaterials I need if not available here in Cambodia.

Technical Assistance• I was able to attend to marketing and promotion workshop training of ITC,

the Design , Branding Concept to which I am getting clearer and clearerwith my product and business identity now.

• My color combinations are specific and I only display products that fitsinto my concept. But this likewise we are also open for other buyer’s owndesign as they may suggest.

• The follow up and monitoring also helps us, to push ourselves to complyand meet our export plan.

• More trade shows and “buyers connection” are also playing a bigimportant role to enable us meet our target. We have join the Angkor SilkFair and we wish to join other trade in other country.

• And with regards to Laboratory requirements, with the assistance of ITCmentorship, I was able to get connected directly to Intertek office andunderstand the laboratory requirement of the buyer and the AZO free dyeand its testing cost.

Production• I had the chance to briefly requested for an advise on how make our

scarves soft and through ITC mentorship program, I was able to get a quickadvise on how to make our scarves soft to which we are now doing withall of our silk products.

• And also, I was given an advise on the quick technique in making a onetime “free art style” spray painted scarf , where it looked like an deep dyeor tie dye scarf. We already test out and sell some sample in the shop.

• We need more techniques as we proceed with our new samples and westill need some help to have an in-house dyeing (simple) facilities in ourproduct development workshop, and like wise Katra weaving for my inhouse loom which I will be putting in my workshop nearly soon.

Before the project started, my marketing tools are only website, BusinessCard and leaflet, but we felt it is not good enough and we need somethingthat will emphasize what we are selling.Through ITC we were given the privilege to spot on our identity, to bedifferent from others. Identity can be defined based on your colorcombination and or your concept design.

Marketing Materials

BEFORE

NOW

We appreciate the approach we are getting as we were given first the idea,then a support on how to do it, and then, show us how to do it..then laterchallenge us to do it on own.

I am proud that the output I am getting from this support is making ussustainable with our own business set up in the future… and can be apply toany type of business that we will be going into or expand.

Vannary SanOwner/DesignerLotus Silk & Boutique