How To commence a Clothing Business in 14 Steps (2024)
Starting a successful clothing brand takes more than a talent for design. While mastering pattern grading, sewing, and draping might be essential for setting next period’s biggest trends, understanding the business side of fashion requires a different set of skills.
Designer Sarah Donofrio, who successfully launched her own brand, knows what it takes. With more than two decades in the fashion industry, she’s learned that running a thriving clothing business is all about balancing the creative parts of fashion with a grip on business essentials.
In this navigator, discover how to commence a clothing brand from scratch—from design to manufacturing to marketing—with tips for selling clothes from a seasoned pro.
How to commence a clothing brand in 14 steps
- Develop your fashion design skills
- make a clothing strategy document
- pursue fashion trends
- construct a powerful brand
- Design and develop your clothing line
- Source fashion fabrics or design your own
- Set up production and manufacturing for your clothing line
- construct pricing and inventory strategies for your clothing business
- schedule your collections around fashion seasons
- Pitch your clothing line to fashion retailers
- construct an online clothing store
- trade your clothing business online
- Open a retail store, launch a pop-up, or sell at markets
- discover from the pros
Sarah’s encounter spans design, production, education, and physical retail. In 2016, she was a contender on assignment Runway’s 15th period.
Since that instant of fame, Sarah has launched her own clothing line and ecommerce store, won multiple awards, and appeared in several publications and retailer shops. Tap into the secrets to her achievement with these steps to developing your own clothing brand.
1. Develop your fashion design skills
Self-taught designers like Vivienne Westwood and Dapper Dan display it’s feasible to thrive in fashion, no matter your background. In the internet age, the basics of tailoring can be learned simply by watching a YouTube video.
While it’s feasible to skip school and launch your own clothing line, formal education, whether in a classroom or online, has its merits. You get to discover the latest industry standards, access resources and equipment, make contacts, and receive feedback from pros.
Sarah learned basic skills in a classroom, but found much of her fashion education was gained on the job, working in corporate retail.
“I wanted to work for myself,” she says, “But I felt that it was significant to get encounter.”
It took me a long period to be confident enough that I could fill a store with my clothing.
Sarah Donofrio, fashion designer and business owner
Sarah is an advocate for spending a few years learning the ropes from other brands and designers.
“It took me a long period to be confident enough that I could fill a store with my clothing,” she says. “I ponder that I needed the period to develop and to get advice and encounter.”
Many institutions propose fashion design and tiny business programs in varying formats. Schools like Parsons in recent York and Central Saint Martins in London are globe renowned for their fashion programs.
There are also a growing number of online courses for fashion industry hopefuls. Check local throng colleges for virtual or part-period formats, or consider sites like MasterClass and Maker’s Row Academy.
2. make a clothing strategy document
Starting a clothing line requires many of the same considerations as starting any business. How much does it expense to commence? When should you pursue fund for your enterprise? What outside assist will you require to navigate legal, monetary, production, and distribution aspects of the business? Where and how will you produce your products?
Let’s dig in.
Fashion brand business models
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. Getting obvious on your strategy document will assist you determine how much period, attempt, and capital will be required upfront.
A few business models to consider are:
- Hand production: Make and sell your designs directly to customers through your own website or at markets and pop-ups.
- Manufacturing associate: make collections and produce pieces of clothing through a manufacturer, then sell your clothing line wholesale to other retailers.
- Print on demand: Design patterns or graphics to print on blank t-shirts and other clothing items using a print-on-demand service, selling online through your own store.
Choosing a business type and structure
Your strategy document is also where you’ll determine your business’s official structure. You may choose to operate as a sole proprietorship, a corporation, or something in between.
If you decide to focus on sustainable business practices and produce clothing ethically, you could also consider becoming a B Corp. This designation signifies to conscious consumers that your clothing business is committed to sustainability.
What does it expense to commence a clothing line?
Once you have a tiny business concept for your clothing line, you may be able to fund it yourself and bootstrap as you leave. Designing and sewing made-to-order clothing on your own means you don’t have to carry a ton of inventory. However, you will require to invest upfront in equipment and large quantities of fabric to be expense-effective. Other major costs include shipping fees and a marketing monetary schedule.
If you schedule to leave all in and work with manufacturers on a production run, you’ll have high upfront costs to meet minimums. A solid strategy document and costing exercise will assist you determine how much capital you’ll require.
“In fashion, you’re not just costing fabric and buttons and labor,” says Sarah. “You’re costing shipping, you’re costing heating and rent.”
