Pickleball Outfits
Pickleball outfit inspiration……
You might have noticed that pickleball has been growing massively lately and everyone seems to be giving it a go!
I thought it would be fun to create my own pickleball outfits and ideas for the playing pickleball aesthetic, with cutting edge AI technology, so I’ve created all of these pickleball images as inspiration for your look!
If pickleball isn’t your vibe, this looks can also work for inspiration for badminton outfits too!
Scroll for pickleball outfits I’ve created with AI, plus some of my fave items so that you can get the look >>>
How to Start a Fashion Brand in 2024
If you’re wanting to start a fashion brand in 2024, make sure you read this first!
Are you dreaming of starting a fashion brand in 2024 but feeling overwhelmed with where to start? Look no further! In this blog post, I provide you with the first 3 steps to successfully launch your fashion brand this year. I’ll share valuable insights and actionable tips to set you up for fashion industry success. So, let's dive in and explore the first three crucial steps you need to take to launch your fashion brand in 2024.
Want to grab video training on designing profitable fashion products from scratch, even with zero experience? I’ve got that for you here >>>
1. Define Your Target Customer
Before diving into the design process, it's essential to get crystal clear about who your brand is for. Doing some online research will help you identify your target customer and understand their preferences, desires, and pain points. By narrowing down your audience, you can make well-informed decisions and tailor your designs to meet their specific needs. Remember, the goal is not just to launch a fashion brand but to have a successful launch, with eager and excited customers ready to buy.
A lot of new brands make the mistake of thinking about things like the target customers, age, location, etc. But this isn’t actually that helpful. It’s much more important to understand their psychology, what they are interested in and what their values are, since selling fashion is mostly about emotion.
2. Discover Your Unique Selling Point (USP)
To stand out from the competition, you must identify your unique selling point. Saying you're a sustainable brand or offering a petite collection is not enough, there’s so many of those about these days! Dig deep into what makes your brand different and why your target customers would choose you over existing options. Put yourself in their position and think about what would motivate them to switch their shopping habits. Having a well-defined USP will not only help you differentiate yourself but also guide your marketing and sales strategies.
Helpful to consider; your target customer is currently shopping somewhere else. Why should they start shopping with you instead? What will make them switch to you?
Do not skip this step! It’ll help you to stand out and get noticed in a competitive fashion industry!
3. Designing and Sampling
With a clear target customer and defined USP, it's time to bring your vision to life through designs and samples. Starting with a small, curated collection is advisable, especially if you're new to the industry or have limited resources. High-quality products and attention to detail matter more than the quantity of items you offer. Keep your target customer and USP in mind during the design process and consider their preferences and willingness to pay for your products. Being specific and providing detailed instructions to your sample maker or factory is crucial to ensure the samples align with your vision.
Important to know; you don’t need to have a big collection in order to be successful. In face, I’ve had several hugely successful clients who launched with just ONE product, so don’t force yourself to make loads. The more styles you have, the more work, risk and cost, so only include essential items in your launch collection. You can always add more later.
Bonus Tip; Marketing from the Beginning
Now, here's where many new fashion brands make a critical mistake – not focusing enough on marketing from the beginning. While designing and manufacturing are essential steps, neglecting marketing until the last moment can result in a lackluster launch with minimal sales. Split your time wisely, dedicating half to product development and the other half to marketing.
Starting your marketing efforts early allows you to build an audience, establish trust, and create anticipation before your official launch date. Aim to begin marketing at least six months before your planned launch to generate sales and build a loyal customer base, the more the better really!
Launching a fashion brand in 2024 can be an exciting and rewarding journey, but it requires careful planning and strategic execution. By following these steps, you will be well on your way to starting a successful fashion brand. Remember, understanding your target customer, discovering your unique selling point, and laying the foundation through design and sampling are crucial aspects of the process. Additionally, dedicating time to marketing from the beginning will significantly increase your chances of a successful launch and long-term business growth.
Are you ready to take the first step towards launching your fashion brand in 2024? Start by diving deep into the target customer research, harnessing your unique selling point, and laying out a solid plan for design and sampling. With a well-thought-out approach and a strong marketing strategy,
Diwali Outfits Inspiration
My hometown is gearing up to the biggest celebration of the year……Diwali! So I’ve created some AI Diwali fashion looks for inspiration….
My hometown of Leicester is famous for many things…..one of the biggest is our Diwali celebrations! So I thought it would be fun to create Diwali outfits with cutting edge AI technology, as inspiration for your Diwali fashion look!
Scroll for outfits I’ve created with AI >>>
Fashion Design Tips for Clothing Brand Start-ups: How to Make Your Idea a Reality
Here’s 5 tips for designing a fashion range that sells……
Ever had your head teeming with fabulous fashion design ideas, but found yourself at a crossroads when it came to translating those into reality? You're not alone. As someone who’s been in the industry 19 years and helping startups for the last 7, I’ve seen it all before - and I'm here to share. This guide will share essential fashion design tips, a step in successful clothing brand development.Today, let's delve into how to bridge the gap between design idea and manufacturing and make sure that the designs in your head are the ones that actually get made.
Want a step by step video series to guide you through creating your next bestseller? Click here.
A Design Idea: More Than Meets the Eye
When I chat with budding fashion entrepreneurs about their designs, they often present me with rough sketches or photographs. While these are valuable initial steps, they don't necessarily portray a fully functioning design. This can cause disconnects when liaising with factories, pattern makers, or others involved in the production process. A design entails more than aesthetics; let's unpack these critical elements……
1.Fit is Key
A great design caters to the right fit for the target customer. The challenge here is that there's no one-size-fits-all. We would love it if there was, wouldn't we? But the reality is people come in all shapes and sizes. Our products need to be tailored to the majority of our customers, and for that, we need to know them really well. And yes, it does involve making tough decisions about who our products are for. As designers and entrepreneurs, we'd love to craft garments that perfectly fit everyone, but the reality is that our capacity to do so is limited by a host of practical considerations. We can't cater to every unique measurement that exists within the glorious spectrum of human body shapes and sizes, as much as we'd like to. However, this doesn't mean we should not strive for maximum inclusivity.
In the fashion industry, understanding your target customer's body proportions and preferences is crucial.
