Nevertheless, design experience, as well as specialized education, will not be superfluous - nevertheless, fashion design requires technical training, among other things. There are many options for studying abroad, but in the USA, there are also several good universities where they teach design and modeling of clothes.
The production process of a thing, of course, first of all, begins with an idea. As a rule, an idea that immediately comes to mind is still too raw to be implemented immediately. We always subject our ideas to severe and painful doubts and very often discard them altogether. It is important to never forget about the general concept of the brand and make sure that the invented thing fits organically into this concept.
Drawing sketches is the moment when you need to imagine the thing in the future as realistic as possible. But if you are trying to be one of the best clothing manufacturers USA, Be sure to mentally try it on yourself. Decide which fabric this should be sewn from, and find out if you can buy one. What accessories will be needed, where to get them? A lot of what I would like to buy is impossible or affordable but in a certain amount. And it is unclear whether it will be on sale again and when. For us, this option is unacceptable, since we are primarily focused on production models that will be sewn from season to season. Ideally - for starters, it’s worth buying a retail amount of fabric — quite a bit to last a couple of samples.
When the fabric and the necessary accessories are bought, as a rule, in your head the thing has already changed beyond recognition. Therefore, you draw a sketch again, already starting from the existing fabric and accessories. With this final sketch, you need to go to the designer. The designer should be in production or at least with the ability to sew a sample in production. The possibilities of home tailoring and production are significantly different, and to make a clean sample, which can then be transported from factory to factory, you need to make it in the workshop. This is important for any brand - from time to time everyone has to change production or personnel.
How to start your Own Brand of Clothing – Patterns and production
Home production - wallets, bracelets, or covers for laptops - does not require any special professional knowledge, so you can implement such design ideas yourself. If you are going to produce something more complex (and not in single copies), then, starting from this stage, it is better to entrust what other clothing manufacturers the USA does, the whole process to a professional - this is an ungrateful and difficult job that you most likely will not be able to perform.
The production process in a simplified form is usually constructed as follows: the clothes designer is the first to enter - who will translate your inspired sketches into working patterns. Already on them, a trial model will be sewn in a single copy, and if it's quality and cut suit you, you can start production of a full batch. This whole scheme is adjusted depending on the scale and the product that you plan to release. If these are butterflies and ties, then for an established production a skillful seamstress will be quite enough; if it is a full-fledged collection of clothes, the headquarters is replenished with a designer, cutter, and designer (they can be hired on the side).
How to Start your Own Brand of Clothing - Materials
A favorite complaint about the local industry of a beginner, and indeed of almost any successful and sold domestic designer, is its actual absence. And at this stage, if you, of course, are not going to make T-shirts with a batik pattern, you will have to face similar problems in person. The lack of high-quality fabrics, materials, accessories, and their continuous search is your headache shortly.
You can, of course, take a walk in local shops like “World of Textiles”, “Needle” and “House of Textiles”, but sooner or later you will have to turn to virtual search and get in touch with foreign suppliers. Here, firstly, it is more expensive, secondly, less choice, thirdly, the products are not so high-quality. Although, of course, there are exceptions.
Finding the right product is easy, especially since you can always ask to send you tissue samples. The only problem is the delivery time and obstinacy of the Russian customs. Therefore, for established supplies and ordering materials, it is better to find an intermediary.
How to Start your Own Brand of Clothing - Sales
To start an entrepreneurial activity, it is necessary, first of all, to deal with legal issues and tax payments. It also requires money, and every year more. So in 2013, the amount of fixed payment for an individual entrepreneur in social funds by clothing manufacturers in the USA is a little more than 35 thousand rubles. For information: last year, this figure was half as much.
So, sales. Here you will find several ways to market your product, which you can and should combine - your own online store, offline stores, as well as fairs and flea markets.
The last two points - this is where small brands begin, the level of recognition of which does not allow them to be sold in large stores. In fact, this is quite a good way to sell it - at once, in one day you can sell a decent batch of your products. Besides, such events are an excellent opportunity for PR: you show your customers the goods in person, communicate with them and thus go out to the frequencies of word of mouth.
You can try to negotiate the sale of your items in stores. And here again, there are two schemes - to give things for sale (for example, to online department stores, which have spaces in large shopping centers), while the store receives a percentage of the amount from each sale. Either work for a ransom - it means that the store’s buyers buy a lot or collection from the manufacturer and then sell it at their price. Obviously, the second scheme of work involves a decent circulation and product quality and at least some level of brand recognition.
Finally, your own online store. This again requires money, and as long as you have small volumes, the return on it will be negligible, but if you want to turn into an empire sooner or later, you cannot do without it. The most important thing is that in parallel with the placement and attempts to sell their products, work on their PR and promotion.
How to Start your Own Brand of Clothing - PR and promotion
Nobody reads press releases, but you write them all the same (only so that there is no desire to close it after the first sentence) and send them to specialized publications. It is worth considering that much better than abstract phrases about the uniqueness of the brand, specific information and photographs work. Better still, a beautifully crafted lookbook.
Of course, you definitely need to start and actively develop pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (Tumblr or a blog will not be superfluous either). For clothing manufacturers in USA, social networks at the initial stage are the most effective tool for advertising and promotion.