To arrive up with enterprise fund, look to secure a business financing or crowdfund product runs. If it’s a truly zero-fund, online clothing business that you’re after, consider dropshipping clothing or running a consignment store.
Creating a monetary schedule
When investors or banks are looking at your operating schedule, they’ll desire to view a well-thought-out monetary schedule. This part of your clothing line strategy document should specific how you will set a monetary schedule, manage funds flow, and track costs. It should also demonstrate a obvious path to profitability.
When writing a schedule for your own clothing business, try using a strategy document template to navigator you through the essential sections.
3. pursue fashion trends
Through Sarah’s years of developing her brand, she’s learned that while watching trends is extremely significant, it’s equally significant to focus, hone your strengths, and be factual to your own design sensibilities.
“The trick is finding what you’re excellent at and focusing on that,” she says.
I’ve always had a really excellent pattern intuition. But it’s all about translation.
Sarah Donofrio
Sarah’s product line has a year-over-year consistency; design choices in her pieces are unmistakably hers. But she is always watching trends. She says that the key is adapting those trends to your brand, personalizing them, and making them work for your customer.
“I’ve always had a really excellent pattern intuition,” Sarah says. “But it’s all about translation.” Sarah worked on plus-size collections during her period in the corporate globe and said that translating trends meant also considering the needs of the plus customer.
Though she sticks to her strengths, Sarah factors what’s happening in fashion—and in the globe around her—into her advancement. “receive athleisure,” she says. “I don’t make tights, I don’t make sports bras, but this chilly woven crop would look benevolent of awesome with tights, so that’s how I would incorporate the pattern.”
To get encouragement for your own concept, devour fashion publications, pursue style influencers, and subscribe to fashion newsletters and podcasts to remain inspired and catch trends before they emerge.
In the noisy globe of fashion, consider finding niches or conference trade demand, just like these founders did:
- Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart launched vegan winter coat brand Vaute Couture after finding a disappointing lack of cruelty-free options on the trade. (Update: While Vaute has since shuttered, Leanne’s recent enterprise, Humans We adore carries the same ethos.)
- Camille Newman threw her hat in the plus sized fashion game with Body by adore (formerly Pop Up Plus).
- Mel Wells launched a gender-neutral vintage-inspired swimwear line.
- Taryn Rodighiero also joined the swimwear game but concentrated on custom suits, made to order to each customer’s exact specifications.
4. construct a powerful brand
Your brand extends far beyond a name or logo. Building a powerful fashion brand is an exercise in capturing your values, your mission, what you stand for, and your narrative.
Creating brand guidelines will assist inform all your business decisions, and dictate visual path, website design, and marketing campaigns. Your brand will even dictate what you look for in a retail associate or a recent hire.
Use social media to construct a lifestyle around your brand: distribute your encouragement and procedure, inject your own personality, inform your narrative, and be deliberate with every post.
“The key to social media is consistency,” says Sarah. “I ponder you have to post every day, but it also has to be fascinating.” She mixes up her content with trip, encouragement, sneak peeks at works in advancement, and even some fascinating stats from her analytics dashboard.
5. Design and develop your clothing line
Sarah is an advocate of the sketchbook as one of the most significant tools for a designer. “I receive my sketchbook everywhere with me,” she says. “As I’m sketching away, every so often I’m like, ’Oh, this little drawing would translate really well into a repeat pattern.’”
As a contender on assignment Runway, she wasn’t allowed to have her sketchbook with her, due to the rules of the competition. “That really threw me off my game,” she says.
Sarah’s tips for designing a clothing line:
- Always be doodling. A doodle is the first step toward a refined design. For Sarah, every concept starts on document before being translated to Illustrator or another software tool. “I always use a mix of recent technology and notebooks packed of scribbles,” she says.
- Make your own clothing samples by hand. This way, you can enter a connection with a manufacturer with a better understanding of what production might entail. You’re in a better position to discuss on costs if you’re intimate with the production procedure.
- Focus on being creative. If production or other business tasks commence to get in the way of advancement, it’s period to outsource.
6. Source fashion fabrics or design your own
Sarah says that fabric sourcing has a lot to do with who you recognize. Building a network in the industry can assist you access contacts for fabric agents, wholesalers, and mills. When she lived in Toronto, she knew the local fabric trade 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,” she says. “All of the local clothing lines are all using the same fabrics.”
When fabric from all over the globe became easier to access online, Sarah began to discover it challenging to source distinctive prints and materials, despite her contacts. Her answer: she began to design her own.
“When I got out of fashion school in 2005, you couldn’t just leave online and leave to Alibaba. Now, lots of people I recognize do that,” Sarah says. “That’s why I really got into honing my textile design skills.”
