Keys to Starting Your Own Clothing Company
By Bradley Johnson
Starting your own private label clothing company is not as difficult as you may think.
I assure you that the founding members of Volcom, Paul Frank, Hurley and Von Dutch, are not mad geniuses of fashion. You can duplicate their rise to brand stardom provided that you have the following:
- A decent logo
- Creative concepts and graphics (design talent)
- A unique, blank apparel supplier
- A decent screen printer
- A Line Sheet to show potential buyers
- Sales and promotional talent
Which do you think is most important? It’s obviously design talent you say? You must be joking. Have you stepped outside your house recently? Have you seen Von Dutch clothing? Crayon-wielding chimpanzees produce better designs. Furthermore, I imagine the monkeys are more sanitary, but I digress.
“Sales and promotional talent” is clearly the most important element. You can create an entire line of fashion forward, beautiful clothing, but if you can’t pitch it, no one will ever see it (excluding your mom of course). So, unless you want a closet full of your fantastic designs, ask yourself the following two questions:
Can I sell?
In other words… can you hit the pavement with your line sheet and walk into every boutique clothing store you can find? Then will you harass the hell out of retail clothing store buyers so that they’ll try to squeeze in 5 minutes of time for me at Magic ‘07 (clothing convention)?
Will you be able to make a professional presentation to Nordstrom buyer?
Can I promote?
Do you have any creative viral or guerilla marketing ideas to get your label kickstarted?
If the answer to both of these questions is “No,” you better get some help. Namely, find someone passionate for fashion who also happens to be ridiculously outgoing, great on the phone and aggressive as hell. Lastly, (and superficially), it would help if your sales rep is hot.
I know, how horrible. That being said, let me welcome you to the shallow end of the pool (the fashion world).
Good luck with your label!
Bradley Johnson writes for Blankstyle.
