AT LAST! Highly Effective Insiders Tips to Marketing Your Fashion Label!

"How to Develop a Successful Fashion Line and Get Paid the Mega Dollars "

Fashion Design Success Secrets

If you'd like to turn your Fashion Ideas into  a Successful
Fashion line and Get PAID Mega Dollars, then you've come to the Right Place!

Hi its Annette here again!  So you've heard my success story,  so I have put together this website to guide YOU through the process that I used to get my Fashion Line off the ground and stocked in some of the best Fashion Retail Stores and Boutiques across the globe.  I have included all the steps, resources, hints and tips that I discovered along the way....

 8 STEPS to Launching a Successful Fashion Label  and DOUBLING your Profits!!!  

1. Identify a  Profitable Niche Target Market  for your Fashion Designs.  

2.  Source a Bulk Clothing Manufacturer to make your designs.

3. Get the Attention of Retail Fashion Buyers.

4. Minimize your risk, and get  Pre- orders before Bulk Production of your designs.

5. Double sales by giving retail buyers promo materials for your line.

6. Get Free Publicity by sending clothing samples to key Fashion Editors, Stylists and Magazines.

7. Present your Label at a Recognized 'Fashion Trade Show' to get international exposure.

8. Triple your Profits by launching your own Online Store to sell your designs.

Step 1: Identify a Profitable Niche Market For Your Designs

In my advice, this is the most important step when you are first starting out.  You need to make sure that you have a hungry, fanatical crowd that will buy your designs!!  

Firstly you need to Identify  the traits of your Target Market  that will wear your Fashion Designs.  It is important to understand that not everyone is your customer.

You can use the following steps to identify your ideal target market:

1. How old is your ideal customer?

2. What is the thing that your ideal customer 'likes' and 'dislikes' about their body?

3. How much money is this target market willing to spend on an item of clothing?

4. What purpose does this target market mainly buy clothes for? ( I.e for work, or to impress the opposite sex?)

5. What size and shape is your ideal customer?

6. What stores does your target market shop at already?

7. What fashion blogs and websites does your target market visit regularly?

8. Is your ideal customer a risk taker or a more subdued purchaser?

This questions will help you identify what styles, fits and even colors and patterns will best suit your ideal target market, and you will be able to niche from there!  This info will also tell you where you should market, and what fashion buyers you should approach when you fashion line is ready!

Step 2: Find a Bulk Clothing Manufacturer that Make your Designs for a Cost Effective Price

This is the step that most fashion designers find the hardest. To find the right Clothing manufacturer you need to firstly understand the pricing structure of the Fashion Industry.

If you are going to sell to a retail store, you need to firstly establish a 'wholesale' price  and 'retail' price  for each garment.  The wholesale price is the amount that the Store Owner or Fashion Buyer 'buys' your garment/ design for from you.  The Retail price is how much the store sells the garment for to the customer.

The normal 'markup'  from wholesale price to retail price is 100%.  So if your wholesale price is $75 for a pair of jeans, the Retail price will be $150.

In other words, you get $75 for every pair of jeans that the store sells of yours.  But you have to cover the cost of making or 'manufacturing' the jean.  So this is a great starting point for finding a suitable manufacturer  for your 'Bulk Production'.

As you can imagine, if you had to physically sew each jean, and you were only getting $75.00  it proberbly wouldn't be worth your time- you just wouldn't be making any profit from it !  So this is why finding a Bulk Production manufacturer is a more effective solution to your success of your Fashion Line!

A Bulk Production Manufacturer specializes in the processes of making lots of garments at the same time, so they can offer a better price per piece.  ( provided you meet their minimum order quantity- or MOQ.)  This is a great first question to ask a prospective manufacturer-  ' what is your MOQ?'.

The price that you want to aim for to get your design made is 50% of your Wholesale Price. So for that same pair of designer Jeans,  you want to get a manufacturer who can make your jeans design for $37.50  per piece.  This allows  you  to make a profit of $37.50  per jean sold.  Now if you were to sell 200 pairs of Jeans to a chain of retail stores, ( which would be just one order for one buyer..)  you would make $7,500!!    