2.Be Specific
"I want it to be good quality." - I can't tell you how many times I've heard this vague phrase. The term 'good quality' is subjective and varies from person to person. Instead, delve into the details – provide picture references, technical sketches, and physical samples, if necessary. Detail every element that you're using in your product, from the fabrics to the trims, the zippers, the labels, construction methods and more.
If you need help with this, head to my ‘idea to factory ready’ info to learn how I can help you with it.
3. Daring to Be Different: Finding Your Niche
A lot of people say to me ‘it’s going to be impossible to get my new brand noticed without a huge budget’ and the reality is, that’s simply not true. Yes, the fashion market is populated, but niching down is an amazing (and often, underused) way, of standing out.
It’s essential for your brand to carve out a distinct identity and create products for a specific audience. While it's important to be aware of current trends, merely replicating other brands' designs won't do. Be 'trend relevant', yes, but always through your own unique lens.
For example, if you’re creating a sportswear brand, zeroing in on a specific sport or workout type can do wonders for your brand. By focusing on a niche, you have the opportunity to become a specialist, catering to a specific group of fitness enthusiasts. This focus makes it easier to develop 'raving fans' who are excited about your brand and products because they cater so well to their specific needs.
We go through the process for doing this in The Fashion Design Challenge, plus I give you an easy to use template to help you. Click here for info on that.
4. Building a Cohesive Range: The Key Increasing Profits
Think of your collection as a harmonious range rather than individual pieces. A well-thought-out range that allows customers to mix and match across your collection can boost your sales significantly. This approach encourages 'add-on sales', my favourite way of increasing profits. This method works because it increases the chances of customers purchasing more than one item, and therefore increases how much the average customer spends.
5. Manufacturing: Choosing the Right Partner
It's vital to partner with a manufacturer that specialises in the kinds of products that you’re making. The unique construction methods and equipment needed for different types of clothing manufacturing necessitate expertise, so don’t consider a factory who isn’t specific to your product.
It’s also important to know that in the current climate, manufacturers often have their hands full. As a result, factories are choosier, making it even more critical for new brands to approach manufacturers fully prepared. Having your tech packs, quantities, and timeline ready before you make contact shows potential suppliers you mean business, and therefore they are much more likely to take you seriously.
Embarking on the journey of starting a fashion brand is an exhilarating experience, with tons of opportunities for creativity and growth. To equip yourself to succeed, consider joining my free masterclass, 'How to Get Your Fashion Ideas Produced'. This masterclass will provide you with an insight into what you need to prepare to get factory ready, plus how you can manage the factory and produce high quality products. Click here to register free for the masterclass and start bringing your fashion ideas to life!
Festival Outfits Inspiration
Festival outfit inspiration……
You might have noticed that festival outfits are the hot trend at the moment and there’s so many people on Instagram and TikTok sharing their festival style.
I thought it would be fun to create my own festival outfits with cutting edge AI technology, so I’ve created all of these festival fashion images as inspiration for your festival look!
Scroll for festival outfits I’ve created with AI, plus some of my fave items so that you can get the look >>>
Note; this post contains some affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Please know, I only choose products I’d buy myself and including these links helps me to keep producing free content for you. Thanks for your support!
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Embroidery Motifs Inspiration
Inspiration for your next embroidery motif design…..
You might have noticed that embroidery motifs and the use of embroidery in the fashion industry has been massively increasing. I love embroidery and am especially inspired by couture embroidery techniques.
I thought it would be fun to combine the centuries old embroidery technique with cutting edge AI technology, so I’ve created all of these embroidery images for inspiration for me - and I’m sharing them with you too!
Scroll for embroidery motif designs I’ve created with AI >>>
Leather Dress Women Inspiration
Leather dress women inspiration……
You might have noticed that women’s leather dresses are the hot trend at the moment and there’s so many people on Instagram and TikTok sharing their leather dress.
I thought it would be fun to create my own leather dresses with cutting edge AI technology, so I’ve created all of these leather fashion images as inspiration for your leather look!
Scroll for the leather dress outfits I’ve created with AI >>>
How to Start an Activewear Business; The Key Considerations
Want to start your own activewear brand? Here’s 5 things you should know…..
Diving headfirst into the activewear industry is an exciting venture. It's a booming market, filled with potential for budding entrepreneurs. The foundational steps in launching a sportswear brand mirror the ones you'd take for any clothing line: defining your target customer, formulating a business plan, and honing in on your designs. If you're seeking more information on these fundamental steps, the 'How to Get Your Fashion Ideas Manufactured’ free Masterclass and The 'Fashion Startup Online Course' are excellent resources.
As an activewear specialist, I’ve worked with many kinds of sports brands and have found there’s 5 important things that new activewear startups need to remember;
1. You're Not Nike (Yet!), and That's Okay
As a startup, it's natural to aspire to be like the big influencers in the industry—brands like Nike or Lululemon. However, it's essential to ground these aspirations in reality. Developing custom fabrics like these giants do, isn't feasible for smaller businesses. Instead, focus on finding suppliers who cater to startups and smaller brands and working with what’s already available is a much more effective (both time and cost) way of getting started. These days, suppliers offer a huge range of sports fabrics with performance features, designed to meet the requirements of a budding activewear brand.
2. The Importance of Specialised Features and Construction
When starting a sportswear brand, understanding the intricacies of fabric and construction is paramount. Activewear demands fabric that is durable, retains its shape, and in many cases needs features and performance attributes like antibacterial properties, moisture-wicking, and breathability. These qualities ensure comfort during workouts and enhance the overall user experience. Moreover, activewear construction requires specialised methods to prevent seam chafing (ouch!) and provide adequate stretch—important factors in making workout gear that not only looks good but feels good too.
3. Daring to Be Different: Finding Your Niche
A lot of people say to me ‘it’s going to be impossible to get my new brand noticed without a huge budget’ and the reality is, that’s simply not true. Yes, the activewear market is densely populated, but niching down is an amazing (and often, underused) way, of standing out.
It’s essential for your brand to carve out a distinct identity and create products for a specific audience. While it's important to be aware of current trends, merely replicating other brands' designs won't do. Be 'trend relevant', yes, but always through your own unique lens.
