There are many reasons why I think fit is important. It is certainly important for your customers. It is important to me as a patternmaker, too, as I care about making quality and well-thought-out clothing. Fit is even important when you look at the business side of running your brand.
These last five years has taught me so much about business. And, specifically, about fashion business. Today I’m reflecting on the top five things I’ve learned that have made a difference in my business (and the businesses of my clients, colleagues, and podcast guests) that I think can make a difference in yours as well.
It takes a lot of knowledge of your customer, research and expertise, and sometimes trial and error to get the perfect sizing for your brand. How will you know when it might be time to improve your sizing? If any of these five things occur, you might need to give your sizing an update.
The goal with development is to arrive at a pattern that fits well on as many people in the target market as possible, but even the best-fitting pattern can’t fit everyone perfectly. Because of this, it is worth considering how your designs might be altered so you can design with ease of alterations in mind.
Watching fashion reality TV, you might think that every designer knows how to sit behind a sewing machine and whip up an outfit. In reality, though, many designers don’t or can’t sew at all. There are some things that are important for every designer to know – especially if you don’t know how to sew.
With Illustrator being so widely used and accessible and traditional patternmaking software being so cost prohibitive, you might wonder if you can just make patterns in Illustrator. The short answer is, yes, you can. However, depending on your goals and how you will be using the patterns in your business, you might not want to.
Many business owners fund their startups with their time and passion in the beginning – and sometimes this is necessary, but I want to make the case for why paying yourself as the business owner will benefit your business in the long run.
There are many aspects of ethical fashion and they are all important issues in this industry that go back to our values and business ethics. But I think there is another important aspect that gets left out of the ethical fashion conversation – good fit.
Design may be the fun part, but costing is what makes sure your business is making enough money to cover your expenses, pay your people, and make a profit. Target and actual costs each serve different purposes, but both work toward the same goal of keeping your customers happy and your business profitable.
Fittings are the part of the development process where you get to evaluate your garment, test it, and make changes as needed until it is approved. Even during fittings, though, mistakes can happen. Here are five fitting mistakes you might be making and how and why to avoid them.