If you had 15 pieces in your range, and you sold 200 pieces of each piece,  you would make $112,000  for the season!!!!   Not Bad!!!  

So you can see how profitable it is to do things in Bulk Production, and sell to a chain of stores!

Step 3: Get the Attention of Fashion Retail Buyers

Here's my tip for getting 'in'  with the Fashion Buyers: Put together a professional 'Range Catalogue'!

Sounds simple enough, but so many people get it wrong!!  There are certain details and and information that you should show in a Range Catalogue to demonstrate to the buyer that you are a professional, and know what you are doing! 

Details that you MUST include in the Range Catalogue:

• Company Contact Details
• Design Inspiration with Theming boards ( so they know the influence behind the range)
• Illustrations of each of the designs in your range
• Professional photos of each of the garments in your range, displayed on a fit model
• The whole sale and Retail price of each garment
• The Delivery Date of each garment. ( I.e when the garment can be delivered into the store..)
• The different colours that the garment comes in
• The description of the fabric and particular design details of each garment or accessory
• The sizes that are available in each garment
• The size of the pack. ( Most brands sell clothing in 'packs', which is a particular number of the same item, like a minimum order.  A pack will usually offer 10 garments of that style,  in a ratio of sizing.  For example: one size 6, two size 8's, three size 10's, two size 12's and one size 14, one size 16.)  This is called the 'Pack Ratio'.
• An order Form.

Step 4: Minimize Risk and Save Money by Getting 'Pre-orders' Before Proceeding With Bulk Production Of Your Designs.

Minimize your risk of over-ordering your designs and wasting tons of money by collecting orders for your range  3-4 months in advance.  Fashion Buyers normally buy 3-6 months in advance, so this is a great way to get a solid indication of your orders before you commit to making your designs in the masses!

Present your range catalogue and samples to Fashion Buyers of Retail Stores and Boutiques.  Collect all the orders from all retail stores, and put them into a spread sheet.  Add up the total amount of orders for each style. Then check that these orders  will meet the  MOQ- Minimum Order Quantity  from your manufacturer.  If you are close to the MOQ,  then proceed with the Bulk Order.  If  you are no where near the minimum,  you need to cancel the style.  If you have only 30 orders for a Dress, when everything else in your range has an order of 200 plus,  this is a clear indication that the style is not a 'winner'  and that it  wont sell .  You should cancel the style, and not proceed to bulk production, no matter how much you personally love the design!

Fashion Buyers are highly trained to know what their customers will and wont buy.  They know what sells, and what doesnt.  So take it from the buyer:  if there is a piece in your line that the majority of the buyers wont buy,  you need to find out why.  ( It is too expensive,  the wrong cut, too risque, an ugly print, or just the wrong styling for the customer?)  Try not to take this too personally.  Fashion is business.   Yo can use the valuable feedback to make your next range even better, and more profitable.

Step 5: Double Your Sales By Giving Retail Buyers Promo Materials for Your Line

You can  make loads of money and sell double the amount of your designs by providing free Point of Sale materials.   The Buyer will LOVE you for it!  Point of Sale Materials  can include a small mini-brochure or catalogue of photos of your range,  styling tips, Large posters that can be displayed in the store, and any other marketing promotions that will catch the eye of the customer, and entice them to buy your design.  You could even provide some 'props'  that help reflect the theme or   design inspiration of your collection, that can be used in a window display,  or around the store to help the buyer 'merchandise'.  

Photographs always help a garment sell, as the customer can easily see what the design looks like on, even though it may not look good on the hanger.

It's a wise idea to invest in doing a great quality professional photo-shoot of your designs, before the range hits stores. Garments that are photographed well, and displayed in  poster or point of sale in store usually sell 5-10 times more  volume than a garment that isn't photographed!!  So get snapping!

Step 6: Get Free Publicity By Sending Samples to Strategic Fashion Editors, Stylists and Magazines

Now a great way to build your brand exposure and get loads of sales for your designs  is to get as much FREE PUBLICITY as possible .  You can do this by putting together a killer press release, and sending samples of your designs ( together with chocolates) to strategic fashion editors of the best fashion magazines! ( This is my secret  tip!!) 