Zeroing in on a specific sport or workout type can do wonders for your brand. By focusing on a niche, you have the opportunity to become a specialist, catering to a specific group of fitness enthusiasts. This focus makes it easier to develop 'raving fans' who are enthusiastic about your brand and products because they cater so well to their specific needs.
4. Building a Cohesive Range: The Key Increasing Profits
Think of your collection as a harmonious range rather than individual pieces. A well-thought-out range that allows customers to mix and match across your collection can boost your sales significantly. This approach encourages 'add-on sales', my favourite way of increasing profits. This method works because it increases the chances of customers purchasing more than one item, and therefore increases how much the average customer spends.
5. Manufacturing: Choosing the Right Partner
It's vital to partner with a manufacturer that specialises in sportswear. The unique construction methods and equipment needed for activewear manufacturing necessitate expertise in this specific niche, so don’t consider a factory who isn’t specific to this type of product.
In the current activewear market scenario, manufacturers often have their hands full. As a result, factories are choosier, making it even more critical for new brands to approach manufacturers fully prepared. Having your tech packs, quantities, and timeline ready before you make contact shows potential suppliers you mean business.
Embarking on the journey of starting an activewear brand is an exhilarating experience, with tons of opportunities for creativity and growth. To equip yourself with more tools to succeed, consider joining my free masterclass, 'How to Get Your Fashion Ideas Produced'. This masterclass will provide you with an insight into what you need to prepare to get factory ready, plus how you can manage the factory and produce high quality products. Click here to register free for the masterclass and start bringing your fashion ideas to life!
Creating a Production Plan for Your Clothing Business: A Step-by-Step Guide
Ready to get your clothing designs manufactured? Then you’ll need to take these steps in your production plan…..
Fashion entrepreneurship is an exhilarating journey that combines fashion design, fashion trends, and the raw thrill of starting your own clothing brand. But it's not all sequins and catwalks. The fashion industry, like any other, demands a solid plan.
Enter the production plan, an essential part of your fashion business that can make or break your clothing brand start-up. Today, I'll guide you through creating a production plan for your activewear brand, swimwear line, or any other type of clothing business you fancy. Let's dive right in, shall we?
1. Choose a Price Point and Design Based on Your Target Customer Needs
Your first step in the fashion business management world involves deciding on how many designs you’ll have and the category (eg; dresses, skirts, trousers, etc) and choosing a price point for your product and deciding how many units you want to order.
Before you put pen to paper with your designs, start by understanding your target customers' needs. Are you aiming to start a sustainable clothing brand that will appeal to the eco-conscious? Or perhaps you're launching an activewear line targeting fitness enthusiasts. Whichever direction you take, always keep your audience front and centre, because, without them, your fashion business might as well be a mannequin in an empty shop.
Design products specifically for your target customer, their style, fit and quality preferences.
2. Get into the Nitty-Gritty of Your Design
Next up, start adding the details to your design that will determine its quality. Decide on the fabrics, construction methods, and features you'll use. Will your swimwear line feature high-quality, chlorine-resistant fabric? Is your activewear brand going to flaunt moisture-wicking material? Get specific here, folks!
Struggling with this? Don't fret! Join my free Masterclass, 'How to Get Your Ideas Produced', where you can learn more about the details you need to provide the factory with, in order to get the products you’ve created made. Click here to register free.
3. Get Your Tech Packs Created
Once you've fine-tuned your design, it's time to make your tech packs. Think of tech packs as your design's blueprint, it contains everything the factory needs to know in order to make the product to your expectations. They include everything from a technical drawing, construction notes, grade rules, tolerance and more. Essentially, they're a must-have for any fashion brand to ensure your design is ready to be brought to life. Click here for a free blog post on tech packs.
4. Search for a Factory
Next, it's time to search for factories based on the MOQ (minimum order quantity) you want to order, the equipment required for your products, and the factory capabilities. Finding a factory is very much like matchmaking. Referring to directories or recommendations from others aren’t usually helpful, unless they are making the same products and have a similar price point and quantity. You need to find someone who has exactly what you’re looking for.
As a small brand, you’ll often find that factories aren’t able to work with you, as they have a high minimum order quantity. Essentially, the more units of a product you can order, the more options that are available to you. That said, don’t order more than you feel comfortable with – if you don’t meet the requirements for working with a factory, you can always try another production option.
5. Get Quotes and Negotiate with Factories
Entering the realm of quotes and negotiations can be a bit like stepping onto the set of Dragon's Den, but it's an essential part of your fashion business management plan. So, how do you go about it?
First things first, request quotes from multiple factories. Each factory will have its own price structure, depending on their capabilities, location, and specialities. Remember, you're not just shopping around for the best price, but also the best quality and service. You wouldn't buy a dress that's cheap but two sizes too small, would you? The same principle applies here.
Take into account the factory's competency, their communication, and their willingness to work with your MOQ. Be meticulous in your comparison, just like you'd be when perfecting your fashion designs.
Always negotiate! It’s an important part of the process and something that you need to get comfortable with.
6. Create a Critical Path
Finally, it's time to create a critical path to manage each aspect of the production. This is a spreadsheet that includes dates for everything from sourcing materials, approving lab dips, receiving samples, fitting samples, and more. It's a bit like being a conductor in an orchestra; every little detail goes into creating the symphony that is your clothing line. Want to learn more about critical paths? Join my free masterclass to understand this vital tool for your clothing business.
And there you have it, folks! A step-by-step guide to creating a production plan for your clothing business. Remember, starting a fashion brand is a journey, one with its fair share of stitches and seams, but with the right production plan, you'll be strutting your stuff on the fashion business runway in no time.
Whether you're starting an activewear line or launching a sustainable fashion brand, having a solid production plan is crucial. It's the blueprint for your fashion business management, laying the groundwork for your success. So, roll up your sleeves and get your fashion business off the catwalk and into customers' wardrobes!
If you want to learn more about producing your fashion line, click here to register free for my free Masterclass ‘How to Get Your Fashion Ideas Produced’, where I’ll share common mistakes new brands make and how you can avoid them. See you in the video!
Creating a Fashion Trend Board: A Guide for Fashion Designers
Want to create your own moodboard to help with the fashion design process? Here’s some top tips….