For those just starting out, agents can be helpful, but Sarah suggests building personal networks and joining communities of designers. commence conference others in the industry at local incubators, meetup groups, online communities, and live fashion networking events.
7. Set up production and manufacturing for your clothing line
In the early days of your fashion business, you may not be producing volumes that warrant outside assist, but as you scale, a manufacturing associate will let you free up period for other significant tasks.
Unless you’re producing one-of-a-benevolent handmade items, manufacturing your designs can be accomplished in a number of ways:
- Made by hired staff or freelance sewers but still owned in-house (tiny 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
Adrienne Butikofer of OKAYOK has kept her production in-house by bringing on staff as she scaled. She also outsources her dye runs to a factory. In Michigan, Detroit Denim produces clothing in its own manufacturing facility, where the founders are able to control the procedure—at scale.
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 period. If you require more room, seek out co-working spaces, incubators, and shared studios.
Working with clothing manufacturers
In the beginning, Sarah’s line was produced primarily by her own hands, but she began outsourcing some elements to local sewers as she grew. Now, she’s working with factories and taking back her period to focus on building her brand, developing recent collections, and expanding her wholesale channel.
Obviously American-made comes with a higher worth point, but it’s worth it to me.
Sarah Donofrio
Sarah feels that her customer cares about local and ethical production—enough to pay extra for it.
“Obviously, American-made comes with a higher worth point, but it’s worth it to me,” she says. “I ponder transparency is a large plus.”
Sarah’s encounter working in the corporate globe taught her not to put all of her eggs in one basket, when it comes to working with manufacturers. She weighs the strengths and weaknesses of each factory and collects her findings in her own database.
“large companies use different factories for different things,” she says. “Maybe there’s a factory that does knitwear better or one that does pants better.”
Ultimately, how you choose to tackle production and choose a manufacturing associate comes down to a few questions:
- How large are your runs?
- Is “made locally” significant to you?
- Are you more concerned with ensuring ethical manufacturing or finding the lowest expense?
- How hands-on do you desire to be in the production?
- Do you schedule to scale?
standard control
For Sarah, closely monitoring the production procedure was key. When vetting local factories, she believes it’s significant to visit each one to get a feel for their practices. She initially requests samples from the factories to inspect their craftsmanship. As you work with a factory, spot-checking the work and carefully examining pieces when they arrive and before they ship will assist reduce returns and keep your reputation for standard intact.
8. construct pricing and inventory strategies for your clothing business
On the less creative side of running a clothing business, you’ll require to establish some strategies to assist keep your back office in order. This includes setting pricing strategies and inventory management practices.
Pricing your clothing line
Pricing your clothing items involves the same exercise as pricing any item for sale. You’ll require to consider costs (fixed and variable) to produce, trade, and ship the product, as well as any overhead for running the business. Look also to the trade to view what consumers are willing to pay for a brand like yours. Competitive research will assist you establish a pricing schedule that is in line with the trade.
Inventory for clothing businesses
Managing inventory is a delicate procedure for any business. Clothing won’t spoil like perishable products, but trends shift quickly. Work with your data to comprehend what’s selling and what isn’t, and tweak your production and design cycles accordingly. This way, you won’t complete up sitting on unsellable distribute.
If you ship your own orders, establish an inventory structure that keeps clothing protected from sunlight and moisture, and organized in a way that makes it straightforward to discover.
9. schedule your collections around fashion seasons
The fashion industry operates on a seasonal pattern (fall/winter and spring/summer), and working backward from each period means that advancement of a collection can commence a year or more out.
“In corporate, we were developing two years in advance,” Sarah says. “large corporations tend to design faster, so they’re doing a lot of pattern research.”
Without the large throng and resources, though, independent designers like Sarah are working closer to delivery dates.
Your design and advancement period and delivery dates depend on your customer and your launch schedule, Sarah says. She suggests that you have your collection ready for the next period at least six to eight months in advance. If you’re selling wholesale, buyers will require to view your collection a month before Fashion Week.
Work backward from your delivery date to establish your design and production timelines. Add dates of significant global fashion events, like recent York Fashion Week, to your calendar to assist set goals.
Evergreen fashion collections
Seasonality doesn’t have to dictate all of your collections, however.
“It’s always such a shame when I design a attractive print and I ponder, ’I only have this for one period. I only have a six-month window,’” says Sarah.
Therefore, she’s inspired to work toward prints that work regardless of period.
While product advancement is a constant concern for fashion brands, signature or core bestselling pieces may remain in your collection for years. This is factual for basics brands that focus on, declare, “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.