You can also send samples to Fashion Stylists, in hope that they will use it in the next Fashion Shoot,  or recommend it to to their celebrity clients. 

Again, when sending Fashion samples of your range, also send the professional photographs of it, in hard copy and on a CD or USB stick.  The idea is to make it as easy as possible for the editor to pick up your label to write about, as  you have done all the hard work for them, and supplied them with a high quality image ready to go!

My Hot tip for writing a KIller Press Release  is you need to make sure that you put a really great 'spin'  on your design, provide a compelling story  or 'hook'. The media  gets hundreds of press releases  each day,  so you need to stand out from the crowd, and offer something different!

Step 7: Present your Line at a recognised 'Fashion Trade Show' to Get Picked up by an International Fashion Buyer

Increase your chances of getting picked up by an overseas fashion buyer  by showcasing or taking out a 'stall' at some of the well known and recognized  'Fashion Trade Shows.'   This is the easiest way to get international exposure and your brand stocked in an exclusive  store overseas.  Many international buyers attend trade shows looking for the 'next big thing' and something different and unique to what they have already in their stores.

Every boutique owner likes to have a label that no-one else has in their region, as it sets them apart. For this reason they attend Fashion Trade Shows all over the globe looking for something new and fresh.

There are many Trade Shows that you can exhibit  at. Here are some:

• Preview
• Fashion Exposed
• Magic
• Milano Moda Uomo
• Pret-a- Porter Paris
• Capsule- Paris
• Bread and Butter
• The Train New York
• London Fashion Week
• Mercedes Fashion Week

Step 8: Tripple Your Sales and Profit by Launching a On-line Store and Website.

So this is my hottest and newest  Tip that I can give you!  You can almost tripple the amount of profit that you get from each  of your designs by starting your own Online Store. ( And its not as hard as you may think!!)

Remember back to the Retail pricing for the pair of jeans....... before, when you were selling a pair of your designer jeans for $150 per sale,  you were only really making $37.50 profit.  This was because $75 of your sale was going to the retail buyer or store owner.

Now if you sell your designs online, from you own Fashion Store Online,  you can make triple the amount- $75 plus $37.50! So you now are making $112.50 profit for every pair of jeans that you sell!!

Pretty cool?!  These days it can be quite simple and easy to start your own online store. You don't need to spend Thousands.

The best and most cost effective way to set up a website with a store component is to use a 'word press' platform. Word-press allows you to easily build a website and modify it yourself.  There are many different themes to choose from, and  most are free, or a small fee.

Once you have a 'wordpress'  based  website,  you can attach a 'plugin' that adds a shopping cart to the site.  From here you can easily add photos of your designs, and product descriptions.

Set-up a paypal account  to collect the money, and offer easy credit card payments for your customers.  And Voilla!  Your own 'On-line' Fashion Boutique!!

You can promote your website and Fashion Boutique by a host of different ways, you can even use Facebook to advertise directly to your niche market!!

And remember the first exercise-  where does your target customer hand out, and what are their favorite websites and blogs?  Well, use that information to advertise your online store there!

The Easy Way To Do it

If you still seem a bit lost in what to do to  launch your own  successful fashion label  or if you simply just want a fast-track way to becoming a successful fashion designer or fashion business owner, you can joining our fashion mentoring membership program. 

For just $49 per month you get access to our fashion success membership program to guide you in detail every step of the way. Plus you get access to us via email to answer your questions, make suggestions, and point you in the right direction. To find out more about what the mentoring program covers, please click here.

Once you understand how to market yourself and your Designs successfully - your business will take off!

What I will do is share the most critical information for helping you to market your fashion designs in a practicle way that achieves results.

Good luck!

While I am happy to receive email queries, I don't guarantee that we will get back to you immediately. However if you decide to join our mentoring program you get access to me and the team of experts who support us. We look forward to helping you to create your own successful fashion design label or get that killer design job that you have always wanted.

Kind regards

Annette Corrie