Some time in the past I clicked on a Noracora ad in the margin of something I was reading and now I keep getting their ads popping up in other places. At the moment it’s their autumn range of shoes and they look quite interesting - reasonable width and depth of sole without looking too grannyish.
I wondered if anyone has had any experience of them as a supplier - either clothing or shoes. They look nice but are they reasonable quality?
read to the end…
A friend of my wife’s is a fashion designer. A Chinese based company (who, from the reviews sound very similar to Nora Cora) copied her entire range last year. The original designs are beautifully cut and made from premium cotton, linen, silk etc.
The Chinese versions were made badly from very cheap synthetic material. She tried to get them to desist but had to give up as the legal costs would have been too great.
I suspect that Nora Cora is one of a number of Chinese companies who look for ‘inspiration’ globally then churn out inferior copies as cheaply as they possibly can. I have no direct knowledge of the working conditions they impose but I suspect that they are not the most caring or generous of employers.
Concerning Nora Cora, a couple of representative reviews on Trustpilot…
Les tailles ne correspondent pas, les vêtements sont de mauvaise qualité, le site se cache derrière le label FR ( France ) et il est impossible d’obtenir un retour où remboursement, sois disant parce que le centre de tri est en Chine ! Plainte déposée et dossier au main d’un avocat.
Date de l’expérience: 28 septembre 2022
J’ai retourné le 24 août dernier la robe trop grande avec demande de remboursement.
Nous sommes le premier octobre et je n’ai ni nouvelle ni remboursement
Site à éviter car en plus des tailles non conformes les retours sont très chers et le remboursement (pourtant partiel) n’arrive jamais.
##Entreprise malhonnête
Date de l’expérience: 19 août 2022
yep… that’s why I said read to the end…
seems customers have all sorts of problems…
It’s best to beware of such sites. I bought a coat a few years ago (laine, it said, honest) from one of those sites whose ads pop up if you forget to turn on the adblocker. Tons of choice, nice colours. It was going to be a rather nice birthday present. An unusual style with a huge, practical (I thought) hood. It took months to arrive. I tried it on and it fitted only here and there. The hood was half the garment, very bizarre. It was rather pale and didn’t look at all like the photos, and it was made of a sort of plasticky material, so light so it didn’t hang properly at all. The hem was slightly creased and when I ironed that part, it promptly melted ! No wool was used in its manufacture. I should have know it would do that. As it was far too much like hard work to send it back to China, I hope Emmaus managed to get a bit of cash for it !
If you are looking for wider shoes, I have never been disappointed with Gabor.
They are sold both on line and in shops and are a well known brand.
Sadly, having lived long in the country, I can say that Brian is telling it exactly as it is.
Please try not to buy products created in China online. I have been to windowless factories in Guangdong (just across thee border from Hong Kong) where over a hundred workers sit at benches along wooden tables, churning out items for 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week. Lunch is not a break but pot noodles eaten while squatting on a 3-legged stool along a darkened wall. Nights are spent in the bunk bed dorm or on the factory benches. The one annual holiday is 2 weeks at Chinese New Year ~January) when the factory closes and everyone returns to their home villages. Most of their pay has already been sent there to their families. And these are considered highly desirable jobs that people come from throughout China to get.
I will not tell you about the forced labour in prisons and the ‘camps’ in Xinjiang. They get the less than healthy jobs such as fabric dying.
I know that China made clothing and designer copies are cheap, but like the blood diamonds of Africa, when the buying stops, the exploitation can too.
Thanks everyone. Glad I checked - what a shame because they do look good. 
Ah. Well that’s the art of advertising!
The China suppliers lift the advertising material of the original company. You only get the surprise when they arrive and the pleather squeaks like Covid lab mice. 
The (extraordinarily handsome) brother of a friend of mine was quite surprised to see his photo from a Ralph Lauren shoot used to advertise Sam the Tailor with a Hong Kong harbour background instead of the original. Art appropriation?
I think they are a ripoff imitating other people’s designs and churning out awful shoddy copies made of inferior materials. I know someone who ordered something and was horrified when it arrived, then she couldn’t return it or get a refund. Caveat emptor!
If you must buy ‘direct’ Chinese clothes it’s probably worth going via Amazon. While we may not like their business model, getting refunded on returns is usually easy.
not just these folk…
after a UK trip, where OH had stocked up on M&S underwear… I noticed the instructions for his socks… “wipe clean, do not wash”… 
utter tripe… they wash just fine, thank heavens… 
A brief whinge: since this thread started every page of Survive France now features repeated NxxxCxxx advertisements…
I’m tempted to click on them just so they get charged by Google Ads. But I shan’t.
Ad blocker? Subscribe to SF?
I don’t run an ad blocker on SF so the site can earn revenue from the served ads.
Mire good news from the East……
Speaking of Chinese made goods pretending to be genuine originals
Does rather bring to mind a natty vintage pair of faux ‘co-respondent’ crocodile shoes…
I tried on a pair of Spanish-made shoes in a large shoe store, for men & women, near Rochefort, which I found extremely comfortable, and which I bought (75 euros). I thought I was buying an ordinary comfortable pair of shoes.
Discovered inside the shoebox later on, a booklet, saying they are manmade shoes, and are designed to be comfortable. According to their website, they make diabetic shoes as well, which need to be especially comfortable. Their video shows shoemakers at work.
Shan’t be buying elsewhere now! They are very comfortable! But colour is lacking, being made of natural materials.
