Despite the slow of our economy, changes that were starting to take place before COVID-19 are accelerating at full speed in all industries – including fashion. So what does that mean for your independent fashion brand? I think, in many ways, it means good things, though it may involve some growing pains.
It should be no surprise that your customer should be at the center of your fashion business. It is her needs that your business serves. Having a clear idea of who your customer is can guide your marketing, determine what opportunities to pursue, and help you design products.
Fashion Revolution Week is about highlighting the need for greater transparency, social and environmental responsibility, and fair working conditions in fashion. With our choices, we can shape a better future with our design, manufacturing, and purchases. Here are five choices you can make in your fashion business to start building a better future for fashion.
Your product development timeline and steps involved will vary depending on the distribution channels of your fashion business. Understanding the differences will help you best plan your product launches and help you navigate shifting from one to the other if that is the next step to grow your brand.
There is no doubt that the events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic have affected each of our lives. But despite the situation, there are things your small fashion business can do to create positive opportunities during this pandemic. Here are a few ideas to get you brainstorming.
You may think you just got lucky finding a factory that would develop your patterns and make you samples for free as part of your production order. What you might not realize is that those “free” samples and development will cost you in other ways.
There it is: your design! It looks just how you envisioned it. You need to evaluate the sample and approve it for production. Here are all the things you should check on your samples to make sure the production order doesn’t disappoint.
Fashion is a very old-school industry. At the same time, companies are adopting technology within their design, development, and production processes – including patternmaking – more and more. This transition to digital has brought up the question whether traditional paper patterns or digital ones are better. Here’s my take.
On one hand, you want to wait as long as possible to start designing so you can make better predictions about what will sell well for the season. On the other hand, you want to give yourself enough time to get the designs made. Set your design timeline by working backwards from your release dates.
Around New Year’s there is always a focus on dreaming of what’s next and making goals to get there. If one of your goals this year is to launch or grow your apparel brand, here are my top resource recommendations that will help you make it happen.