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.
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