One question I often get asked is about the sources of my design inspiration. And honestly, the answers vary depending on the fashion market segment I'm designing for. If it's the fast-paced world of fast fashion, the starting points tend to be trend reports and designer fashion. Whereas for designer brands, the inspiration tends to be from non-fashion sources.
In this post, let’s take a look at some of my fave tips for creating your own fashion trend board.
If you’re excited to start designing and want to learn how to design fashion products from scratch, even with zero experience or drawing skills, join The Fashion Design Challenge. You’ll get tutorials, links for free software, templates and more to help you create profitable fashion designs. Click here to learn more >>>>
1. Finding Inspiration {as a commercial fashion brand}
For commercial brands (ie, not designer brands, but those selling to the mass market), the inspiration often comes from best-selling items from designer brands with a similar aesthetic. The key is to develop these ideas to match your style and your customers' preferences. For instance, if a lot of designers are producing large, bold-coloured ruffle skirts, you might adapt the concept of ruffle skirts to suit your brand, but of course tailoring it to your brands uniqueness. We NEVER want to copy another brand closely.
For a more practical (and usually, cost saving) approach, you update some of your previous bestsellers to introduce a bit of freshness for the upcoming season. By updating designs, patterns, or introducing new color palettes to these bestsellers, you can effectively bring a sense of freshness to your collection without the need for starting from scratch. Therefore, you might want to include some of your past bestsellers on your moodboard as a reminder of what your customer loves.
2. Cultivating Originality {as a designer brand}
Designing high-fashion items that stand out in the crowd demands an out-of-the-box thinking approach, often requiring us to diverge from typical conventions. One such unconventional yet effective practice involves creating a mood board without any fashion items. At first, this may seem counterintuitive - after all, you are designing clothing - but there's a solid reasoning behind this technique. The premise lies in the belief that existing fashion items, when used as references, could inadvertently restrict your creativity. They might subconsciously guide your designs towards prevailing styles and trends, thereby limiting the scope of true innovation.
Instead, by removing clothing from the inspiration palette altogether, you're left with a blank canvas that challenges you to push the boundaries of your creative capacity. Designers often turn to elements unrelated to fashion, such as nature or art, for their inspirations. This approach allows for an infusion of fresh, innovative ideas into the design process, translating into creations that are truly unique and forward-thinking.
For instance, in the development of my latest design ideas (below), I used the assistance of AI and took references from the realms of space travel and futuristic cities. This approach unleashed a wave of avant-garde design concepts, unconfined by the standard fashion items.
3. Creating a Mood Board
The question now is, "What do I include on my mood boards if not fashion items?" The answer is simple: whatever inspires you. It could be travel, art, architecture, or even rock formations (I literally did a collection based on this in 2010!). Inspiration has no boundaries. A clear colour palette is a vital component of your mood board. This palette will guide your fabric choices, prints, and promotional materials. A 'colour standard' is also essential, which could be a Pantone code or a fabric swatch, ensuring your items match perfectly.
If you want to follow trends, there are many publications and websites out there which you can use. WGSN is the one I most commonly see being used by commercial fashion brands, but it is expensive, so you might want to look at cheaper alternatives and only buy category specific publications. Or for a free option, Pinterest can be a great place to start.
In The Fashion Design Challenge, there’s training on how to identify trends for free. Plus you’ll get my template for creating a moodboard online with easy to use free graphic design software.
You don’t have to create a digital moodboard or something fancy. The purpose of this is to inspire YOU, so if you prefer cutting pictures out of magazines old school style - go for it!
4. The Process of Assembling a Trend Board
The process begins with primary research, which involves capturing photos of inspiring elements, ideally yourself going out IRL! Then comes secondary research, looking for related ideas in books, magazines or online and conducting trend research. This process often leads to one 'iconic' image that summarises the collection effectively. But it doesn’t have to, it could be a collection of images.
Pinterest is an amazing resource for gathering images, creating collections and essentially creating a huge moodboard. I’ll usually create a board on Pinterest with some ideas and then choose the best images to take over to Canva and create my final moodboard with.
5. Utilising Your Mood Board
Having a completed mood board can greatly simplify the design process, providing a tangible reference point that can guide you from start to finish. It forms a visual palette, an amalgamation of your creative vision which assists in making key decisions. For instance, when it comes to approving colours for your project, instead of trying to recall an abstract concept or idea, you can simply refer back to the mood board.
Creating your mood board is not just about communicating your ideas but also about fostering cohesion within your collection. It plays a critical role in ensuring the aesthetic and thematic direction remains consistent and creates a fashion range that will look great when photographed, sold and worn together. You can share the moodboard with others that you work with and by providing a common reference point, it minimises misunderstandings and encourages a unified approach towards achieving the project goals.
Creating a mood board is one of the most enjoyable and creative aspects of running a fashion business. If you're looking to take your mood board creations from the drawing board to reality, I invite you to join my free masterclass 'How to Get Your Fashion Ideas Produced'. This masterclass will equip you with the skills to transform your mood boards into a real-life collection. Click here to join the masterclass and start bringing your fashion ideas to life!
Top 5 Fashion Marketing Tips to Attract Loyal Customers
Want to get new customers coming to your fashion brand? Check out these 5 tips for success…..
In today’s fashion industry, so many apparel brands pop up every day and consumers are spoilt for choice. The problem then becomes how to market your fashion brand to attract loyal customers.
In this post, I share a few of my favourite tips for fashion marketing that will attract customers to your brand and keep them coming back.
These tips are perfect for any brand, whether you’re an established fashion business or a new fashion entrepreneur. You can also pull most of these tips off regardless of your marketing budget.
Here’s a deeper look at how to attract loyal customers to your fashion business:
5 Tips For Attracting Loyal Customers To Your Fashion Brand
Most new fashion entrepreneurs say they struggle with getting customers virtually. Either attracting new website visitors, converting them into customers, or acquiring new customers through social media platforms.
These tips ought to be helpful to newbie fashion business owners.
1. Focus On Your Customers’ Needs
You’ll need to think deeply about your customers when marketing your brand.
Making sales and attracting loyal customers has a lot more to do with psychology than we think. You’ll need to tap into their emotions and make a connection with them.
