Start A Clothing Brand
How To Start A Clothing Brand In The UK.
235. Starting a clothing business in the UK, and especially in London, is really simple. This is, after all, the fashion capital of the world. All the creative talent, skill and facilities are on your doorstep. There is an abundance of services targeted at the fashion startup, including consultants, freelancers, factories, and one-stop shops.
While starting a clothing business is easy, being successful requires making the right choices from the start. Knowing how to start a clothing brand is essential for your success. Most fashion startups are on a restricted budget, and need to give careful consideration to how they spend their money.
It doesnt need to be very expensive to start a fashion line in the UK. In fact, having some budget restrictions will stop you from doing too much too soon. But you do need to be realistic about how much it costs to start a fashion brand before you begin the process. Although there are some business models that allow you to start with very little capital, its not realistic for the vast majority of startups.
In my experience, starting a clothing brand in the UK, most entrepreneurs are not aiming to be the next Mcqueen, Versace or Stella McCartney. They just have a love of fashion and a business idea, and want to give it a go in a relatively safe environment.
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Choosing A Clothing Category.
The first consideration in how to start a clothing brand is what type of clothing do you want to make, and for whom. For most startup brands it is best to begin by choosing either menswear, ladieswear, or Childrenswear. Then to narrow it down further into more specialised categories. each clothing category and genre requires its own specialists and its own specialised factories.
Kids Clothing Brand.
If you choose to start a kids clothing line it is possible to cover a wider range of clothing types as each genre is not over specialised. You may need to choose a particular age category though, as it could start to get very complicated, and expensive with the wide range of sizes.
Streetwear Brand.
Streetwear is a popular area of fashion that may or may not require special machinery, but does require experienced technicians. If you want to start a streetwear brand, then make sure that you have a pattern cutter experienced in cutting streetwear styles. If you can’t find a specialist, be prepared to provide reference garments to ensure that you get what you want.
Sportswear Brand.
Sportswear covers a very wide range of garment types. Each genre requires specialist technicians and machinery. For anyone considering starting a sportswear brand you will need to be aware that most sportswear requires specialist knowledge, skills and machinery. You have to make sure that you use a specialist factory, and specialist technicians such as pattern cutters and tech pack designers.
Mens Underwear Brand.
Mens underwear is a genre that is particularly specialised, requiring very specialised machinery, and experienced specialist pattern cutters that are hard to find. If you want to start a mens underwear brand you will definitely need good people around you.
One Hour Startup Consultation.
If you would like a consultation with one of our experienced fashion business experts please email for an appointment, or for more information. The cost for a one hour consultation with our junior adviser is £45. Our senior fashion business adviser is £80 for an hour.
Our junior advisers have over ten years experience in the fashion business, while our senior advisers have over fifteen years experience. Please let us know what areas you are interested in – Sportswear, lingerie, swimwear, streetwear, tailoring, couture, etc.
Online Video Course.
We have created an online video course for anyone interested in how to start a fashion brand in the UK. The course consists of nineteen chapters. It is available to download to study from home in your own time. Just email for details.
This online video course was created by senior fashion business adviser, designer, and entrepreneur, Emile Vidal Carr. He has over twenty years experience in the fashion industry, running his own businesses and helping UK startups. He is also author of The Fashion Formula.
How Much Does The Video Course Cost ?
The online video course on how to start a fashion brand costs £200 for all nineteen chapters. Or less than half price using the code LPC 24 – Just £99 for all nineteen chapters.
The London Pattern Cutter.
The London Pattern Cutter is a compact group of fashion industry specialists, mentors, tutors and no minimums factories for startups and small fashion brands.
If you want to know exactly how to start and run a successful UK clothing business you have come to the right place. Our team of fashion startup experts are here to help you every step of the way.
Each of our very experienced senior associates specialise in a particular area of clothing, such as sportswear, swimwear, lingerie, or streetwear. Each can provide a range of services, and offer advice, mentoring, and tuition within their specialist field.
All of our senior specialists offer a one to one startup workshop, tailored toward the clients specific business, and requirements.
Research.
Most fashion business experts insist that startup brands must do a massive amount of research into their potential competitors and customers.
They believe that you must make sure the branding is in place before launching.
They say that you must have a marketing strategy and business plan . That they have to give up work and employ an army of experts.
All of this takes a massive amount of time, and costs an arm and a leg before you even start. We believe that, as long as you have good people around you and advising you, the best way to learn how to start a clothing brand is – JUST START.
Working From Home.
You dont need to pay for separate business premises with their all the overheads and associated costs in order to start your clothing brand. Keep your costs low by setting up your business at home if possible.
You will need to designate a specific work room, and be disciplined about your working hours. Once you are on your feet you can look in to renting premises, and expanding your business.
Financing A Fashion Startup.
