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Behind the Brand – The Story of PaperGirl

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Behind the Brand – The Story of PaperGirl

PaperGirl is a  brightly illustrated and inspiring made in NY childrenswear line that our company manged the development and production for this past year before launching their first collection in April 2015! 

The stunning original artwork that make up each print on the garments, coordinates with a booklet (also designed and written by the designer) stored inside the garment’s pocket to inspire its little wearers to dream as individuals. Here we meet the designer behind the imaginative brand to hear her unique story:

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The importance of Consistency in Your Brand Development

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The importance of Consistency in Your Brand Development

This is a guest post by Eric Fitzgerald, an independent business consultant and the founder of Fashion Business Insider.

Like most aspiring designers, your sketch books are probably filled will lots of new and exciting design ideas that you want to someday explore in your collection. Having a platform to experiment with new ideas, fabrics, and silhouettes is the dream of any entrepreneurial designer. As much as creativity will help define your brand, remember that you’re also running a business and that brands take time to develop.  Part of that development process is being consistent with what you offer your customer and how you offer it to them.

Consistency does not mean you need to be boring or basic. In fact, as an emerging designer, ensure that your product speaks volumes about who you are and what your brand stands for.  Push yourself creatively and continue to innovate.  But do so from a vantage point that is 

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Time Time Time...

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Time Time Time...

You have a great concept, you have the backing and the drive, but all of these things can’t make a line successful if it doesn't ship on time.

One of the biggest pitfalls for designers is staying on schedule and making their deliveries on time. It’s a struggle to design, produce, ship and sell on time, especially for designers who are learning how the fashion calendar works.  The industry has standard dates that are predetermined for designers to follow as guidelines:

-          Fabric shows – when the season’s fabrics become available

-          Sales shows – when the current season collection is presented to stores

-          Store delivery dates – when stores accept orders 

Designers who end up with late product either do not stick to their calendars or are setting their calendars up incorrectly. 

How you organize your time before and in between these industry dates will make or break 

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The Secret to Being a Successful Entrepreneur.

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The Secret to Being a Successful Entrepreneur.

Starting a business is a marathon.

As a business owner you must be mentally prepared to live with uncertainty and fear while pushing through obstacles for years on end.

Every successful entrepreneur will tell you that before they had success stories they had numerous unsuccessful stories. Bill Gates watched his first company crumble, Milton Hershey started 3 candy companies before Hershey’s, Walt Disney was told he lacked creativity and was forced to close his first animation company and the list goes on.

The ability to control fears and detach from the outcome is what sets successful entrepreneurs apart from other business owners. They are visionaries who have the ability to turn the

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You Got Orders For Your Fashion Products, Now What?

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You Got Orders For Your Fashion Products, Now What?

Your selling season just ended, your got orders (hopefully more than what was projected), Congratulations! So what now? What should you do next?

This next preparation stage can help iron out and clean any possible issues before you commit to production. This is where you will need to consolidate all your orders, confirm them, make production decisions and start the pre-production phase.

Here is a detailed step by step on what you should do now:

Collecting - Collect all your orders, go through all the details on each one of them to make sure all the info on them is clear and complete. Many times orders are being 

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How Many Units Will You Need To Sell to make a profit in Your Fashion Business?

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How Many Units Will You Need To Sell to make a profit in Your Fashion Business?

How many products will you need to sell in order to cover your cost and at what level of sales will your business make a profit?

To answer this you will need to calculate and find what is the breakeven point of your business.

Breakeven point (or breakeven analysis) is the point in which expenses are covered, and anything that is sold above that point means that your business is making a profit.

Calculating the breakeven point is done by defining the relationship between expenses and revenues and understanding how expenses/cost will change as sales increase or decrease. Let’s look at how it’s done.

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3 Reasons Why You Need A Tech Pack

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3 Reasons Why You Need A Tech Pack

When developing a product or collection from scratch it’s easy to start designing and planning without first considering the importance of how you’ll communicate your designs to the team that will help bring your vision to life.  A tech pack is the fashion industry’s universal form that explains all the details and specs for each garment. Before getting too far into the design process, consider these three important reasons how a tech pack will help your business:

  1. Personal organization: Having a tech pack is almost like having a visual checklist for each style. In one compact place you can fill in all details relating to a garment until it is ready for

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The Importance of Using a Professional Fit Model!

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The Importance of Using a Professional Fit Model!

“How much does a fit model cost? Is that for one hour only? I really can’t afford that. Can we just fit on me? I can use my friend, he/she is the right size…”

This is a common response from emerging designers when discussing the fittings.

The main misconception about fit models is due to the fact that they are called models. Therefore, it’s important to understand the differences between a runway model (which is what we normally associate models with) and a fit model.

Here is a brief explanation to better understand the difference between a fit model and runway model’s job descriptions:

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WHY?

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WHY?

Starting your fashion brand means starting a business! Hold on, don’t laugh, it might sound obvious to you but many designers out there are not fully aware of that aspect.