It’s therefore crucial that you know who your customers are, or will be if you’re just starting out. Then, learn their needs, and when you finally get to promoting your brand, tell your customers what you intend to do for them.
Here are points you can consider:
● How will your product help them? Be clear on the benefits your product has on your customers when marketing if you want to attract more of them.
● Avoid overpromoting your business and let the quality of your products earn you more customers. Research shows that 65% of users in the US and UK do not trust advertisements as much as they trust social proof.
● Consider other interests your customers may have that are related to your clothing line and create blog posts, videos, podcasts, and other content that will add value to them.
People are much more inclined to click on something that provides a solution to a problem they've been having. For instance, if you’re selling activewear apparel, you can create other fitness-related content such as nutrition for working out, or workout routines —something your customers would find useful.
If you’re not sure what information you’ll need to gather about your audience, this post can help.
2. Use Targeted Marketing Tactics
Marketing options are vast, both paid and unpaid, including your website, emails, and social media platforms. While you can try a little bit of each, it’s not always an effective way to attract loyal customers.
For instance, if social media marketing is not working for your brand, perhaps it’s time to explore more targeted marketing tactics such as email and SMS marketing. Similarly, if social media marketing works, you can choose the best-performing platforms and prioritise them.
I advise fashion brands to choose at least two marketing methods for a start and maximise them. Some effective marketing ideas include;
● Optimizing your website SEO to appear in more organic searches
● Use the Pinterest search engine/social media platform: a minimally utilised marketing tool.
● Referral marketing. This is especially effective for building loyalty among your customers since people trust people they already know.
● Posting guest blogs on other websites
● Brand partnerships and influencer marketing
● Email and SMS marketing
● Pitching to the press and being featured (one of my favourite marketing methods - it’s free and gives your brand credibility)
● Event marketing, both online and offline.
● Social media and website paid advertising
Social media is the most familiar method for most fashion brands, so you’ve probably tried it.
However, if you’ve not had success with it, you can always try The Fashion Sales Kit, which has 90 days and beyond of content ideas for your brand.
3. Monitor Your Customers’ Buying Journey
To attract loyal customers, you’ll need to be a part of their buying journey, right from when they get introduced to your fashion brand until they become repeat customers.
For this, you’ll need to keep track of your marketing data, and carefully guide your customers down your sales funnel. The early stages of promotion are the most difficult as customers need to interact with your brand multiple times before making a purchase.
Therefore, with platforms such as social media, you’ll need to put more effort toward attracting an audience, getting them interested in your brand, and consequently turning them into loyal customers.
Statistics have it that most of your followers won’t see your posts online due to social media algorithms. I have specific steps I follow for this process, which I call the A.C.E.S method.
Data and algorithms can sound scary, but actually they can be really simple when you know what to look for! If you want to learn more about these and the A.C.E.S method, you can click here for The Fashion Marketing Course which teaches all this and more.
The best thing about this method is it helps you build a community of ‘raving fans’; a concept created by Ken Blanchard. This refers to when customers love a brand so much, they can’t stop telling people about it.
4. Automation Marketing
So many affordable marketing tools exist out there that can automate some of your repetitive marketing efforts.
Take email and social media marketing for example. You could take a vacation and be away from your computer but still, have your fashion business gain more customers.
With automated email triggers, personalisation, and audience segmentation, your subscribers can receive periodic promotional emails from you automatically and place orders on your site without you lifting a finger. That’s the power of automation.
Automation ensures consistency in your interactions with your customers, keeping your fashion business and brand name in their minds. Despite the competition that exists in the fashion industry, you’d still be able to turn your brand into a fashion powerhouse with the right marketing combination.
5. Offer Financial Incentives
This may be a short-term way to attract customers, but it helps introduce new buyers to your business, making them feel like a part of your fashion community.
Everyone loves a good incentive, and you can structure it in any way that fits customers, regardless of their place in their buying journey. Discounts, coupons, free shipping, you name it.
For instance, you can reward repeat customers with discounts to build loyalty, or you could offer free shipping for first-time customers as a welcome gift and to encourage them to try the brand for the first time.
A word of warning here though – don’t be discounting all the time! It can lead to problems down the road and make it difficult for you to sell at full price.
Ready To Up Your Marketing Game?
Building a loyal customer base around any fashion brand can be daunting. And as discussed, it may also sound like a lot of work. Well, it is—attracting customers to your fashion brand takes work.
However, when you eventually built yourself a loyal customer base and have repeat customers, chances are you’ll keep them as long as your brand exists. Because once customers become loyal to your brand, most remain loyal for years and sometimes even for life.
If you’re ready to uplevel your marketing, I invite you to check out The Fashion Marketing Course and see how my step-by-step training can help your brand.
How to Scale Your Clothing Brand in 2023: Top Three Tips
Top Three Tips on How To Grow Your Fashion Brand in 2023……
New fashion entrepreneurs, here’s another one for you!
If you’ve already launched your business and you’re looking for a push, read on to find my top three tips to grow your fashion brand in 2023.
Top 3 Strategies To Grow Your Fashion Brand
A large volume of the information you find out there will recommend textbook tips on how to grow your fashion brand. While this information may be helpful, it may not work for your specific needs.
That’s why I wrote this post. To give you practical fashion business advice, one fashion designer to another.
Here are a few proven ways you can grow your clothing brand in 2023:
1. Numbers are sexy!
Yes, you read that right; numbers & data. You must learn how to love them if you want to grow your fashion brand. I know it sounds dull and okay, maybe not so “fashionable”, but knowing and understanding your numbers will make a world of difference.
Here’s the good news, to get you motivated.
Almost all the data you need is readily available and free. You just need to dig a little, sift through and take the time to read and analyse. When you do, you’ll find that these numbers are very telling, and the stories they tell can make or break your business!
Here’s what your data will tell you:
● Which products or styles are fast-moving and which ones are taking their time on your shelves
● Which promotions gave your brand the most traction and which ones did not
● If your email marketing messages are getting your customers to click on that buy button
● The engagement rate of your social media community (aka, how much people care about what you’re doing!)
Sometimes, data will also explain something that you do not quite understand.
