All about Starting Your Own Label & Becoming a Fashion Designer... (SEE POST #1 FOR RELATED THREADS)

[brandondrexel]

If you don't have the start up capital to get into stores Publik Park is a great place to start. They manufacture, produce and promote entire lines with a credit to the designers and carry them in thier stores. I think they are opening this fall. Good luck www.publikparkclothing.com

 

[sohollywoodxoxo]

Being a fashion designer?

Sorry if I post in the wrong place I'm still trying to get the hang of this!

Ok...so randomly, me and my friend had an idea to start a "clothing line" and I recently started working on some sketches...I know it's going to take a lot more work than this...but I was wondering how one goes about this? I want to design clothes and I already have some sketches, but I dont know if they are legit...are there any rules to sketching? What else do I need to know to go through with this? I want to give my sketches to a department store or something but i dunno what to do...help me out?? ps im only 15!!

thanks

 

[Tourni]

One thing is for sure. It is much harder than just saying "I want to be a designer and start a clothing line" one day and then start making sketches. You have to have a passion for it. Even designers who can sketch, sew, and pattern make have a hard time in this industry getting their stuff out there.
I would suggest you look through these forums, or books and articles about studying fashion design to see if it really interests you.
As for fashion sketches... There are rules as to how you should go about proportioning the body, but its all really up to you. Everyone has an individual style of sketching.

PS- Don't try sending your sketches to a department store, they don't make clothes, they purchase clothes to sell on their racks.

 

[dorian88]

what is cheaper?

would it be easier to have people make my shirts or is it better to buy wholsale t-shirts so that i can screen print on them? I want to start my own clothing brand so i figured that although buying wholesale might be chaeper it would be better to make the shirts from scratch so that i can put my neck tags on them

 

[dorian88]

wanting to start a clothing brand

I have been wanting to start my own clothing brand starting off with shirts and tees... how would i go about this would i first buy fabric and have people sew it for me? I could also buy wholesale tees but then i woiuldnt be able to place my own tags on the neckline?

 

[JohnPaulMiller]

I think a lot of people do start out designing their lines with fabric they've found and then try to locate a production source.

You can get almost anyting you want made... provided you can meet production minimum orders. These range from 50 years for printed silks to 5000 yards for yarn dyed weaves and brocades. I suspect order that use 5000 yard fabric orders are not in your immediate future, so you should only design with "found" fabric like end lots and closeouts for ONE OFF or LIMITED PRODUCTION pieces. Buy 20 yards, use 1 for your sample, and have fabric for 19 production pieces. Charge accordingly.

Cost: if a fabric is inordinately expensive, you may choose to design something for it that is simpler to construct.

Or you may choose to do something elaborate with it to make the finshed product worth the price you will have to charge.

Dependable supply: another issue is continuity (use that word as part of a search term when sourcing wholesale fabrics). Continuity means that the supplier carries these goods in stock most -if not all- of the time.

Definitely work from STOCK goods if you need to make production but you don't intend to buy your fabrics in advance. If you don't do this, you will certainly end up selling things you can't produce... which will set you back far more than lost orders, as the buyers will learn that you are UNRELIABLE.



Great advice all around Kathleen.

 

[josephineducklin]

i sew and have patterns but i'm in school so i have to start small scale. right now i'm just selling through friends on myspace. does anyone know how to find like 50 bolts of organic cotton? not only do i not know where to look, but i've been filled with horror stories of having to buy in huge bulks to get a decent price or needing a lot of capital to buy wholesale at all. i do most of my research online since the school i'm at doesn't have fashion design and i don't want to transfer, so i have a lot of these type of questions.

 

[SanDiego]

Small Business Owners

O.k. So im starting my own business, I am going to branch out and do custom invitations for parties, weddings etc and also printing flyers and programs.
I want to see how many of you out there have already started your own
business, what did you choose to do and why? what is the name of your business and do you feel its sucessfull?
Are there any future business owners out there who are considering it but need a little push?

 

[SanDiego]

Im thinking about once i get my invitation business up and running branching out and doing custom t-shirts and accessories. Does anyone have any connections with where to buy wholesale?

 

[softgrey]

i'm pretty sure about a hundred people have started threads about buying t-shirts wholesale...
i bet if you did a search you'd come up with a bunch of stuff......

good luck with the new venture...

 

[hedonist]

Getting line in boutiques

Hey, I'm a relatively new designer and since these are fashion industry forums, I was wondering how would one go about getting their lines in a boutique/stores. Do you just find boutiques and send them a press package/samples? Is there an online database of boutiques that provide address/emails of boutiques? Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[AliyaS]

Book on starting your own clothing company?

