It is a new year and we are all eager to make this one a good one! Do you have big plans and goals for this year for your business and professional growth? Here are some of my favorite digital resources to inspire your creativity and grow your fashion business.
Podcasts
Spirit of 608 hosted by fashion business journalist Lorraine Sanders is a podcast that has interviews, advice, and tips for fashion businesses at the forefront of fashion, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and tech (which Lorraine calls FEST).
The Fashion Feed features interviews with business owners and professionals across the fashion industry aimed at opening up conversations about the breadth of the industry and how to make it in the fashion business. The show is hosted by fashion brand consultant Elizabeth Stiles.
Start Your Sustainable Fashion Brand is a new show hosted by online sustainable fashion business school Factory45’s founder Shannon Lohr. Each episode is short and practical advice about launching a sustainable fashion brand.
Clothing Coulture is all about technology, innovation, and the global fashion industry. Hosts
Bret Schnitker and Emily Lane, CEO and CSO of apparel design and manufacturing group Stars Design Group, interview prominent fashion changemakers and disruptors in each episode.
Successful Fashion Freelancer (formerly Successful Fashion Designer) gives a real look at what it’s like working in the fashion industry through interviews with fashion professionals from all backgrounds and experiences. Hosted by Sew Heidi, the podcast shifted last year to focus on specifically freelancing in fashion. As a fashion brand owner, it is still worth a listen, though, as it has great advice on how to work with freelancers and you may even meet some freelancers that can help you grow your brand.
Apparel Entrepreneurship Podcast hosted by Ana and Klas Kristiansson of the fashion business course and membership site of the same name, features tips and tactics from the hosts as well as interviews with industry experts and entrepreneurs.
How Fitting hosted by me, Alison Hoenes, is all about how to grow your fashion business making clothes that fit your lifestyle, body, and values. Each episode is an interview with a different fashion designer or entrepreneur about how they fit it all together.
Workshops & Webinars
Fashion Group International, or FGI, is a global non-profit professional organization aimed at providing educational programming across all sectors of the fashion industry, recognizing emerging talent, and offering business resources to help members become more effective at their careers.
Fabscrap is a textile recycling and resale non-profit organization based in NY that offers digital workshops on a variety of both hobby, craft, and industry topics.
Maker’s Row is a factory and resource directory and platform that you’ve probably heard of. In addition to their platform and services, they often have workshops or host IG lives with industry experts on a variety of topics from sourcing, production, fashion business legal, marketing, and more.
Apparel Industry Board, Inc. (AIBI) is based in Chicago, IL and provides educational programming as well as events and access to their sewing lab. Even if you aren’t local to them, their digital seminars are wonderful and include experts from across the country.
Trade Shows (many still digital!)
TexWorld NYC is the NYC edition of the global sourcing show. 2022’s January show is entirely virtual – meaning you can meet with vendors, attend seminars and happy hours, and source your fabrics without even traveling to NY.
Sourcing at Magic is one of the big sourcing shows. It runs concurrently with several wholesale apparel and footwear shows that take place in Las Vegas twice a year. The sourcing show includes suppliers and factories from across the globe.
DG Expo is a sourcing show curated specifically for low minimum sourcing. This show is great for new or emerging fashion brands that want to source small, but with room to grow. Fabric and trim suppliers, factories, and educational organizations are among exhibitors. The show takes place in several cities across the US each year.
LA Textile takes place at California Market Center twice a year. It is the go-to west coast sourcing show for textile mills, design agencies, manufacturers, and more.
Technical Resources
ASTM has standards for body measurements. If you are having trouble with size charts or sizing for your brand, you can use these standards as a starting point.
Garmeco has a visual list of each type of stitch and seam with their ASTM codes. This is a great reference if you are trying to communicate what finishes you want for your design, deciding what sewing machines to buy, or determining if a factory has the right equipment to make your product.
Alvanon is known for their dress forms and now digital fitting avatars. They are a great resource for fit across different body types and sizes.
Points of Measure has a bunch of free and paid resources on technical design and more from tech designer and educator Natalie.
Fashion-Incubator blog is a treasure of production and patternmaking information from industry veteran Kathleen Fasanella. It dives deep into how to hire patternmakers, sewing contractors, and more, how to source fabrics, how to organize production, and even how to set up your own cut and sew factory.