For instance, there might be a style that you absolutely love but is not selling. Or a marketing channel you're convinced is the right choice, but your customers are simply not engaging with you there.
In a nutshell, understanding your numbers points you in the right direction. As an entrepreneur, that knowledge will help you make more intelligent choices regarding where to take your brand next - instead of simply "winging it " based on your gut feel.
Numbers not your thing? You’re not alone! This is something that I help clients with all the time! Click here to get in touch and find out how.
2. Do NOT neglect your website
Great product, check. Curated visual content, check. Engaging social media strategy, check. All good, but hey, don’t stop there.
Do not make the mistake of underestimating the power of your website. I see a lot of entrepreneurs who forget that the most important purpose of a website is to sell. With that in mind, the question is: how do you convert your website visitors to actual buyers?
Here’s how:
● Design your site for selling: Your products should be front and center, the photographs should be crisp and clear and all the information should be readily available.
Make it visually appealing. Use other colourways, a sizing chart, and maybe even recommended pairings. The key is to put yourself in a buyer’s shoes and think about the information they would want to see.
● Make the buyer’s experience easy and enjoyable: Make sure your call-to-action buttons are visible and functional.
Also, payment gateways should be simple, with no complicated forms to fill up. And be transparent about shipping costs. You know how frustrating it is when there are surprises or hidden costs right after you check out.
Remember that a beautiful website is nice, but a customer-friendly website will make the visitors click on buy.
3. Automate it
As a business owner, I know firsthand that managing time and juggling multiple tasks is an everyday thing. Automation helps streamline my schedule and organise tasks effectively. It gives me space to focus on the more strategic and critical responsibilities of a leader.
You can do it too. If it seems too complicated, take small steps until you build a whole automated system.
For example, instead of creating and posting social media content daily that takes up maybe an hour of your time, why not dedicate 2-3 hours a month to planning and developing your social feed for the next week?
Then take another 2-3 hours to create your email marketing messages too. After that, automate everything and move on to your next tasks. Maybe do a factory visit, meet a new supplier, or a potential collaborator.
Another thing that I appreciate the most about automation is it delivers my brand message on time when I schedule it to. That is critical for me or any global brand, for that matter.
With automation, you can work around the time differences and make your clients feel you are present and responsive, no matter where they are in the world. And that kind of message is always good for your brand, don't you agree?
Ready To Take Your Fashion Brand To the Next Level?
Everything you need to know is in your data. Therefore, tracking your performance should be top of the list if you want to grow your fashion brand.
That said, you’ll need to put extra effort into your product pages to make sure your customers have the best experience with your website. Automation will save you lots of time with repetitive tasks.
Hopefully, these three tips help you take your clothing business into bigger markets.
Liked what you’ve read and want more? Let’s get together and talk about taking your business further, click here to get in touch and find out about how we can work together.
Starting a Fashion Brand in 2023: 4 Tips for New Entrepreneurs
4 Quick and Insightful Tips For Starting Your Fashion Brand in 2023……
Looking to start a fashion brand in 2023? You’re in the right place! Having been there myself, I can tell you that fashion is a fun industry to work in, and starting your clothing brand can be a rewarding career.
But don’t take my word for it. Statistics have it that the global fashion apparel industry raked in $1.53 trillion in revenue in 2022, and is projected to increase to $2 trillion by 2027. This is how lucrative the apparel market is.
So if you’re thinking of starting your fashion brand in 2023, I couldn’t be more excited for you.
But starting a fashion brand isn’t without its challenges - especially if you’re doing it alone. But it can be done, even without industry experience.
Prefer to learn in video form? Click here to register free for my Fashion Startup Masterclass.
Top 4 Tips To Start Your Fashion Brand
When I started my first fashion business in 2010, I ran into some roadblocks. It took me a long time to get traction and see success. I learnt the hard way how to nail it and get my business out there and stocked in shops around the world. It wasn’t easy getting my first international sales; it took me a long time
Sound disheartening? Don’t worry, you’re here to steal my strategies so you won’t have to do it the hard way.
From that experience, I developed this strategy so that my subsequent businesses and people like yourself, who are brand new, can fast-track success and avoid a lot of the mistakes that I made the first time around.
Here are my 4 top tips for launching a fashion brand for 2023. Are you ready? Let’s get into it.
1. Be specific about who you are designing products for
Starting a fashion brand means you’ll need to consider who exactly you’re designing the product for. Don't just say “I want to start a swim brand”. Fine, that can be a starting point. However, there are so many swimwear brands out there and you need to figure out who specifically is going to buy your swimwear.
Some questions you could ask yourself include:
● Is it swimwear for beach parties?
● Is it swimwear for performance swimmers?
● Is it swimwear to top up your tan in Ibiza?
● Who exactly is buying your swimwear and why?
Dive into this and focus on it because it's going to make most aspects of your business so much easier, including your decision-making process, and most importantly your sales and marketing. So please don't skip this step! I know it's tempting.
It may not be the most exciting thing to start with, but it's so valuable to the success of your fashion brand. Here’s how I know.
I made that mistake the first time around when I started my fashion brand. When I fixed it and got specific, my business and sales quickly turned around. Instead of struggling to try to sell to everyone, I became known for something, not only by customers but also by boutiques and magazines that featured me.
Spend some time on this and you’ll see how defining your niche is a strong foundation for the rest of your business. Trust me when I say it's going to make your decision-making so much easier!
2. Think about your pricing
Don't just rely on factory costs to dictate your pricing when starting a fashion brand. You want to make sure that the price at the end is something your customers can afford.
So you need to ask yourself:
● Is my fashion brand targeting buyers on a budget?
● Are my prices middle-of-the-road, or
● Am I a high-end designer?
Where do you want to fall within this whole pricing thing?
Think about that and then find a suitable supplier. If you're selling a budget-friendly product, you're going to have a factory that is known for speed and perhaps not so much for high quality.
If you go with luxury pricing, you're going to need a factory that produces top-quality work, spends a lot of time on production, and invests a lot of care, detail, and attention into their products. So make sure that the factory is aligned with the final product and pricing that you're aiming for.
There's no “one factory fits all” type solution. It would be difficult to recommend a factory to someone just knowing that they make swimwear. You’ll need to think deeply about what you want from a factory before you can start looking for one.
