Fabrics
Holding Promotional Events for Your Fashion Business
By: startafashionbusiness.co.uk
It’s all well and good to send out promotional items and appear at fashion shows, but if you really want to draw attention to what you’re doing with your fashion design business, you’re going to need to run your own events. These can be held for your business launch, when you bring out a new apparel collection, or in celebration of notable successes. They’re an opportunity for you to distribute promotional products and make an impression on the people who really matter.
Of course, the worst thing you can do is to invest a lot of time and resources in an event to which hardly anybody turns up, so it’s important to plan carefully and to advertise effectively. You can use the fashion press for this, but it’s also a good idea to advertise your event at trade shows and by sending promotional items to buyers, retailers and modelling agencies. When you’re more established it can be advantageous to make your events seem more exclusive, but as a new company you should invite people at all levels of the industry. Personal invitations are generally the most successful, and you should be sure to invite everybody whom you’ve directly done business with.
Putting on an Event
The first thing you need to get right when planning an event is the venue. Avoid the temptation to use your own premises, where there’s too much chance of valuable equipment and fabrics getting damaged, or to use your own home, which - unless it’s huge and spectacular - looks unprofessional. If possible, choose a venue with a bar, as most people in the fashion industry like to drink. By arranging a tab with the bar you can offer free drinks to the first few people there, always a good way to get the party started. Of course, as people get drunk they’re more amenable to persuasion, so this is a great opportunity to talk to them about your fashion designs. Needless to say, make sure you don’t get drunk yourself.
Make sure that some of the people at your event are wearing your designer apparel, whether they’re professional models or just good looking friends. It’s important to keep everybody’s minds focused on what the events is about, even whilst they relax and enjoy themselves. This also helps to create a bit of glamour. You can add to the effect by decorating the venue with large pictures of your work. Promotional products like catalogues should be easily available. Make sure there’s a photographer present so that you have some pictures of your event available for future use, especially if well-known people from the fashion industry attend.
You will usually be able to buy materials for your events, such as invitations, decorations and catering supplies, at wholesale prices provided that you identify yourself as a business customer. It’s normal to provide some food at promotional events, but a couple of plates of sandwiches will suffice, and you can always save money by making these yourself. Some venues will offer them for free.
Informal Events
Formal events are not the only way to draw attention to your fashion design business. Sometimes it’s beneficial to break the rules and use an informal venue to gain extra attention. Make sure you have permission to do this, especially if it’s in a public place, and tip off the press before it happens, but let it surprise the public.
Informal events are sometimes held in partnership with stores stocking a particular designer’s apparel, as they’re a great way to boost sales for everybody. They need to be glamorous, so get models involved. Impromptu fashion shows in unusual places are a great way to capture the imagination of the press and the public alike. Distributing free promotional products to the public will help them to remember what the event was about and will make them feel extra good about having been there, encouraging them to spread good word of mouth about your work.
Whatever type of event you go for, make sure that it looks good and that it feels fun to be a part of. For your own part, you’ll probably find it exhausting, but it can be a very effective way to put your new fashion design business on the map.
How to Store and Care for Bulk Fabric
By: startafashionbusiness.co.uk
When you’re buying fabric in bulk for your fashion design business, you won’t be able to use all of it immediately. Some materials which can be used in a range of different garments, like lining fabrics and basic sewing accessories, may end up being stored over long periods of time. In this situation, it’s essential that you maintain high standards of fabric care and that you undertake the cleaning of each type of fabric in the appropriate way.
When you set up your business, you should think carefully about the storage facilities you can provide for fabric and for finished garments. You should make sure that you have the necessary facilities for cleaning fabric and that you have budgeted for cleaning materials. Keeping your stored fabric in good condition is essential to the welfare of your business - having to replace it can be extremely expensive and can create damaging delays.
Protecting your Stored Fabric
To keep your stored fabric safe, it’s important that you can successfully identify the threats it faces and take action against each one. Even if you’re running your business from home, the difficulty involved in moving large amounts of fabric around can create problems which you don’t experience in your ordinary domestic life. These may include the following:-
- Damp - In damp conditions, stored fabric is often affected by mould. Keep your storage facilities as dry as possible and use silica gel to protect particularly vulnerable fabrics. Colour sensitive silica gel is now available, and can tell you how much water it has absorbed over time so that you will know when to replace it.
- Bright light - Most coloured fabrics fade if exposed to strong light for any length of time. Using individual containers or bags for bales of fabric (always making sure it can still ‘breathe’) means that you can access your main storage facilities without exposing all your fabrics to light.
- Heat - When you have a lot of fabric folded up together, under pressure, it can be very vulnerable to heat damage in warm weather. Protect printed and plastic-based fabrics by folding them over sheets of tissue paper so that they don’t stick to themselves. Try to keep your storage facilities between 5ºC and 25ºC.
