Fashion business information, advice, guidance, and education for fashion brands
Quality Control (QC) isn't just about ensuring your garments look good; it's your ticket to exceeding customer expectations, minimizing issues and setbacks, and optimizing production efficiency. By maintaining stringent QC standards, you deliver exceptional products and establish your brand as a reliable force in the industry.
When done right, it will make your life easier, decrease your stress level, increase your profit, and reduce waste.
Beyond technical skills and creative vision, the foundation of building a thriving fashion brand rests upon you, especially your character traits.
As a creative entrepreneur, you'll embark on a unique journey, weaving together your artistic vision with your business savvy. It's a delicate dance, a perfect balance between the right and left brains, where your creativity meets your strategic acumen.
You finished your first production run, the goods are being shipped to you from the factory, and it's time to launch and start selling...
It's your first time doing this, you poured your heart and soul into this, and you have no idea what to expect. What if it will not be recieved well? What if it's too expensive? What if you chose the wrong materials? Fit? Sizes?
That unknown produces lots of anxiety, and your inner voice is having a field day.
If only you had a better idea of what to expect…
Clothing manufacturing is not for the faint-hearted. Working with the wrong manufacturer can end your business, especially if you are a new brand.
You can take steps to find the right factory. However, some signs will only be noticed once you work with the factory.
So what are the symptoms that should make you run away from a factory?
The answer is one of these industry "secrets" that if you are new to the industry, and especially if you do sew or never produced apparel before, you simply wouldn't know it...
Yet once you hear the answer, I bet you'll go, "oh yes, that makes a lot of sense."
In this video, I also share info about the cost of labor and why certain categories are assumed to cost less than others...
What is the ideal number of styles that you should offer when launching your fashion brand?
On one hand, you don’t want to invest in a big line until you get your proof of concept, but on the other hand, you want your line to look big enough so it will be taken seriously.
Is there a magic number you should be aware of?
ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF YOUR BRAND?
You’re not alone. We speak to business owners just like you every day, and they are all worried too.
The fashion industry and retail are in a state of flux, and that uncertainty is affecting many businesses, including yours.
If you are one of these brands that used to do business the old way, then most likely, you are struggling to adapt and compete in this new reality.
Retail is going through one of its most disruptive periods with pressures coming from all corners. This disruption provides new opportunities and a window into where you can go next with your fashion brand to transform your business into a retail powerhouse. Now is the time for brands to adapt to a customer-led environment by sharpening their technological capabilities so they can prosper in this new environment.
“We are experiencing many issues with our production, can you help us with this?”
If I had a cent for every time that I heard that sentence I would probably be retired by now.
Most fashion brands (especially if they are new or small), assume that since production is the last part in the process they’ll just worry about it when they get to it, and rather choose to focus mainly on designing and making the perfect samples.
NEWS FLASH - that is the wrong approach.
Helping you avoid the thousands of pitfalls that can shatter your fashion business dreams.
That is my job!
And I love it!
However, as a result, in the majority of my content I usually address what mistakes to look out for, which doesn't leave much room to talk about the great things that our fashion industry has to offer.
After all, there is a reason why soooo many people want to be part of this industry.
The most challenging part when running a marathon is the middle part.
This is where the excitement of the beginning is starting to fade out and the finish line seems far far away.
This is when thoughts of quitting start to surface inside our heads and we start to feel that something big has to happen otherwise we will never make it.
I'm not looking to raise money or bring on investors so why do I need one?
This is usually the response that we get when we ask designers if they wrote a business plan for their new start-up fashion brand.
Quite frankly, I don't blame them for thinking this way, I myself thought the same until I started my fashion brand.
When did being busy become the new measure of success?
How many times you heard someone says 'I'm so busy,' yet you couldn't stop but thinking, what are they so busy with???
Feeling busy makes someone feel successful and accomplished while giving others the impression that that person is indeed successful....more so, they might even envy them.
What a great slogan.
I was never a fan of Nike (has to do with my favorite sport), but I do LOVE the message of this phrase and I do use it a lot!
Anyways, I’m not here to speak about that.
I’m here to speak about you and turning your talent and great ideas into a business where you can make money doing what you love!
Just one?
You're probably thinking that there are a million important lessons a new fashion entrepreneur must learn, and you'd be right.
However, not all lessons are made equal.
That's why we reached out to the speakers at this year's Be Creative Be Profitable seminar and asked them, "what's the single most important lesson every fashion entrepreneur needs to learn?"
Below is the conversation that ensued...
This last week I had a meeting with 2 investors who recently bought a licensing to build a fashion line for a public figure (name is confidential) and they wanted to learn more about the industry and how can we help them.
After I gave them a quick rundown of the process one of them asked: So how much of it is luck?
Did I hear right? I asked myself.
We often get asked if a fashion design degree is necessary in order to have a successful fashion brand?
The key words in that question are necessary and successful.
If you have a fashion design degree, this means that you learned in theory how to design a full collection, got introduced to the technical and design terms and the process of making a fashion product. HOWEVER, if you do not have a fashion design degree you