Many people (especially those who have never owned a business)  tend to glamorize the idea of being your own boss, setting your own hours, your own rates, your own rules, choosing who to work with, not to mention receiving all the credit and rewards for your talent with hopes of being famous and other unrealistic ideas. These alluring benefits are often the drive for many designers to make the leap to start their own business without closely examining the other logistics.

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Always Follow Your Heart

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Always Follow Your Heart

“Be hard on yourself. Ask ‘Do I make sense? Am I crazy?' You can listen to everybody [else], but follow your heart. The worst mistake is to do something and then realize, I didn't really want to do it but so-and-so told me to” Diane Von Furstenberg

Reading this quote probably brings up memories of decisions you've made at some point in your life as well as in your business. One relatable experience that stuck with me happened when I was in fashion school: 

As a young designer I had a very distinctive design perspective and didn't want anyone telling me what they thought about my ideas as I had no intention to compromise my artistic views 

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Building Your Tribe

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Building Your Tribe

This is a guest post by Michael Roderick is a relationship strategist.

Many designers are interested in building a following for the work that they do. Whether you are looking for more orders for your fashion line, more visits to your website, or more people to attend the pop up and showings that you host, the main idea is to develop a tribe very quickly.

But how do you go about building that tribe when you are first starting out? Here is one very simple tool to get started.

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The Key Points for Building a Successful Fashion Business

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The Key Points for Building a Successful Fashion Business

I am currently reading the book Great By Choice. In this book the authors, business researchers: Jim Collins & Morten T. Hanson,  enumerate the principals for building a truly great enterprise in fast-moving times.

What are the key points for building a successful business? Is it innovation? Do you need to be a geniuses leader who can predict the future? Is it a question of money?.....Is there a secret that we should all know of?…… maybe it’s just pure luck after all???  

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5 Points to Consider Before Starting a Handbag Line

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5 Points to Consider Before Starting a Handbag Line

Are you looking to start a handbag line?

We recently partnered with Tara Sauvage, a handbag expert with over 15 years expertise in handbags and leather goods. Together we will offer help with every stage of the process: from consulting to design, sourcing, development and production with both domestic and overseas manufactures.

Below are Tara’s top 5 points you must consider before starting a handbag line: 

  1. Price Point Will Determine Feasibility.   

    It is important to figure out your retail price point before starting a collection, as this will determine the materials you can use.  Many new aspiring handbag designers want to make a luxury leather bag collection that retails for under $100. 

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WHAT IS a UPC Bar-code and DO I need one?

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WHAT IS a UPC Bar-code and DO I need one?

This is a question that we frequently get from designers, so I figured you would benefit from the answer as well.

Q. What is the skinny on bar/UPC codes? And do I need to have that on my products/hangtags?

A. To answer the question, first, let me explain what a UPC code is and why it is used.

A UPC, Universal Product Code, is a bar code that encodes product information (company, product style, size, color, etc.) in a visual pattern that can be read electronically. For example, retailers with an electronic point of sale system at the checkout use UPCs to keep track of their stock, sales and reorder products by scanning the bar code.

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5 Points to Consider When Pricing Your Fashion Product

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5 Points to Consider When Pricing Your Fashion Product

Spring 2015 market is just around the corner, how is the sample making process going for you so far? Hopefully your collection is coming well and on time. A major next step for you is pricing your products right to make sure you are making a profit. So as you are getting your cost sheets ready and to help you avoid this bad experience here are 5 points to consider while costing and pricing your fashion line:

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How Feasible is Your Vision?

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How Feasible is Your Vision?

Let's take a second to talk about the feasibility of your fashion business.

Before you jump all in to execute your vision it is really important for you to do your homework and find out how feasible your idea is.
Yes lots of times you will need the help of industry professionals which is where we can help, but even before that there is market research that you can probably can and should do on your own that will answer that question.

I thought the best way for me to address this subject will be to share an example of a general conversation that i often have with a designer on a feasibility consultation session.

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5 Top Secrets for Designing a Fashion Line

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5 Top Secrets for Designing a Fashion Line

 like to think of fashion design as an art form, which requires a strong dose of talent and plenty of creativity.

But taking that raw talent and creativity and turning it into a successful business isn’t always easy. Even with these traits, it is not a simple task to design a fashion line that’s both fresh and uniquely “you”…. never the less producing that season after season.

And let’s not forget all the planning, figuring out the nuances of your niche market, pricing your products, and differentiating yourself through branding, all while juggling a limited resource pool and seasonal products. Even the most talented fashion designers in the world would find this daunting!

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Made in USA or Made Overseas

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Made in USA or Made Overseas

Made in USA or Made overseas? That is a production question that every brand find itself engaged in at one point or another.  To better Illustrate the debate I chose to share a story of a brand I have been working with.

What should we do?

A couple of weeks ago i received an email from Cathy, 1 of 4 owners at NoNetz – who designs anti-chafe swimwear for boys and men. In her email she asked for my thoughts on the following: “Staying in Brooklyn, we get to decent profit in 7 years. Going overseas, we are highly profitable in 2 years. Producing overseas will cost us 75% less in labor...What should we do?"