Scotland
Small Production Runs In Scotland.
(08-23-09). For Scottish fashion designers, there are few things more satisfying than to see your designs, produced with your own brand label, using high quality Scottish factories, and a “Made In Scotland” tag attached to your garments.
There are many high quality clothing factories around the UK producing small runs for new designers and startups. But, despite high Scottish demand, and a proud clothing manufacturing tradition, there are very few of these factories remaining in Scotland.
Scottish factories are very hard to find, and only a handful of those will consider making small runs for startups. Even then, startups are generally considered a nuisance to be avoided if possible.
Although we at The London Pattern Cutter provide small production facilities in London, our base in Scotland is there to provide expert pattern cutting, sample development, and tech packs. Further, we can advise on the best Scottish factories for your styles, and estimate the price you should be paying.
One great untapped source for small production runs in Scotland is your local alterations tailor. Not all tailors will provide this service, but some do.
Sample Development.
The main problem with small factories in Scotland, is that they lack good sample development facilities, and need a lot of guidance to ensure the best quality. Unlike the big brand high street manufacturers, they do not employ the best pattern cutters, or graders.
Increasingly, factories are insisting on professional Tech Packs in order to produce your styles. A tech pack is the blueprint for your design, and MUST be made by a highly skilled fashion technician.
Fashion Startups In Scotland.
We are an established one-stop-shop for new UK fashion businesses. We can provide all the services and advice any fashion startup label in Scotland need to bring their clothing designs to life.
Made In Scotland.
Although The London Pattern Cutter was formed in London, and still has production facilities there, we also services in Scotland from our facilities in Dundee.
We specialise in helping small brands and startups. We make it as easy as possible for anyone, even a complete beginner, to get started with their new business venture.
While our central base is in London, our base in Scotland will assist emerging Scottish fashion designers and startups.
Scotland has a growing number of home grown fashion designers looking to start and run their business in Scotland. However, there is not a proportionate number of experienced fashion business advisers, pattern cutters, sample machinists, or small production units. It takes much longer to acquire the skills for these subsidiary services than for the designer.
Product Development.
We can provide all the services you need for developing your clothing products – Designs. Patterns. Grades. Samples. Tech Packs. Fabric Sourcing.
Factories will make it difficult for them because they see them as unprofessional and not very serious.They are reluctant to make samples for them as it is not profitable.
Startups are often very unclear as to what they want. They may not provide adequate information for the factory to begin with and have a tendency to keep changing their designs during the sampling process.
Then once the sample is finalised the startup may decide not to proceed with the order. So the factory will often charge an exorbitant price for the samples, in order to deter the less serious designer.
Having moved from London where there are hundreds of small clothing factories eager for business, Scotland appears to have a real dearth of clothing manufacturers and the accompanying fashion skills like pattern cutting and sample machining.
In London it is the customer who calls the shots, while In Scotland it appears to be the factory.
It is important for any young fashion designer in Scotland to have a professional approach when dealing with factories. Dont rely on the factory to make the pattern and sample, because you need to keep the development stage separate from the production stage.
The factory is very unlikely to employ proper professional pattern cutters and graders anyway. You need to have your patterns, samples and grades all sorted before you approach the factory.
The factory will still have to make their own sample so that they can give you a price and also so that you can judge the quality of their work. The sample will be used as a template to measure the production by.
If the factory charge a lot of money for the sample, you need to be pretty confident beforehand that the factory you have chosen is the right one, otherwise you are just throwing your money away…
Having provided fashion startup services in London for many years, we recently opened a base in Scotland. Based in Dundee, we provide an entire range of services for new fashion startups in Scotland. We also work in tandem with our London base so that we can get the best of both worlds.
London has a far larger fashion industry with many more fashion professionals and clothing factories than Dundee. But it has become progressively more expensive. While Scotland has fewer fashion professionals and clothing factories, prices can be more competitive.
We will be expanding our client base in Scotland, and hoping to work with some of the many new fashion designers and small startups located around Scotland in general and Dundee in particular.
Clothing Factories.
Where possible we work with local Scottish fashion professionals and clothing factories, although we will still be using our London facilities where appropriate.
While most of Scotland’s fashion industry appears to be located in either Glasgow or Edinburgh, Dundee and nearby Perth are up and coming areas for all types of clothing startups.
With the opening of the new Victoria and Albert Museum in 2018, the area is bound to attract both creative talent and financial investment and could well become a new creative hub. Dundee is the UK`s only UNESCO City of design and hosts the Dundee Design Festival.
Fashion Designers In Scotland.
Scotland is home to many young fashion designers and clothing business entrepreneurs. But there appear to be very few facilities available to enable these designers and entrepreneurs to get their designs into production. There are a number of establishments offering various types of fashion courses in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The Glasgow School of Art runs a fashion design course in both womenswear and menswear, producing top class fashion graduates.
Glasgow Caledonian University runs more entrepreneurial based courses, in conjunction with The British School of Fashion. They offer courses in International Fashion Marketing, Fashion Business Creation and Luxury Brand Management, among others.
They supply the skills and knowledge to enable their graduates to compete successfully in the fashion world.
Glasgow Clyde College run a course in fashion design and manufacturing, offering a basic foundation course for those interested in the fashion industry.
Tech Pack Design.
Factories will often insist that you supply a tech pack in order for them to produce your designs. This is a blueprint for your design, and should ensure that the factory produce your design exactly as you want it to be.
We can provide a professional tech pack design service if you intend to approach a factory to produce your designs. If you are going offshore for production, the a tech pack is essential.
Zoom Fashion Startup Workshop.
We run a Zoom version of our popular one-to-one fashion startup workshop for anyone new to the fashion business. This is a two hour intense workshop, run by our small business expert Emile Carr.
Our Services in Dundee :
- Pattern cutting
- Pattern grading
- Sampling
- Fashion design
- Quality control
- Fashion start-up workshops
- Video workshops
- Mentoring
- Spec sheets
- Tech packs
EMAIL thelondonpatterncutter@gmail.com