How To Start a Clothing Brand: 12 Easy Steps (2023)
How To Start a Clothing Brand: 12 Easy Steps (2023)
How to start a clothing line in 12 steps
Develop your fashion design skills
Create a business plan
Follow fashion trends
Build a strong brand
Design and develop your brand
Source fashion fabrics or design your own
Setup clothing production and manufacturing
Plan your collections around fashion seasons
Pitch your clothing line to fashion retailers
Build an online store
Open a retail store, launch a pop-up, or sell at markets
Learn from the pros
1. Develop your fashion design skills
Designers like Vivienne Westwood and Dapper Dan found massive success in the fashion world, even though they were self-taught. And they started their careers pre-internet. We live in a time of access, where rebuilding an engine or tailoring a t-shirt can be learned simply by watching a YouTube video.
It’s possible to skip school and still launch your own clothing line, but formal education, has its merits: learn the latest industry standards, access resources and equipment, make contacts, and get feedback from pros.
2. Create a business plan
Starting a clothing line requires many of the same considerations as starting any business. How much does it cost to start? When should you pursue capital for your startup? What outside help will you need to navigate legal, financial, production, and distribution aspects of the business? Where and how will you produce your garments? Let’s dig in.
What’s your business model?
This guide is for those looking to design and develop their own clothing brand and collections. If you are interested in the fashion world but have no interest or skills in design, consider reselling by buying wholesale or trying dropshipping.
For those designing a clothing line from scratch, this is the point where you will decide what type of business you are looking to run. This will help you determine how much time, effort, and funding you will require upfront.
A few business models are:
Hand produce and sell your designs direct to customers through your own website or online marketplaces or at markets and pop-ups.
Create collections and produce pieces of clothing through a manufacturer, then sell your clothing line wholesale to other retailers.
Design repeating patterns or graphics to print on blank t-shirts and other clothing items using a print-on-demand model, selling online through your own store.
What does it cost to start a clothing line?
Once you have a small business idea for your clothing line, you may be able to fund it yourself and bootstrap as you go. Designing and sewing made-to-order clothing on your own means you don’t have to carry a ton of inventory. However, you will need to invest upfront in equipment and large quantities of fabric to be cost-effective. Other costs include shipping materials, fees for launching your site, and a marketing budget.
If you plan to go all in and work with manufacturers on a production run, you’ll have high upfront costs to meet minimums. A solid business plan and costing exercise will help you determine how much funding you’ll need.
There are a few low budget entry points in the world of fashion, though, including consignment, dropshipping, and print on demand.
💅 Resources:
How to Write a Business Plan
Research: What Does It Really Cost to Start a Business? (2023)
Types of Businesses: Which Legal Structure Is Right for Your New Venture?
How to Get a Small Business Loan (+ What to Know) (2023)
The Fundraiser's Guide to Successful Crowdfunding (2023)
3. Follow fashion trends
To get inspiration for your own idea, devour fashion publications, follow style influencers, and subscribe to fashion newsletters and podcasts to stay inspired and catch trends before they emerge.
In the noisy world of fashion, consider finding niches or filling gaps in the industry like these inspiring founders:
4. Build a strong brand
Remember that “brand” does not mean your logo (that’s branding). Building your fashion brand is an exercise in putting to paper your values, your mission, what you stand for, your story, and more.
Creating brand guidelines will help to inform all of your business and branding decisions as you grow. They will dictate visual direction, website design, and marketing campaigns. They should dictate what you look for in a retail partner or a new hire.
Use social media to build a lifestyle around your brand: share your inspiration and process, inject your own personality, tell your story, and be deliberate with every post.
“The key to social media is consistency,”
5. Design and develop your clothing line
Tips for developing a clothing line:
Always be doodling. A doodle is the first step toward a refined design. Every idea starts on paper before being translated to Illustrator or another software tool. “I always use a mix of new technology and notebooks full of scribbles,”
Make your own samples by hand. This way, you can enter a relationship with a manufacturer with a better understanding of what production might entail. You’re in a better position to negotiate on costs if you’re intimate with the process.
Focus on being creative. If production or other business tasks start to get in the way of development, it’s time to outsource.
6. Source fashion fabrics or design your own
Building a network in the industry can help you access contacts for fabric agents, wholesalers, and mills. The local fabric market and used an agent to get access to fabrics from Japan.
But even that route has pitfalls. “In Canada, everyone’s using the same agent,” “All of the local clothing lines are all using the same fabrics.”
For those just starting out, agents can be helpful, Building personal networks and joining communities of designers. Start meeting others in the industry at local incubators, meetup groups, online communities, and live fashion networking events.
7. Setup clothing production and manufacturing
In the early days, you may not be producing volumes that warrant outside help, but as you scale, a manufacturing partner will let you free up time for other aspects of the business and design.
There are a few exceptions. If the handmade aspect of your pieces is a cornerstone of your brand, you’ll always touch production even as you scale. Growth, though, is generally dependent on outsourcing at least some of the work.
Manufacturing your designs can be accomplished in a number of ways:
One-of-a-kind and handmade by you
Made by hired staff or freelance sewers but still owned in-house (small studio)
Sewn in your own commercial production facility (owned, shared, or rented)
Outsourced to a local factory where you still have some oversight (try Maker’s Row or MFG)
Produced at an overseas factory (completely hands off)
In-house production
If you’re starting out from your home, be sure your studio is set up to accommodate flow from one machine to the next, has ample storage, considers ergonomics, and is an inspiring space where you’ll be motivated to spend time.
Alternatively, combat loneliness and save money on equipment by seeking out co-working spaces, incubators, or shared studios.
8. Plan your collections around fashion seasons
Your design and development period and delivery dates depend on your customer and your launch strategy, You have your collection ready for the next season at least six to eight months in advance. If you’re selling wholesale, buyers will need to see your collection a month before fashion week.
Work backward from your delivery date to establish your design and production timelines. Add dates of important global fashion events, like New York Fashion Week, to your calendar to help set goals.
Seasonality doesn’t have to dictate all of your collections, however. “It’s always such a shame when I design a beautiful print and I think, ‘I only have this for one season. I only have a six-month window'
While product development is a constant concern for fashion brands, signature or core bestselling pieces may stay in your collection for years. This is true for basics brands that focus on, say, “the perfect cotton tee,” a classic that occasionally gets a color update. KOTN’s brand is built around well made, sustainable basics with core tees selling alongside seasonal releases.
9. Pitch your clothing line to fashion retailers
Wholesale played a huge part in the growth of brand's in the beginning. After navigating other sales channels like own retail store, Returned to a wholesale strategy.
In fashion, there are two main ways to sell your clothing line through other retailers:
Consignment. This is a win-win for everyone, as it gives your line a chance to get exposure in a store with no risk to the retailer. The downside is that you only get paid when an item sells.
Wholesale. This refers to retailers buying a set number of pieces upfront at a wholesale price (less than your retail price). This option is riskier for the retailer so you may have to prove yourself through consignment first.
“It’s a lot easier for stores to take your whole collection on consignment, as opposed to just one or two pieces,
Approaching buyers is a daunting experience, and work on both sides of the transaction. Looking through the buyer’s lens helped to stand out when pitching your own line.
Be prepared, You have to know every detail.”
Hitting the pavement was a strategy that worked when you're starting out. Start slow, Introduce yourself with a card or a catalog and try to book time to meet later.
“There are ways that you can approach people without either accosting them or hiding behind a computer screen.”
10. Build an online store
Let’s make sure you have a solid online business idea. Does your clothing line business plan detail how you will handle shipping and fulfillment, packaging, and online customer service? Is your production method able to accommodate single orders?
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