How to start a clothing line

Everyday life is filled with activities either at home or outside your living. The way we live and the social environments we daily choose to be, have a serious effect on people’s clothing styles. Trends in clothing lines are influenced by media, popular personalities and a broad array of surroundings. We all like to make our statement in a certain way in society, some of them by being successful in their profession, some of them in caring and some of them in being a successful entrepreneur in whatever branch they prefer. Starting a clothing brand is one of the paths we can take so this is an outline of how to start a clothing line.

Worldwide clothing business

Fashion and clothing business is a world full of colors and styles turned around all differently all over the world. Garment manufacturing had a long time ago it’s centers in Western European countries at the beginning of the 20^th century. Broad assortment of types of fabrics were produced in countries like Belgium, the Netherland, the UK and Germany. This happened all during the industrial revolution at the beginning of the 20^th century. Fashion and manufacturing of clothing lines were determined by a select group of tailors in those days. After the Second World War traditional clothing underwent a big change and transformed to industrial production of clothing line collections being sold cross countries. Branding of clothing started also during this period.

Nowadays clothing brands and desigsn are determined mainly in countries where there is merely any manufacturing. Existing or starting clothing brands are centered in countries in Western Europe and the USA. Manufacturing of garments takes place in mainly one of the following countries : China, Bangladesh, Turkey, Vietnam and India. If you are wondering how to find a clothing manufacturer then you should do some research in these countries.

How to start a clothing business

Looks, lifestyles and the urge to express your emotions can be done very well by your style of clothing. The whole process before finding manufacturers of garments either on a distance of near to your own location, is full of hurdles and needs a serious focus. It is also possible to find a clothing manufacturing near you. Good preparation makes finding a good manufacturer for clothing much easier. You can make or break starting a clothing business by following thoroughly the steps we will describe.

Starting a clothing brand does need your full attention and is to our opinion not just a side hussle.

How to find clothing Manufacturers

1. How to start a Clothing Brand

Right at the heart of how to start a clothing brand are the values you would like to express and keep them as a red line throughout the company philosophy and its partnerships. Take a piece of paper, have serious brainstorm sessions and write down what kind of values you want to embody in the designs of your clothing lines. These values should have a match with developments in society and should appeal to potential buyers in the market. In the process of how to start a clothing brand this initial phase is crucial.

2. Fashion Tech Pack or Technical Pack

All startups or scale ups in the clothing business encounter the words of a fashion tech pack, tech pack or technical pack. All these words have the same meaning and are basically an outlay of all the details needed to start a clothing brand or clothing line before finding a clothing manufacturer near you or in one of manufacturing countries. It comprises details of design, printing or embroidery of the branding, clothing line measurements, fabric types, accessories and labels. All these details can be filled in tech pack template sometimes shared by the garment manufacturer sometimes you will need to hire a a tech pack services provider. You can also take simply an excel sheet and fill in all the details per design.

3. Fabrics Types

Fabrics types are the first necessary ingredient for a clothing design item and before contacting a clothing manufacturer near you or in Turkey or other countries. Every design has a different fitting and needs different fabrics types in order to give the right posture to the design. Besides the differentiation of men’s , women’s and children’s clothing we have fashion style names describing their purpose of lifestyle such as streetwear, loungewear and activewear. The purpose of the clothing line determines what kind of fabrics types should be used.

At clothing manufacturers, the main fabric types are cotton, linen, polyester, lycra, spandex and acrylic fabrics. Within these fabric types there are organic and recycled ones.

4. Sampling Clothing

Clothing manufacturers UK or clothing manufacturers Turkey are key in this step of the process if they can offer a sampling service. Pattern creation is done according to the measurement table provided and are the basis for the clothing samples. Once the tech pack and the availability of fabrics have been confirmed all the details can be applied in demanding a first sample. Sampling is realized in two or three steps if the first clothing sample is needing some corrections. Either the fitting of the clothing sample is not correct which is done in line with the measurement tables provided or the type of fabric quality is not convincing you in line with expectations. The final clothing sample is called a proof of production and is a final clothing items which should be the one-on-one items as resulting at the end of production.

5. Clothing Manufacturing

Now the clothing sample has the right fitting and has been made from the right types of fabric, the clothing or garment manufacturer needs an approval from the customer to start production. All garment manufacturing will start according to the details in the technical pack.

If the total fabric need is available from stock the clothing manufacturers Turkey can start as soon as the first payment has been received. The manufacturer of garment will source the types of fabrics, needed accessories and labeling for the customer and make a manufacturing planning within its own organization.

All the types of fabrics will be cut, sewn and trimmed according to the details of the tech pack or the made sample. Before sewing the pattern cutted fabrics they are printed or embroidered for which the clothing manufacturer Turkey will need graphics from the customer.

Production lead time is normally between 4 – 6 weeks and quality checks are very important in this phase.

6. Delivery of clothing

The customer must provide the clothing manufacturer all the packaging details in time as packaging is always an external third-party service provider which needs time. If the packaging details are not provided in time to the garment manufacturer you can face a serious delay at the end of the process. All the items are being ironed and packaged in the ordered quantities and put in oversized boxes.

Labeling per item with cardboard labels or with barcode stickering is done before packaging in the boxes.Once the finale quantities at the clothing manufacturer are enlisted and send per email the way of transport has to be determined. The volume and weight of the final number boxes of clothing is needed as an input for receiving quotations from transport companies.

Transport is possible by road, by sea or per airfreight.

7. Marketing Clothing Brand

Key input at how to make your own clothing brand succesfull are your brand values and final clothing line being delivered soon at your location. As soon as the freight is delivered the marketing activities have to start presenting the clothing line in a professional manner.

Now the manufacturer of clothing have delivered the items at your doorstep your high quality content marketing preparations have to start either offline or online. All pack shots of the clothing items must be done and give a strong presentation of your brand values. If needed the pack shots must be taken on real people in the right setting.

Highly engaging textual content must be written per clothing line item and your value proposition must be clear towards your buying clients.

We advise a multichannel approach in selling your clothing line resulting in higher success in brand building.