Hello. My Name is Amber, and I am Co-Owner of Baby Fabulous - a trend setting infant and toddler clothing and accessories line. When I first decided to start Baby Fabulous, I had no background in the apparel, merchandising, or fashion industry. I have a background in writing.
So, embarking on the process of starting a clothing line has been no easy task. I've had to learn everything from the ground up, and I've been lucky enough to have 150% support from my husband, who is our graphics and web guy.
I'm still on the journey and because I found it so hard to find out information along the way, I'm creating this lens to share the useful resources I've found.
From Idea to Finished Garment
Here's all the steps it takes to get your ideas out of your head and into production.
2. Craft your theme & draw rough sketches of your design.
3. Create a spec sheet, complete with finished dimensions, fabrics to be used, and technical (flat) sketch of the design.
4. Hand the spec sheet over to the pattern maker. This should indicate to you that you'll need a pattern maker.
5. Once the pattern has been received, cut and sew a prototype out of a cheap muslin. Make sure you select a muslin with a weight as similar as possible to the weight of the real fabric to be used.
6. Hold a fit testing and try the prototype on your model. Make notes of all adjustements, make adjustments to the spec sheet and tech sketch as necessary. Give your revisions to the pattern maker.
7. Repeat steps 4 & 5 until you are completely satisfied with the garment.
8. Have the sewing contractor create your salesman samples - this will give you just what you need to go to market, as well as give the sewing the contractor a dry run prior to placing a production order.
9. Take your salesman samples "to market". Start hitting the pavement and getting the word out. Take orders and don't be afraid to scrap a design that isn't selling well.
10. Place your fabric orders as soon as you can (we will cover fabric testing in a more detailed lens soon!!).
11. Place your production orders and verify the quality is maintained throughout the production cycle.
New The SuperStore
Digital Fashion Photography
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Essential Fashion Illustration
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Fashion Retail
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Fashion Illustration for Designers
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Baby Fabulous Flickr PhotoStream
Some pics from Baby Fabulous happenings
DeniseRichards_Amber...
Scott_Baio
ElizabethRohm
AliLandry2
Kim_porter_P_Diddys_...
KimPorter_family
Photo 61
Mr.Big_Baby_Fabulous
Dave_Kushner
NicoleTubioli
First, Some Resources & Cool Sites
If you're learning fashion design, these sites have some good resources
- FashionDex Online
- You can find books and resources on this site for every possible phase of the fashion design cycle.
- Clothing & Apparel Industry Terms and Definitions
- Here's a great free resource with definitions for clothing, fashion, and textile terms. Click on a term in the list or click on any of the links on the right for more resources.
- Starting a Kids Clothing Line & Baby Boutique
- This is the location of our current "starting a clothing line and apparel manufacturing business" blog. I do everything I can to share my daily experiences and the reality-as-I-know-it of starting your own clothing line. I share the pains and joys of the design process as much as I can. I really want to reach out and help others, but hope others will reach back and help me too!!
- Baby Fabulous
- This is it - our online store for our clothing label, Baby Fabulous. We offer items by other children's products manufacturer's so that we can offer a greater variety of products on our store, especially when we're new and need a wider variety of products than we can produce on our own.
- James Girone resource site
- This site is dedicated to manufacturers of children's products. It is an invaluable resource providing trend tips, articles on the current market conditions, current press releases, a manufacturer's directory, and more.
- Fashion-Incubator: Best Fashion Design Industry Blog
- This blog has valuable tips and industry insights; updated almost daily. Maintained by Kathleen Fasanella, author of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing. Blog often has guest contributors who provide new perspectives on various aspects of the industry.
Our Startup Kids Line - Starting a fashion line - blog
This is the blog where I share the daily experiences of starting our own clothing line. I cover everything from design schedules to sales and marketing.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byBooks that Motive, Teach, and Inspire
These books are a must read!
The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing
This book was the first one I found to offer some real life advice on starting your own clothing line. I didn't even know you need design numbers. I highly recommend this book for anyone striking out on their own.
Amazon Price: (as of 07/26/2008)
Thinking Body, Dancing Mind: Taosports for Extraordinary Performance in Athletics, Business, and Life
This is hands down the book I recommend the most to people - no matter where you are in life, this book will have something that inspires, motivates, or helps you change your path. Get this book and get a copy for everyone you love.
Amazon Price: $12.24 (as of 07/26/2008)
Fashion Design Drawing Course
This fashion design course is a little more on the abstract side, it doesn't cover technical sketches, but more how to present your fashion ideas, how to make a collection work together, how to get ideas and where to draw inspiration for our ideas.
Amazon Price: $16.29 (as of 07/26/2008)
The Business of Fashion: Designing, Manufacturing, and Marketing
Textbook style book that covers all aspects of fashion design and creating a collection.
Amazon Price: $72.80 (as of 07/26/2008)
Inside Fashion Design, 5th Edition
Amazon Price: $83.52 (as of 07/26/2008)
Baby Fabulous Blog
b*Fab news and updates, parenting tips, and special offers
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byI See the Same Colors Everywhere I Look!
It's fascinating how colors are selected each season.
Since I'm an outsider working my way in, I find pretty much every aspect of the fashion world fascincating. But one of the most interesting aspects to me is how seasonal colors are selected.You're not going nuts when you think that you can't escape the same color palette store after store after store. Here's why:
1. A group of people (industry insiders, professionals, and experts) actually gets together and votes on a season's palette.
2. They'll select a few different palettes for each season. In the photo you can see a "color card" from a recent textile show. Each column is a seperate color palette for that season.
3. Colors are selected aproximately 18 - 24 months prior to the applicable season. I think it's so crazy that what colors will be "cool" are actually selected years in advance.
4. The selected color palette is then passed onto the textile producers around the world. The textile producers kick into gear and create solids and prints using the color palette they were given by the deciders. :-)
5. Us manufacturers are then presented with the color palettes and new wave of textiles aproximately 12 months prior to the season we're sourcing.
First there's Fabric
Get to know your textiles!!
- Fabric Swatch Kit
- This is absolutely the coolest tool you can use to learn about textiles. Learn as you go through, you put it together, so you feel and read about each swatch as you place it in it's spot. This is a must have, even if you know something about textiles - it's an invaluable reference.
- California Market Center Textile Shows
- Trade shows are the best place to source fabric. This is a link to the California Market Center site for their International Textile Shows. You can also find major textile shows around the US throughout the year.
- Los Angeles Fashion District
- The Los Angeles Fabric District is actually part of the Fashion District. Tons of wholesale shops (most sell to the public). This is the place to start when you're just testing your skills. You can buy small quantities for cheap. Also search your town for scrap fabric stores. You can often find yardage for $1 - the best place to start if you're just starting out. You can get a lot of practice on a variety of textiles.
Share your ideas inspirations
Let us know you stopped by!
Please feel free to share your company information and any real life tips you might have on starting your own clothing line.
What do you mean a group of insiders votes on a color story for the season? I have been a designer for 24 years and have never heard of this. Where did you get this?
Posted March 21, 2008
Hi My name is Faye, I live in Sydney Australia. I am starting my own womens fashion label and like you I have started from scratch and have taught myself everything. It's so great that you have set up this website. Thank you!
Love Faye xx
Posted February 21, 2008
i am gouing 2 b a (FD)win i grow uf
Posted February 03, 2008
Thanks for posting this great info!!
Posted December 18, 2007
I THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE INFO,BECAUSE ONE DAY I WILL BECOME A MODEL AND A FASHION DESIGNER.I'M ONLY 14 YEARS OLD.
GREENVILLE,MS
Posted December 04, 2007
