Starting a clothing line

[Yahjae]

Hello,

I am thinking about starting a fashion line with the sketches I have come up with in the last year. I do not have much experience with sewing and would like to find a manufacturer to produce my clothing. A lot of the manufaturers that I found online seem sketchy and I do not want to take the risk of being scammed. If anyone has had experiecpnce with a manufacturer who has met their expectations it would be greatly appreciated if you filled me in on it or gave me any advice as to looking for one.

[Wozcreative]

My best advice would be to learn how to sow. If you are starting a business, you will need to learn how to do each and every aspect of your business before you can successfully hand it off to someone else to do it.

However, perhaps sowing is like developing, some people who create businesses don't know how to develop a website, but know how to successfully get one created by a developer. This may be a similar situation. Can you re-iterate what you mean by "sketchy?" where are you looking for sewing manufacturers? I'd suggest looking at these peoples reviews, testimonials and/or contacting some clients of various manufacturers that do similar clothing products as yourself. You then will need to work with the manufacturer to successfully pull off a simpler design and see how that goes. Since you don't sow, you will still need to be aware of any troubleshooting issues that may arise, like thickness of fabrics, their machinery capabilities, the amount of detail they can or cannot put etc.

My other advice would be to create the product locally by a seamstress, and then shop the products to manufacturers to duplicate that exactly. It would be your easiest bet to get it to the way you want.

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Yahjae.

I have to agree that it's probably a good idea for you to learn to sew. The more you know about your business the better you're going to do with it. However if it's something you don't think you can do well enough to get the business started I have another idea. Is there someone you know who you could partner with? You're in charge of design and your partner is in charge of production and you split the business responsibilities between you. That's probably a better option that just handing off your designs to a manufacturer.

Another option is to take your designs to an existing company. You'd be working for them, which I realize isn't what you would want to do, but you would be learning the business and building a reputation for yourself. At some point in the future you could go it alone and it would be a lot easier with all the experience you'll have gained.

[Harold Mansfield]

Yep, learn to sew. How will you quality check your product if you know nothing about how to create it? Don't you have to give a manufacterer specs on materials, types of thread, buttons, and so on? How will you do that if you haven't created a few prototypes first to get to the finished products.

[KristineS]

If you're interested in fashion and garment manufacturing, check out the Fashion Incubator (http://fashion-incubator.com/blog/) blog. I think you'll find it helpful.

[Ted]

Personally I like Steve's idea of taking your designs to an existing company.

I would compare your designs to other designers already out there. Find one that makes clothes in a similar style. Contact that company and explain your situation.

I don't know anything in particular about the fashion industry. However, from a business perspective, I would assume that a clothing manufacturer would be very interested in at least reviewing your ideas. Convincing one of them to produce your line of clothes under their label is probably going to be ten times easier than trying to build your own business from scratch.

Best of luck to you. Hope it all works out for you.

[vangogh]

I would compare your designs to other designers already out there.

That's a good point. You can see who's mostly likely to want your designs. It stands to reason your designs would then be marketed to just the people who'll want to buy them. Ideally it helps build your name in the industry in front of the right people and grows your brand. Later it should be much easier to go it alone with a track record of proven success and perhaps a known name.

[ohyeayea]

Hello Dear,

This is julia from china, have been in garment for almost 4 years, knows ay manufactures, some is big for kohls and wlmart and some is small fty only working for for big factories, i know almot every small fty not have their own designer they just need samples to following,i familer with knitted fabric, women's T-shirts, dress only bit, know men's wear a lot, welcome learning together, thanks.

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Julia


i know almot every small fty not have their own designer they just need samples to following

Do you think Yahjae should go directly to a manufacturer then? It sounds like you're saying most manufacturers won't hire a designer. Is that right?

[jitenrajput9]

According to me today it is very tough to stay in fashion business because there is a high fluctuations in fashion world. Today every clothing manufacturers have there own designer to make the trendy clothing. Designer can help to keep producing the current trendy garments in garment manufacturing industry.