Many people want to start a clothing line or clothing brand. After all, how difficult could it be?
The truth is that clothing brands become successful in part because they’re created by people who are passionate about clothing.
But, a clothing brand needs more than just an exquisite apparel design to create a lasting business. It needs all the trappings of a successful business as well. Apparel retailers need to master marketing, manufacturing, and retailing, among other things.
Shira Sue Carmi, the founder of Launch Collective, reminds us that the business of launching a clothing brand is as important as the artistry:
Fashion is amazing in the way it balances art and commerce, but it’s a business. Don’t start a business because you want to design. Start a business because you want to start a business.
So, are you a fashion designer or an apparel entrepreneur? If you are ready to start a fashion business (whether part-time or full-time), let’s get down to it. Here is a step-by-step comprehensive guide with our top 10 business tips for starting a successful clothing brand or clothing line from scratch in 2020.
Develop your brand
Fill in the business blanks
Crunch the numbers
Build a web presence
Plan your first collection
Prepare for manufacturing
Create a sales plan
Spread the word
Find partners or investors
Find the right help
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Blog Clothing Brand Education Version 2
- Develop Your Clothing Brand
Step one of starting a new clothing line or clothing brand? Develop your brand identity.
As we’ve previously discussed,
…your brand is your company’s public identity. Ideally, your brand should embody the best (and most essential) attributes of your company.
The importance of your brand identity cannot be understated – especially in the world of fashion. Clothing is very personal because our clothing choices are one of the ways that we define our identity – to both ourselves and to the world. As a result, the brands we choose to wear and the labels we display on our clothes become an extension of who we are and how we see ourselves.
In particular, the millennial generation has been shown to desire an authentic connection with their clothing brands. Fabrizio Moreira writes in “Building a Startup Clothing Brand in a Fast Fashion Economy“:
They want a brand “experience,” they want authenticity. It follows, then, that having a message that resonates with these consumers, and staying authentic to that message, is one of the few ways to break into the cutthroat fashion industry as a small brand…
So, before you sketch your first rendering, ask yourself these important questions:
What identity do I want my clothing brand to project?
Who will want to wear my clothes?
What can customers get from my clothing brand that they can’t get anywhere else?
What makes my clothing unique? Is it high-end?
What is the most important part of my customer’s experience?
Your answers to these questions (and others like them) will build the core of your brand. All of your future branding decisions should expand on these ideas. Your business name, your logo, your website design should all grow from the concepts you laid out here.
Moreira cites Bad AF Fashion (a fashion startup) as a how-to example. Here’s what Moreira thinks they’re doing right:
Arguably, the key to their success has been having a clear brand identity that resonates with their target customers, staying authentic to that identity, and knowing how to communicate it to the desired audience.
So, take the t