Finding a factory and pricing are two of the biggest concerns new fashion entrepreneurs have when starting a brand; that’s why I created my step-by step guide to navigating this process (and actually, the whole process from zero to launch and sales!) in The Fashion Startup Online Course.
3. Be actively involved in managing the factory
When you’re starting your clothing brand, you can’t magically expect your factory to make everything perfectly. It’s your responsibility to actively manage your factory.
That starts with communicating your products in detail. When I say detail, I mean... detail. Take the fabric for example.You’ll need to be specific about every detail, down to the percentages of the fibers, what stitch details are going to be used to construct it and how heavy it is.
When you hear “horror stories” of manufacturing from fashion brand owners, they’re mostly due to a communication breakdown.
For instance, if someone just tells a factory: “make me a triangle bikini” it may be confusing since there are so many triangle bikinis out there. They may end up making one you didn’t want.
So you’ll have to specify, for instance, in this case, which kind of triangle bikini you want, which colour, and every other little detail that may seem obvious.
Plus, don’t forget about the sizing too – there’s no such thing as a standard size!
All these different details matter and make a world of difference when working with your factory, so make sure you're being hyper-specific.
4. Make sure you stay on top of every detail
Starting a clothing brand also means staying on top of every detail. This means that you’ll need to track every progress and ask questions whenever necessary. For instance, how the production is going, when things are going to be delivered, and so on.
Make sure you keep checking in. This shouldn't be something you hand over to the factory and you leave them to their own devices. That's how things go badly wrong.
I realised this later than I should, when I was producing products for my brand. Factories aren't always working with our best interests in mind. They work with numerous brands and are often just looking to tick “complete” on their production flow. They just want to make sure that it's finished so they can get paid.
There's only a handful of honest factories out there, and if you're one of them reading this, I'm sorry, but this is often the case. They don't care about the nitty-gritty or your customers — at least not as much as you do.
They will not worry about every little detail, especially if you, the business owner, aren't as worried either. Which makes it your duty to stay on top of it all.
Time to take a leap and start your fashion brand
I know thinking about all the work behind starting a fashion brand can sound a bit scary or out of your reach, but I promise it’s not. You just need to take things step-by-step. If you'd like to learn more about how to start a fashion brand in 2023, I'd love to invite you to join me in my free masterclass.
If you've been following me for a while, you'll know that I've had similar masterclasses in the past. This one's revamped for 2023 so that we can make sure we're doing what's currently working in the industry.
It’s my mission to make your fashion journey easy, so I hope to see you launching a successful fashion brand next year! Hope to see you in the free class! Click here to register for free.
5 Sustainable Fashion Swaps for Fashion Brands
In this video I share 5 swaps that you can make in your fashion business, to make it more sustainable >>>
Trying to make your fashion brand more sustainable? Great! In this video I'm sharing 5 tips for making your clothing business more sustainable and spoiler alert….none of the tips related to your product! Learn what they are in this video.
🎉 FREE Masterclass 🎉 How to Start A Sustainable Fashion Brand. Register for free here;
➡️➡️➡️ https://thefashionbusinesscoachlearn.com/sustainable-masterclass-register
Keen to get some one-on-one help to understand how you can launch and scale your fashion brand successfully? Get in touch here;
https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/contact
Thanks for watching!
I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.
Influencer Marketing and PR for Fashion Businesses
In this video I share how you can promote your fashion brand using influencer marketing and PR >>>
Want to get more exposure and visibility for your clothing business? Then PR and influencer marketing is a great option. Plus, it’s a lot easier than you think to get featured - for free!
In this behind the scenes excerpt from The Fashion Business Membership I share some tips for getting your brand featured.
✨ ✨ ✨ Want to learn more about promoting your fashion brand? Join The Fashion Marketing Course to learn my proven marketing framework to help you make more sales online;
👉 https://thefashionbusinesscoachlearn.com/fashionmarketingcourse
Thanks for watching!
I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.
Branding and Marketing Tips for Fashion Entrepreneurs Live With Kezia
Kezia is a branding and marketing expert and shared her insight on what we can do as designers to have top notch branding and make sales!….
If you're a fashion brand wanting to level up your marketing, this live is for you! Kezia is a branding and marketing expert and shared her insight on what we can do as designers to have top notch branding and make sales!
Plus, we learnt about Clubhouse and why the platform is worth checking out!
Be sure to watch the replay and check out the resources linked below.
Huge thanks to Kezia for being so generous with her knowledge!
👉 Follow Kezia on IG for great tips and content @kizkopop_
And when you’ve got your branding on point with Kezia, check out The Fashion Marketing Course, which teaches social media strategy, getting featured in the press, tracking data to improve your brand growth and more;
https://thefashionbusinesscoachlearn.com/fashionmarketingcourse
Stay tuned for our next Discover LIVE!
Each month I want to help you discover brands, products, experts, and content that helps YOU! Our goal is for you to DISCOVER practical tips, inspiration, and help you on your journey in the fashion business.
Got an idea for our next guest? Feel free to comment with your ideas!
Thanks for watching!
I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.
How to Launch a Fashion Brand in 2022
If you want to launch a fashion business in 2022, this video is for you!
Wanting to launch a fashion business in 2022? If so, I'd love to show you my three top tips for starting a fashion brand successfully. Watch the video to see what they are!
✨ ✨ ✨ Register for my new for 2022 Masterclass 'How to Get Your Fashion Designs Produced Without Wasting Your Time and Money' here;✨ ✨ ✨
https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/freemasterclassinfo
Thanks for watching!
Start Your Fashion Brand in 2022
If you want to start your own fashion brand in 2022 but aren’t sure where to begin, then this blog post is for you….
So, you want to start a fashion brand in 2022? I don't blame you! It's such a fun industry to work in and starting your own clothing brand is such a rewarding career.
If you’re thinking of starting your own fashion brand in 2022, I couldn’t be more excited than you are right now. You’re in the right place to learn how to be a fashion entrepreneur! Starting a brand isn’t without it’s challenges - especially if you’re going it alone, but it can be done, even without industry experience. When I started my first fashion business in 2010, man, I ran into some roadblocks! It took me a long time to get traction and see success and I learned the hard way how to nail it and get my business out there and stocked in shops around the world. It wasn’t easy getting my first international sales. Phew, it took me a long time, but don’t worry, you’re here to steal my strategies.