10. Pitch your clothing line to fashion retailers
Wholesale played a huge part in the growth of Sarah’s brand in the beginning. After navigating other sales channels like her own retail store, she’s returned to a wholesale schedule.
In fashion, there are two main ways to sell your clothing line through other retailers:
Consignment
This is a triumph-triumph for everyone, as it gives your line a chance to get exposure in a store with no uncertainty 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 worth (less than your retail worth). This alternative is riskier for the retailer, so you may have to prove yourself through consignment first.
“It’s a lot easier for stores to receive your whole collection on consignment, as opposed to just one or two pieces,” says Sarah, “because they have nothing to misplace.”
Approaching buyers is a daunting encounter, and Sarah has worked on both sides of the deal. Her encounter looking through the buyer’s lens helped her stand out when she was pitching her own line.
Be prepared, Sarah urges. “The first period I pitched my line, I asked myself, ’What are buyers going to inquire me?’” she says. “You can’t just have pretty clothes. You have to recognize every specific.”
Hitting the pavement was a schedule that worked for Sarah when she was starting out. While she advocates for face period, Sarah doesn’t recommend an ambush. commence leisurely, she says. Introduce yourself with a card or a catalog and try to book period to meet later.
11. construct an online clothing store
A professional online store serves two main purposes:
- It’s a way to sell directly to your potential customers.
- It’s a living, breathing look book to distribute with buyers and media.
Setting up your online store
An ecommerce platform like Shopify is straightforward to use, even if you don’t have graphic design or coding skills. First, choose a Shopify theme that suits your brand and prioritizes images. Then, customize the theme by adding your logo, colors, and any other design elements.
Try themes designed for fashion brands like Colorblock, Broadcast, or Pipeline.
To provide the best shopping encounter, your product pages require to capture details like fit, feel, and draping. Add the correct elements by using clothing store apps from the Shopify App Store, designed specifically to assist fashion brands.
Try these popular fashion store apps:
Consider making your store accessible on other online sales channels, such as on Instagram and Facebook. Integrating your store with marketplaces like Etsy is another worthwhile way to reach more customers.
Critical pages for your online clothing store
Every website needs a few standard pages that customers expect to discover. These include an About page, Contact page, collection pages, product pages, and an FAQ. Because brand is so significant for a clothing business, focus on the pages that assist visitors comprehend what you’re about.
Your clothing brand’s aesthetic and values should be obvious from the get-leave, starting with your home page. And a dedicated About page can assist potential customers make a connection with you and your brand.
Photography for clothing brands
The correct theme helps photos pop, so make sure you invest in professional photo shoots. For a smaller monetary schedule, a straightforward lighting kit, a decent camera (the latest smartphones work well), and some tricks of the trade can assist you produce professional-looking DIY shots. Be sure to capture details: fabric texture, trims, and closures.
A lifestyle shoot produces content for other pages on your site as well as marketing campaigns, a press kit, and lookbook. display your clothing on a model to demonstrate drape and tips to assist your customers style the piece.
Free navigator: DIY Product Photography
discover how to receive attractive product photos on a monetary schedule with our free, comprehensive video navigator.
12. trade your clothing business online
Marketing and driving sales remain the single most reported test for online brands, regardless of industry. As fashion is a saturated trade, developing a solid brand with a distinctive worth proposition will assist you focus your efforts on your ideal customer rather than throwing money away.
In the beginning, your monetary schedule will be tiny, but there are still ways to grab attention with creative and organic ideas:
- Invest in content marketing. Use optimized video or keyword-targeted blog posts to drive traffic to your site.
- construct an email list even before you launch. Tease your upcoming clothing collection on social media and incentivize sign-ups with exclusive deals.
- Lend your clothing to other businesses for photo shoots (example: beauty brands) to get shoutouts and exposure.
- Try influencer marketing by finding emerging Instagram or TikTok stars to hype your brand.
- Set up a loyalty program or referral perks to engage your faithful customers in spreading the word.
- discover collaborations. You can collaborate with complementary brands to launch a collection, pop-up, or co-promotion.
- discover search engine optimization (SEO). Honing your SEO skills can assist you drive traffic to your online clothing store through search.
- Try social media advertising. This can include paid ads, promoted posts with creators, and even organic content with viral potential.
13. Open a retail store, launch a pop-up, or sell at markets
It took Sarah 11 years to be in a position to seriously consider opening her own retail boutique. Throughout the growth of her brand, she used local markets to gain more insight into her customers, test her merchandising, get exposure, and construct relationships in the industry.
