How to Start a Fashion Label
By Alice Rooslien
Don't ask "What am I doing" while you're doing it, simply ask that before your doing it.
Quantity or Quality?
Quality
Do you want to be a high and Fashion Label, offering Fancy Party dresses and worked on
Party-Wear? This means selling the items in a smaller quantity and for a higher price, it
also means that you have to have more money to invest in actually making the clothes,
because of the "naturally" higher production cost. You have to make sure to choose a
manufacturer that you'll know can make these items in high quality so that there is no
unpleasant seems that starts to rip or that the colors fade.
In this case it's unwise to be too eager to "bargain" too much on the Manufacturing
price since it's important to maintain high quality and have more expensive fabrics,
greed in finding cheap fabrics making a dress out of them will results in complaints
about the quality later on. Remember, being a new brand will still "in most cases" mean
that you can sell your items at a higher rate because of the small set of cloths your
offering and for the tailored feel.
Once again, if the price is high you have to have high quality, so missing out on that
will be devastating and one bad collection can make you loose the few valuable boutiques
that signed up for your clothes.
Quality in fabrics is in this case also crucial and having, for example a dress in to
much "poly" would not agree with the price, choose pure silk, pure satin and don't
compromise when getting that "luxurious" feel and style. The name and the label makes a
great deal in this case as well, you can't have a brand name saying: crazy girl's and then
offer a fancy prom dress "fit for a queen", make certain that the customers that buy the
dress also get the label that states the high end brand your actually selling, like your
name, that is a great one for clothes, just see Armani, or Donna Karen.
Quantity
If you go for a cheap set of wear with fun details and in a more basic fabric any
manufacturer will be willing and able, finding a manufacturer shouldn't be a big problem
unless you have specific demands that are harder to meet. Make sure that they can start
off in a medium quantity and grow with you, sometimes a manufacturer that specialize in
"cheaper" clothes have a Minimum, often around 100-300 pcs per design to reach that really
great price. I have found some that can be willing to work on a smaller order if the
"Total Amount" is 300 pieces, witch means that it's possible to split it up, arranging to
make on top in 50 pieces and the other one on 50 and so on.
Make sure you have places to sell the items since you have to be ready to compete
with bigger companies such as H&M and GANT and various chain stores, of course depending
on where you are based. If the prices you're aiming at are really low, maybe you can
consider contacting Wholesalers. The profit your making will be lower per item but it
doesn't mean that you will make less money, selling heaps will probably be your goal.
There is always a "middle" so painting up, high end and really "low budget" clothing
doesn't make any justice to the Industry but making a comment about it makes you decide
on what scale and in witch proportions you will and maybe want to work in.
| 
About BTH
User Agreement
Privacy
Site Map
Contact
News Feeds
RSS Feed
Follow @Stephen Bucaro
Start Your Own Web Business