I learnt so much that I developed this strategy so that for my subsequent businesses and for people like yourself, who are brand new, can fast-track success and avoid a lot of the mistakes that I made the first time around.
So, in this post, I'm sharing my 5 top tips for launching a fashion brand for 2022. Are you ready?
Consider who you are designing a product for and be really specific here
Don't just say “I want to start a swim brand”. Fine, that can be a starting point but there are so many swimwear brands out there and you really need to figure out who specifically is going to buy your swimwear.
Is it swimwear for beach parties? Is it swimwear for performance swimmers? Is it swimwear to top up your tan in Ibiza?
Who exactly is buying your swimwear and why? Really dive into this and focus on it because honestly, it's going to make the business so much easier.Your decision making becomes so much easier when you super specific about this, but most importantly it becomes so much easier to sell your product when you've got this nailed, so please don't skip this step! I know it's tempting.
It's not the most exciting thing to start off with but it's so valuable to the success of your business. When I made that mistake the first time around and then I fixed it and got specific, I was able to see how quickly my business turned around. I was struggling before when I was trying to sell to everyone. As soon as I got really specific, it was so easy then to sell because I became known for something.
Not only by customers but also boutiques and magazines who featured me. Spend some time on this and you’ll see how defining your niche is a really strong foundation for the rest of your business. Trust me when I say it's going to make your decision making so much easier!
2. Design your product and think about your pricing
Don't just rely on factory costs to dictate your pricing. You want to make sure that the price at the end is something your customers can afford.
So you need to ask yourself: “am I budget, am I kind of middle-of-the-road, or am I a high-end designer?. Where do I want to fall within this whole pricing thing?”
Think about that and then find a supplier who aligns with that. You know, if you're selling a budget friendly product, you're going to have a factory who is known for speed and perhaps not so much high-quality.
If you go in at the luxury end, the high price point, you're going to need a factory who produces top quality work, who spends a lot of time on it, invests a lot of care, detail and attention into their products.
So make sure that the factory is aligned with the final product and pricing that you're aiming for. You need to be certain that it’s all working together well. There's not a “one factory fits all” type solution.
I can't just recommend a factory to someone just knowing that they make swimwear. You’ve really got to go deep in what you want from a factory before you can start looking for a factory.
3. In order to start your own fashion brand, you have to be actively managing the factory
When you’re starting your own clothing brand, you can’t magically expect your factory to make everything perfect. It’s your responsibility to actively manage your factory and that starts with communicating your products in detail.
And when I say detail I mean... detail, what is the fabric? It's going to be down to the percentages of the fibers and all those kinds of things. What stitch details are going to be used and how it's put together.
What's the construction? What are the measurements? You need to be giving specific information to the factory. When you hear of these kinds of “horror stories” of manufacturing, most of the time it's because of a communication breakdown. For example, someone's just said to a factory: “make me a triangle bikini” and then the factory has done that and then you're like: “not that kind of triangle bikini!”.
There's so many triangle bikinis out there. What kind do you want? What colour should it be? All these different details matter and make a world of difference when working with your factory, so make sure you're being hyper specific.
4. Starting a clothing brand from scratch means also making sure that you stay on top of every detail
Ask how the production's going. Ask them when things are going to be delivered. Make sure you keep checking in. This shouldn't be something that you just kind of hand over and then you leave them to their own devices.
That's how things go badly wrong and I realised later than I should, that when I was producing products for my brand, the factories weren't always working with our best interest in mind.
There's only a handful of honest factories out there and if you're one of them reading this, I'm sorry, but it is the case that often the factory just wants to tick complete on their production flow.
They don't really care about the nitty-gritty.They don't care about your customers like you do. They just want to make sure that it's finished and they get paid.
They're not going to be worrying about every little detail, because they're also going to think, “oh, well, this person hasn't given me specific information, they're obviously not that bothered about it. So why should I bother?”
5. Starting a clothing brand from scratch means also making sure that you stay on top of every detail
I know thinking about all the work behind starting a fashion brand can sound a bit scary or out of your reach, but I promise it’s not. You just need to take things step by step. If you'd like to learn more regarding how to start a fashion brand in 2022, I'd love to invite you to join me in my new free masterclass.
If you've been following me for a while, you'll know that I've had similar masterclasses in the past.This one's totally revamped for 2022, so that we can make sure we're doing what's currently working in the industry, because as you may know, there was a global pandemic recently and things have changed a little!
It’s my mission to make your fashion journey easy, so I hope to see you launching a successful fashion brand next year! Hope to see you in the free class! Click here to register free.
The Marketing Strategy Your Fashion Brand Needs
I’ve been working with lots of Clients on marketing strategy and in this video, I share the most effective strategies and how you can use them in your fashion business….
In this video I share the most effective marketing strategy that’s been working for my fashion brand Clients; content marketing. In the video, I’ll explain what it is and how you can use it. Watch the video to learn more >>>>
If you're curious to learn more about the Fashion Sales Kit and how it can help you to market your fashion brand without spending the entire day on social media, you can see the details here;
https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/the-fashion-sales-kit
Keen to get some one-on-one help to understand how you can launch and scale your fashion brand successfully? Get in touch here;
https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/contact
Thanks for watching!
I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.
Video Content for Fashion Brands
Video is a must have for any fashion brand in 2021. Learn how it’s so powerful and how you can make the most of it in this video……
Video content is getting increasingly important for marketing, especially for clothing brands. Video can help you to get more customers, reduce returns and even save you money. Find out how in this video.
If you're curious to learn more about the Fashion Sales Kit and how it can help you to market your fashion brand without spending the entire day on social media, you can see the details here;
https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/the-fashion-sales-kit
Keen to get some one-on-one help to understand how you can launch and scale your fashion brand successfully? Get in touch here;
https://thefashionbusinesscoach.com/contact
Thanks for watching!
I hate spam too - if you sign up to this email list, your details won't be sold or leased to anyone else. I will email you from time to time with helpful content and occasional offers, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.
Pickleball outfit inspiration……