Weekly Guide to Starting Your Fashion Brand
So, is this it?
Is 2024 the year that you are launching your fashion brand?
Rather watch it than read it? Video is here ↓
Now that you have decided to make the move, are you clear on all of the details to consider?
Not to scare you off, but truth be told, it’s a lot. 😬
Details are my specialty. So as a way to make the production process simpler, I’ve created this series, From Concept to Launched, where each week we will go through what is the next step in the fashion production process. I often get DMs and emails asking for garment manufacturers from brands that have yet to start their designs or even register their business. Because there are so many details to take into consideration, the order of operations tend to get lost. And quite understandably, you may not even know what the order of operations actually look like.
Do you know what season you are selling for?
So then do you know how far in advance you need to plan ahead?
Do you know when to reach out to manufacturers:
When to start sampling?
What if you want to show your garments at a trade show? Do you know when where how?
That’s what this series is for.
Often first time designer/brand doesn't know what they should be working on; they don’t know what season to be working on. This series will cover the main topics to creating a fashion product while following the manufacturers calendar.
If you are selling your products directly to the consumer, or B2C, then you are designing now, in January, for AW (Autumn / Winter) end of this year, start of next year. For our friends in the southern hemisphere watching, reverse the seasons and we will be on the same track. For you it would be SS (Spring / Summer) end of this year, start of next year.
You heard me right. If you want to manufacture your fashion designs, give yourself a minimum of one year. If you give yourself too short of a runway, then you will cause yourself a lot of stress and anxiety which can eventually be costly, on both your budget and your stress levels.
Give yourself a long runway, and as you become more seasoned, the process will start to become more natural because you will gain experience.
Since fast fashion has taken what used to be a seasonal industry with SS // AW collections and made 52 sh***y micro seasons, it’s no wonder why start ups are confused.
You don’t have to keep up with fast fashion. In fact they shouldn’t even be on your radar. Forget about them.
If you are looking for Print-on-Demand, or blank products, or ready made basics like hoodies, t-shirts, joggers, caps, this series won’t really apply to you. You are needing white label suppliers/blanks suppliers. If you are wanting something yesterday, this would be the path to take. Blanks are products that are already made and don’t require patterns to be made and tech packs.
I frequently have conversations with startups where they are wanting their products launched - LAUNCHED! - in 3 months from our initial call. They don’t have fabrics selected, they don’t have designs sketched out, they don’t have tech packs. But in their mind, they are ready in to launch! 🚀
Don’t underestimate the time it takes to take your vision, conceptualise it, create tech packs, find fabric manufacturers and source the materials, pitch your tech packs to manufacturers go through the sampling process, approvals, shipping, don’t forget you need brand labels and hang tags, maybe even other packaging products. It is a lot.
There’s a quote from David Allen that I saw in a newsletter recently that says
“You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.”
This is so true. And when you are starting up and learning is a part of the process, your mental load will become great.
Fashion production agencies like mine look after a majority of this process. But what if hiring a project manager isn’t in the budget? This is all too real for a majority of micro brands.
You could have the most beautiful, useful, comfortable - insert any adjective here - product idea in all of fashion, but without a plan, it’s not going to be much use if you don’t know the path to launching your product. And without specific planning and action, your designs may never see the light of day, or worse you could be going through expensive mistakes during the production stage. You want to be thorough to help eliminate confusion as much as possible.
So follow along to work through each step of taking your concept and turning it into a product in production.