004. Fashion 101
Novice or Expert: 10 Steps Needed To Launch Your Clothing Line.
The 10 steps that anyone can follow to not only launch your clothing line but also build your apparel brand and maintain success for every subsequent season.
The 10 Most Important Steps To Start A Clothing Line
1.
Develop your brand: Naming of your brand, Logo, domain name for your website.
2.
Business structure: Choose the legal structure of your brand, Sole Proprietorship, or LLC or Inc. (We highly recommend reaching out to a lawyer and an accountant for this step).
3.
Research the Market to determine a Niche and Selling Price: Decide which style of apparel that you want to make for example. Do you want to make Activewear (Nike, Lululemon) Luxury (Gucci, Prada) Sportswear or Ready to Wear (Ralph Lauren, Armani Exchange)?
Have an idea of the silhouette and shapes you want your clothes to look like. For example, Thierry Mugler is known for strong, angular and exaggerated shapes.
Remember the famous black dress that Demi Moore wore in Indecent Proposal. Vs Issey Miyake who is known for this technology-driven clothing with pleats.
4.
Know your Target Audience: Who will buy your clothes? Know which style of your clothes they want to wear.
5.
Where are you going to sell your clothes: Decide if you want to sell online or a combo of online and retail stores, wholesale and consignment etc.
6.
Business Plan: crunch the numbers: branding materials (logo, business cards, website, any license and permit fees), where will you operate? Phone and internet services, invoicing software, marketing and promotion costs, the cost of producing the clothes, hiring freelancers or employees, warehouse cost to house your clothes to ship to your customers etc.
7.
Funding your brand: Savings, Loans and Investors: Know from the very beginning how your clothing line will be funded. It’s imperative that you know your budget to launch your clothing line. That budget might help you determine which style of clothing line you can achieve.
8.
Production Development: Design, Merchandise, Sales, Fit, Produce and Ship
9.
Create a Web Presence
10.
Marketing and Promote: Promote and Market your brand through social media, YouTube and tv etc.
Additional Services
We selected Partners that can help you with additional services that you will need that we don’t offer.