I started a brand with no previous knowledge of designing for fun and surprisingly it's been doing pretty well but, I really don't have a clue on what I'm doing or how to run a company. I NEED HELP FAST!!!!!

Can anyone recommend book's on:
1. Everything you would learn in a designing program (or close enough!) I'm doing clothes on a street fashion level but, it does involve some cut & sew and I am really interested in learning more. I know how to sew and make a few amateur patterns.
2. How to run and manage your own clothing company. An outline of who does what. If my company expands pass my living room then, I would have to hire more people.

I'm willing to learn and wish I had learnt it when I was in school. Unfortunately where I live, they don't offer any college level programs in English so, I would have to learn it through books.
Thank you so much in advance and bare with my "Sewing for dummies!"

 

[justinleaddict]

New in the business..

My brother and I are attempting to start a clothing business. We are having a little trouble in deciding how to go about actually making the clothes. Do we sew ourselves, do we hire people or a factory to do it...?

We want pretty nice quality items by the way. Any suggestions? Any at all will do Maybe a company name that could help us out or just something from personal experience.. thank you

 

[allvogue]

Starting a new sexy mens clothing label, Please Help!!

Hi,

Me and a friend are starting our own mens fashion label. We have just shifted our vision for our designs completely. We now want to just focus on designing really sexy mens clothing such as low cuts etc….
I haven’t seen many mens brands that do this besides dsquared and d&g (I don’t know if sisley creates sexy clothing for men). A really good example for womens clothing is Rock & Republic, you can just see by some of their runway shots that their clothing is really really sexy, the cuts are awesome & ladies just gotta have it.

I was wandering if anybody could help us in coming up with some sexy designs for men? or telling us which other brand out their designs sexy mens clothing for us to draw some inspiration from? Our first range is only going to consist of t-shirts & a few shirts, but we may also introduce others things such as shorts, trousers … if our budget is big enough. We have only come up with about 1-2 designs which I can say a really sexy, so I will appreciate anything that anyone has to say.

Cheers

 

[Lena]

try browsing menswear collections in our designer&collections forum or browse our menswear catwalk trends pinned threads at trendspotting forum

 

[irresistable_loz]

What to expect with a new fashion label

Hey everyone,

I know there is tons of threads on "I want to become a designer" and "What should I do", but I was wondering whether anyone can tell me what to expect in terms of sales figures and the likes for a start up designer.

I'm finishing off my business degree while I do my Fashion design degree, so thats not so much the issue, I was just curious if any designers on here could tell me what to expect in terms of how many boutiques/department stores picked them up, especially if they started off with a parade at one of the fashion weeks and how much capital they think is necessary to start off successfully.

I know I interned with one particular designer in Australia who has been doing incredibly well who started off with around $100,000 but struggled a lot in the first two years with that.

Any advice?

Plus if theres any things that came up that you weren't expecting, in regards to expenses, et cetera that weren't expected, it would be a great help to all of us designer 'wannabes'.

 

[Lena]

my frist try with Paris trade fairs (during Fashion week) brought me four new clients, but i was already quite experienced in my local market..

as for capital, depends where you are based and what exactly you'd like to achieve..

anything from 50.000$ up will be good to keep you going for the first two seasons

 

[prosperk]

You'll obviously have to stage private shows or small-scale but hugely popular 'events', like Martin Grant when he was starting up. At one point, he went out into the rue des Rosiers and did a show in the street, just like that! However, since you have no money to buy patronage from mainstream fashion media - any idiot can get column inches if they're buying ad space - you need to think about getting yourself 'adopted' by a stylist and/or an upwardly mobile editor. Getting someone well-known to wear your stuff is also a good move. So is dressing friends who attend shows and, particularly, vernissages and other fashion-related events. You probably have all this sussed already but it's worth repeating because it is a tested way of getting ahead when you haven't a huge budget. Cultivate some up and coming fashion writers as well. Make what you do fun and people who come to see you will tell others because so much of what one has to do during Fashion Week is not fun.

PK

 

[Lena]

^ correct
fashion weeks are so 'packed' its very hard to 'make a difference' and it can only happen by word of mouth
hiring a good pr can also help, but it can be very expensive and money wont buy these guys either.. they also have to like your work, to see the potential before signing you up..
if you have the money to invest, it's worth it
you'll need to sign a deal at least 10 months before your debut so they have plenty of time to create a buzz

 

[irresistable_loz]

Thanks guys for the insight I think I'm pretty lucky, I have a friend who does the PR for one of Australia's leading designers who said she'd work for me in a heartbeat so thats awesome. I'll try to get a few more contacts with the magazines and freelance writers and go from there... just have to finish off my degrees now and save up the $$$$$