- Mice - Even in the most hygienic conditions, mice can be a problem. They often nibble holes in fabric and they may stain it with their droppings. Mousetraps and poison can help to reduce mouse numbers, but the best solution is a cat. Even a visiting cat will discourage mice with its scent.
- Insects - Insect pests can be just as damaging and harder to get rid of. Some insect repellents can damage your fabric and most will make it smell bad. Always use the gentlest available treatment. Reduce the risk by storing your fabric away from open windows and above the ground floor of your premises (or on raised shelves).
Above all, you should check your fabric regularly - even if you’re not expecting to use it in the near future. Most of the above problems can be resolved with prompt treatment, and even if your fabric has sustained some damage, you may be able to recover the bulk of it.
Fabric Cleaning
When cleaning fabric to prepare it for use, it’s important to be gentle. Even with the best available products, repeated washing can be damaging. Use a gentle detergent and fabric conditioner. Never use biological washing power as this may cause allergic reactions in your customers. Make sure that you use the appropriate temperature setting for each type of fabric. Machine dry it rather than hanging it out to dry - this will protect it from sunlight and will make it possible to process more at once.
If you are working with a fabric which cannot be washed, sponge it clean where necessary. If it needs major cleaning, take it to a dry cleaning specialist or consider purchasing your own dry cleaning machine. This can be a practical solution for businesses which regularly deal with large quantities of fragile fabrics.
Unfortunately, bulk fabric is not the easiest of things to store over the long term, but with proper care and attention you can substantially reduce the risks, making sure that it’s in good condition when you’re ready to work with it.
Basic Equipment for Starting up a Fashion Business
By: startafashionbusiness.co.uk
One of the most important things to know before you start a fashion design business is how much your basic equipment will cost. Whether you buy it used or new, it will still constitute a large portion of your start-up expenses. And it’s essential that you buy good quality, reliable equipment, because breakdowns later on could cost your developing business even more.
Getting together the right kit can be difficult, as it includes things you might not think of before you actually run into trouble. Don’t be tempted to dismiss smaller items as trivial - they won’t seem trivial when they’re not there and you have nothing else which can do the job.
Essential Equipment
No matter what your plans for your fashion business, there are certain items you cannot afford to be without.
- Sewing or knitting machine:The phrase ‘hand made’ does not mean that anybody expects you to work without this. Depending on your expected production levels and the number of workers in your business, you may need several of these. Alternatively, you can use just one and work in shifts, but a second machine is still a good idea in case the first stops working.
- Scissors and knives: Good quality scissors make all the difference when it comes to cutting fabric quickly and neatly, but there are some jobs to which a good craft knife is much better suited.
- Needles and pins:Machines can get through needles fast, so you should have a good supply of replacements. It’s also worth changing your machine needles to suit the fabrics you’re working with. You’ll inevitably have to do some bits of work by hand, so make sure you have ordinary hand sewing needles available. Pins are often needed for both.
- Chalk: Nothing beats it for transferring paper patterns to fabric, and it’s easy to clean up afterwards. Chalk pencils are a particularly good idea as they don’t get your hands dirty, putting other items at risk. Blue ones are available for marking light coloured fabrics.
- Tape: In any industrial process, tape has a habit of being a saviour. Not only can it enable temporary repairs of damaged equipment, it can hold fabric together when you don’t want to use pins. Use gaffa tape for the former and fabric or carpet tape for the latter. Never rely on tape to mend cables or wires.
- An ironing board: This isn’t just for making finished items look good - you’ll also need to press seams and to create features like pleats. It can be used for transferring designs, activating wonderweb tape and smoothing out fabric in preparation for transferring patterns.
You’ll find that most fabric wholesalers stock a lot of this equipment in bulk at discount prices. It can also be worth checking out your local hardware store.
Choosing Your Sewing Machine
If your fashion design business is based around sewing, choosing the right machine is one of the most important business decisions you’ll have to make. Don’t assume that you can get by with your ordinary domestic one (though it may be useful for back-up). Domestic sewing machines are not built for heavy workloads. You’ll need to purchase an industrial quality machine, and that’s likely to cost you around £500.
There are many different types of industrial sewing machine on the market. Many are designed for specialist tasks, such as buttonholing, embroidery or leatherworking. A good general machine will cost more but will be able to do most of these tasks for you - competently if not excellently. Singer Centres are a good place to investigate industrial machines in person, as they usually carry several different models and you can be sure of receiving impartial advice. They also operate an excellent guarantee system and repair service, though you will have to be able to transport your machine to and from them yourself. Wherever you make your purchase, make sure that repairs are part of the deal. No matter how good your machine is, working with it on a continual basis will inevitably result in some problems - you can expect to have to get it fixed roughly once every eight months.
Choosing your sewing machine and basic equipment may be a lot of hassle, but getting it right at the start will ensure that the production side of your fashion design business runs smoothly thereafter.