Fashion business information, advice, guidance, and education for fashion brands
Quality Control (QC) isn't just about ensuring your garments look good; it's your ticket to exceeding customer expectations, minimizing issues and setbacks, and optimizing production efficiency. By maintaining stringent QC standards, you deliver exceptional products and establish your brand as a reliable force in the industry.
When done right, it will make your life easier, decrease your stress level, increase your profit, and reduce waste.
Clothing manufacturing is not for the faint-hearted. Working with the wrong manufacturer can end your business, especially if you are a new brand.
You can take steps to find the right factory. However, some signs will only be noticed once you work with the factory.
So what are the symptoms that should make you run away from a factory?
Technology is changing the way that we, fashion designers, approach fabric sourcing.
There's a whole range of pioneering textiles that are not only groundbreaking in a
technological way but also push the fashion industry towards more sustainable practices.
This includes the development of fabrics and materials from the byproducts of other
industries, which is also a much-needed step into a circular economy.
Deciding whether to produce your fashion product offshore or domestically goes beyond the reasons of cost and number of units you will need to produce.
As a matter of fact it's a decision that will impact how your business is set up and operates to best fit that scenario, re; what kind of people/services you should hire and even the details of your designs.
Sustainability - The ability to continue a defined behavior indefinitely.
In the fashion industry we are constantly producing more and more goods. We use tons of natural resources, produce garments all over the world and all the while we are trying to keep up with ever changing trends and timely demands of the fashion industry. What is that impact? Most of the pollution in the garment industry comes from textiles. Water usage, finishing agents, and dyes. 20% of the worlds water pollution is due to the garment industry. How does it affect the community that work and live around these factories? As designers and consumers we have the responsibility to ask ourselves these questions and the ability to make change.
How do you as a designer build a company with all of these things in mind and as a small brand be a part of this change?
Ever wondered how the New York Garment District got its start? What happened to it and where it is heading?
In the Mid 19th century, New York City’s Garment District was built on ready to wear clothing that was mass produced and mass-marketed. The industry relied on the workings of a cheap yet skilled labor force—primarily immigrants of European Jewish and Italian descent who arrived in the United States trained in traditional tailoring.
During this time the garment industry was New York City’s largest employer, employing one hundred thousand people each year. Rapid growth was seen in twenty years when the amount of manufacturing firms increased from 562 in 1880 to over 1,800 in the 1900s.
In an effort to increase New York City’s shopping culture Fashion Row and Ladies Mile were