After her shift to Portland, Oregan, she took her retail experiment to the next level with a three-month pop-up before opening a permanent retail location.
“I was always afraid of opening my own store because of the overhead, especially in Toronto,” says Sarah. “It just wasn’t attainable.”
Through the procedure, she learned that she could use more hands. She hired a fashion design learner to assist in the store.
“When you have a retail store and a clothing label, as a lot of entrepreneurs do, you just have to discover how to allocate things,” she says. “It’s taken me a long period to discover that, but what I’m paying her to work in the store, my period is worth so much more.”
Temporary retail space for your clothing business
Opening a physical store doesn’t cruel signing a 10-year contract. You can dabble in in-person selling in more affordable and non-committal ways:
- Subleasing retail space to host a temporary pop-up shop
- A mini encounter on a shelf or in a section of a retailer’s space
- Applying for booth space at craft shows or fashion markets
- Vendor booths at events like music festivals
Sarah has since closed her retail location.
“I did not like running it,” she says.
The store took her away from the facet of the business that she loved—designing. She still sells direct to customers via the website but has switched much of the brand’s focus to wholesale.
14. discover from the pros
Sarah’s encounter as a contestant on assignment Runway taught her many significant lessons about herself and her industry.
While she understands that being reactive in fashion is an property, Sarah knows she thrives when she has more wiggle room. Because of her advancement background, she was amazed at the work her fellow competitors could do in a short amount of period.
“For me, it was not a realistic pace at all,” she says. “It’s a shame that my best work wasn’t on national television.”
She also faced one of the scariest things any artist has to face: the haters. She was eliminated in the fourth episode when her swimwear didn’t resonate with the judges.
The lesson: Your target spectators is not everyone.
But she was also surprised to view many supportive messages from recent fans she amassed during the display’s run.
“The display taught me that everything comes down to taste,” she says. “There’s always someone who will like your stuff.”
Design your own clothing line
As you launch your own fashion brand and enter the competitive fashion industry, recall to focus on what makes your ideas distinctive, as well as what your target customers desire. achievement as a fashion brand relies on a solid operating schedule, a design perspective, and a keen sense of customer and trade trends.
Sarah’s business is thriving because she pursued her aspiration and let every misstep navigator her next pivot. Sometimes, those pivots were risks, but were also her path to growth.
Read more
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How to commence a clothing brand FAQ
What is the first thing I require to do to commence my own clothing line?
The commence of any successful business is having a great concept. As you embark on your trip to commence your own clothing line, hone in on your niche concept and spectators, and spend period in the brand-building phase. These exercises will assist you shift to the next steps in the procedure of building your clothing brand.
Do I require a license to commence a clothing brand?
You may require a few different licenses to legitimately commence a clothing line. Requirements vary based on your location, but ordinary licenses include a permit to sell and collect responsibility and an apparel registration certification. You might also consider filing to become an LLC or S corp, getting business insurance, and adding any licenses for brick-and-mortar if you schedule to sell your clothing line in person.
How much does it expense to commence a tiny clothing business from home?
Starting a fashion brand may require some upfront fund, depending on the type of clothing business you commence. Specific costs vary, but costs to commence a clothing line include fabric and other materials, labor, shipping, heating, rent, equipment, and various other production costs.
You also require to factor ongoing costs for things like remittance processing, your online store, and online marketing and advertising. Expect to spend a few thousand dollars upfront if you are creating a clothing line from scratch and making or manufacturing your own clothing designs. A print-on-demand clothing brand, however, will have much lower enterprise costs.
Are clothing businesses typically profitable?
Clothing businesses can be profitable, but achievement varies widely depending on factors like trade positioning, business productivity, and brand strength. Many battle due to high competition, changing customer preferences, and inventory management challenges. However, well-run clothing businesses with powerful brand identity and effective marketing can achieve profitability, particularly in niche or luxury markets.
How do I name my clothing brand?
Coming up with a brand name for your clothing line can be challenging but there are a few things to keep in mind. Try to make it something that is representative of your brand identity and will resonate with your target trade. Sarah Donofrio used her own name when she launched her clothing brand. If your brand narrative is close to your personal narrative, this may be a excellent alternative for your clothing line. Shopify has a free AI business name generator you can use to get the ideas flowing.
Can I put my own label on wholesale clothing?
You can put your own label on wholesale clothing as long as it doesn’t dispute with the wholesaler’s policies. This habit is called white labeling. In this model, you purchase wholesale clothing from a supplier, add your branded tags, and then resell directly to your customers through your clothing business’s online store under your own brand name.
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