Do you love fashion? Do you always know the best thing to wear? Do you often make your own clothes? Then you’ve got all the makings of the next best fashion house owner! Indeed, coming up with your own fashion brand can be a great way to supplement your love for style and start making some money through it.
Combine your eye for what to wear with the skills you’ve picked up in designing your own wardrobe, and you really could curate the next viral fashion trend! But of course, having a passion for everything clothing doesn’t immediately translate into a profit. There’s a lot you need to arrange and plan out before you even start making your branded clothes.
From deciding on the style to sourcing a supplier to picking your price point to marketing your brand as a whole, there are quite a few crucial details to decide on. To help ensure you get all of your admin squared away, check out the list below when you’re in the midst of putting your own fashion brand together.
Think About Who You’re Selling to
Every fashion brand has an ideal customer in mind. These are the people who are going to snap up your clothing and come back for more, because you’ve hit the jackpot in every possible corner. It’s in the size they want, as well as the color, material, and design, and it costs what they expect it to. They can buy it from a place they’re comfortable with, and they’re keen to keep up with your marketing, because it’s geared toward them too.
So, what demographic are you going to target your fashion brand towards? A lot of fashion house owners tend to pull in customers just like themselves, but you can also aim your pieces toward people outside of this. You may even find crossover between your core demographic and various others.
For example, if you create supportive clothing for women to exercise in, aimed mostly at those in their mid 20s to mid 40s, you could also end up with a lot of customers in their mid to late 60s as well. After all, your pieces are good for day to day use for anyone who needs extra back or leg support too.
Decide Where You Want to Take Your Brand
Most clothing brands are put together with the aim of getting them into bigger, better known stores. Is this the kind of thing you want to do as well? You’ll want to work this out to ensure you have a target to work towards.
On the other hand, some people want to make and sell their own clothing themselves. Lots of people open up their own online stores through platforms like Shopify, or even just social media itself, and pull in customers one by one.
You could also be looking to open up a bespoke boutique of your own. If this is the approach you’d like to take, you’re going to need some strong start up funding on your side. Indeed, you’ll need to have capital available to purchase your physical storefront, and to keep refining your product range over time.
Will You Be Hand Making Everything?
A lot of up and coming fashion brand owners like to use the handmade approach. Not only does this ensure you have total control over what materials are used and the design’s end result, but it also adds that extra special touch.
A handmade item usually carries a note of quality to it, and when you’ve put clear time and effort into your pieces, you can sell them for an appropriately higher price too.
That being said, not everyone is going to respect these prices, and similarly, you’re likely to run out of time too. If your brand gets a lot of attention – and a lot sooner than you expected it to – demand may outpace the supply.
That could lose you customers in the long run, and that’s not a good look for a company just starting to establish itself.
That’s why it’s usually best to have some help. Handmade approaches are great, and they can be well utilised within a fashion brand, but have a supplementary manufacturer on your side too.
If your brand is focused on all things summer, getting your custom hawaiian shirts made elsewhere will take the pressure off of your shoulders. You can still have your own design and logo on your pieces, but you’re not having to painstakingly put every single article together yourself.
What Will it Cost?
Any and all fashion brands need to have their price points sorted out from the get go. Put together the cost of material, how much it cost to make, the time you put in yourself, and the profit margin you’re hoping to make.
Even simple t-shirts need marking up by a small percentage, but you don’t want to go too far here. Focus once again on your ideal customer and think about what they’re going to be willing to spend, alongside how much disposable income they’re likely to have.
You want to find the sweet spot between these two numbers. Remember, you can always run sales and offer discounts, but for the time being, you need a solid price tag to pop on your clothing.
Creating a Fashion Brand: What to Keep in Mind
Putting your own fashion line on the market is more accessible than you might think, but there’s still a lot of work to do before you get there.
Make sure you’re aware of who you want to sell to, and what they’re looking out for. Then get to work on the best approach for actually making your clothes. You can work alone, but taking out a contract with a manufacturer will save you a lot of time, and even open up new opportunities.
Above all, figure out what you want to make and who would want to see that too. Follow your fashion dreams!