Where do you get the financing from? Banks are not interested in lending to businesses at all, and certainly not to fashion businesses. They have far easier ways of making money than lending, even to productive businesses.
lets face it, when the price of money (interest rates) is so low, why would anyone bother to lend at all? The laws of supply and demand suggest that when the price of money is low the supply is high. Well, that is certainly not the case today.
So this avenue of funding is only open to individuals who can command a great deal of financial backing. That leaves either government funding, or crowd funding.
How To Succeed On A Limited Budget.
To succeed on a budget without expert help is virtually impossible. Not only is it virtually impossible, but it is extremely frustrating. The fashion industry is notoriously inept and unreliable. You can easily lose all your money by making the wrong choices.
You will find problems at every turn that you will have no answer to. Your money will just disappear down a black hole and you will have nothing to show for it.
If you have a limited budget available to start your fashion brand, you need to spend your money wisely. You need to know where you can save money without affecting quality. And you need to know where to spend.
Ideally you would need to employ a mentor who is experienced in all aspects of the fashion industry .
This could be in the form of a fashion industry consultant, who you would employ purely for advice. Or alternatively you could employ an experienced pattern cutter or technician who understands the fashion industry.
Clothing Startup Workshops.
We offer two distinct workshops for our fashion startup clients to learn how to start a clothing line. Which option you choose depends on what you want to learn, how you want to learn, and what your budget is.
Emile is our senior fashion business adviser. He offers an in-depth startup workshop, along with a follow up workshop, for more advanced students.
Mae is our junior fashion business adviser and offers a comprehensive, but less detailed introduction workshop for startups who want to hit the ground running.
Details and prices are at the bottom of the page. Please email for further details.
Consultant
As someone who is both a highly experienced pattern cutter and a fashion industry consultant, I dont see the point in employing a clothing business consultant who cannot serve other functions – Designer, pattern cutter, or tech packer for instance.
I have forty years experience in the fashion industry, working with some of the very best U.K. designers and clothing companies, alongside complete novice start-up fashion companies.
Our services are aimed mainly at these small startup clothing brands with a limited budget. Most of our clients are virtual or complete novices to the clothing business.
Clothing Entrepreneurs.
They are would- be clothing entrepreneurs with a passion for clothing, or they have a specific idea for a product that they want to get to market. Sometimes their ideas are specifically fashion related, but sometimes they are more generally clothing related.
Often they have no idea where to start and are concerned about how to spend the limited money they have wisely.
It is tempting for a start-up to consider getting the factory to deliver a complete service with patterns, grading, samples and production. But I would say that this is asking for trouble.
Firstly, factory pattern cutters are rarely professional pattern cutters.
Secondly, you need a pattern cutter who specialises in the type of styles you want to produce.
Thirdly, you need someone to advise you on which factory is suitable for you.
Fourthly, the factory needs to be held to account by in independent party. It is really important to have this separation.
While it is possible to save a considerable amount of money by purchasing cut price fabrics from discount suppliers or trimmings, it is not possible to do the same with factories or pattern cutters.
It is not necessary to go to the most expensive factories or pattern cutters to get good quality results, but it would be a big mistake to go to the cheapest. If a factory is cheap, they are cheap for a reason.
One-To-One Workshop.
Emile runs his very popular one-to-one How to start a fashion business workshop from his studio in Greenwich. Our new startup clients on a limited budget find this extremely valuable.
This intense one to one workshop takes you through the stages of setting up and running a clothing business from scratch, and developing your brand. Step by step.
We can even start the ball rolling for you from day one. Just bring us your ideas and we will get you started.
Each workshop is custom made to the requirements for your brand. Bring along a list of questions if you want, and we will do our best to answer them.
Topics for Emile`s fashion startup workshops include the following topics :-
- Trademark
- Brand values
- Unique Selling Point
- Emotional Selling Point
- Functional purpose
- Brand adjacency
- Pricing structure
- Cash Flow
- Fabric & trim suppliers
- Manufacturing process
- Tech pack
- Size Guide
- Garment labels
- Care labels
- Focus group
- Marketing Mix
- Range Planning Pyramid
- Photoshoots – Editorial & E-Commerce
- Photography & Stylists
- Non Disclousre Agreements
- Contact List
Other Fashion Business Workshops.
We provide a number of additional one day and half day workshops for fashion Business Startups. These are invaluable for both complete novices and more experienced fashion people. Please check The London Pattern Cutter for details. Workshops we offer include :-
- FASHION BUSINESS START-UP ON A BUDGET
- CREATING A TECH PACK
- MAKING AND GRADING YOUR PATTERN
- QUALITY CONTROL
- MAKE YOUR OWN PATTERN
- START A FASHION BRAND
- BECOME A FREELANCER
- BECOME A FASHION DESIGNER
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