Behind The Stitch: Baja
Who make our clothes? Where do they come from? We only see them displayed at store or photographed on set but we are rarely shown the unglamorous side of fashion. Behind The Stitch highlights the workforce who creates garment and showcases people who might never appear on runway or glossy pages but crucial in the success of a brand.
Denny Baja Paskah Agus Santoso or Baja was in college when he was first asked to help out a friend as fabric sourcing for SAE-A, South Korea's number one apparel manufacturer.
He then moved on to work as quality assurance manager at Dasan Pan Pacific. His first technical advisor position was at Kwanglim Indonesia, another South Korean clothing manufacturer. In 2017, before Quanglim Indonesia collapsed, he joined Nesia Pan Pacific as technical advisor.
As a technical advisor and quality assessment officer, Baja's job is, in a nutshell, to make sure everything in the factory runs smoothly without any glitch, from the moment fabrics and accessories reach the factory to the final phase when the goods are shipped to their respective destinations.
In reality, it covers a wide range of tasks. Think checking quality control and quality assurance and conducting quarterly audit in each factory.
He visits factories to make sure they run according to the standard operating procedure. Every problem he finds - also called 'finding' - is being discussed with the management team to find the solution. As an official advisor, Baja is expected to provide solutions and input to solve the problem. He also has to supervise the employees, see whether they have taken preventive and corrective measures.
It may sound simple, but quality control and quality assessment alone involve around two dozens of specific check points, including inspecting fabric and accessories, cutting of the fabric, sewing process and ironed products.
Checking product safety is also a very important part of the process, especially for babies and kids products (which is why they cost more). They have to pass several more safety check points than adult products, including zipper and button safety check, because even a small looped thread could be dangerous for children.
At Pan Pacific, he is responsible for brands including GAP, Under Armour, Walmart, Amazon and H&M. Their products are shipped mostly to the US and Europe. Those brands demand very detailed process and safety checks, which explains their price tag. The detail and care they put into every product are meticulous, though there are still a few errors, mostly human errors, that occur every now and then.
Errors and/or mistakes found after all of the checking Baja does mostly happened right before shipping. For example, during the packing process, the determined quantity has to be changed because there are defective products in the batch, which resulted in a replacement with the same products but of different sizes.
Those finished, yet defective products are then treated according to the buyer’s (brand) requirement. Some brands want defective products to be destroyed by way of burning. Some brands will hand them over to the factory, allowing it to sell them after a period of time - usually five years after the product is made - without any label attached or by changing the label.
Baja has spent seven years in apparel manufacturing companies, but not because of his love of fashion. If you ask him whether he likes fashion or not, he will answer with ‘so-so.’
“Because to me, being a person with better logic, I feel challenged to find out how I can help many people live or work better.”
He wants to make sure that it is the people who really matter. The factory workers. That they are given as much knowledge and protection as possible and get paid what they’re worth. By educating them and making sure they know what they're actually worth and what they deserves, the workers will be great assets to the company and, eventually, take the company to the next level.
Fashion is an industry that will never die. Changing, yes, but never die. Because food, clothing and shelter are the essentials of life.