How frustrating is it when you contact factories or suppliers and get no response? Regardless of whether you are contacting them for business, pricing or for more information, you mean business, so why don’t they reply? Here are the Do’s and Don’ts of communicating with factories so that you get better results.

It is always a little confusing after you pitch to a factory with an email or letter asking for information or a quote and they never get back to you. It is hard to understand why anyone would turn down the opportunity to build new connections and create new business. But the simple truth is that suppliers often receive many enquiries from designers and fashion start-up businesses, that rarely result in orders for that supplier.

Here is some advice on communicating with factories:

Don't contact a supplier before you're ready

Make sure you are well organised so you can order - and provide - accurate and well-structured prices and guidelines. Suppliers are going to need certai...

The fashion industry is a highly visual marketplace. Most designers communicate design ideas through many different mediums. These include drawing, toiling and sampling.

What if you are given the gift of the imagination but not that of creation on paper?

Or worse, you cannot explain your design methodology to anyone?

A lightning sketch made on a scrap of paper, in felt-tip pen, can be the starting point of an impressive first collection. However, while your designs are viable in your head, they may not translate so easily to your team.

Your pattern cutter will need more than a rough rendering and your manufacturer will demand even more.

It should be reassuring to know that not all designers are able to articulate their vision through the medium of drawing. They choose to select existing images and to create collages of their unique ideas. These are then shown to an illustrator or pattern cutter, who transforms them into technical drawings.

So, what is required of the designer who...

Rose Spinelli reveals some of the benefits of crowdfunding fashion start-ups.

We were fortunate enough to engage with the motivational force that is Rose Spinelli, a crowdfunding consultant based in America. She has been named among the "Top 100 Thought Leaders in Crowdfunding Today." Her website, The CrowdFundamentals, provides expert advice and is a powerful resource for fashion professionals wishing to learn more about crowdfunding fashion start-ups.

She said: “One benefit of crowdfunding fashion start-ups is that a piece of clothing will go into production only after it receives backer critical mass.

“Once the threshold for the minimum amount of backers is achieved, the piece goes into production. No waiting for Fashion Week to tell you what you should buy!”

You Get a Percentage of the Take

A great benefit of many of these sites is that if the crowd ‘up-votes’ your product and it’s selected for production, you get a percentage of the take.

Boutique Appeal vs. Cookie Cutter

N...

No matter how amazing your fashion product design may be, without a Fashion Tech Pack, and with no experience or knowledge of the industry, most factories will not take you seriously, agree to deal with you or if they do, you will face countless problems. And yet so few fashion entrepreneurs know about it or know how to put one together.

While in my final year at fashion school, I designed a product called a Jac Sac. I made the pattern and a couple of samples myself and had the brilliant idea to sell it to the public. After setting up a photoshoot with my friends, I cobbled together a Lookbook. Then I made calls to buyers and the press and set up some appointments. I received a lot of press coverage and orders were placed by some great shops, including Paul Smith, Duffer of St George and a couple of boutiques in Japan.

Thinking back, this all sounds easy. I was certainly lucky to get as far as I did, but one of my great strengths was that I knew how to make a pattern and to sew. You ...

What is a Garment Tech?

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Prior to purchasing that item of clothing you’ve been coveting for a couple of months, it will pass through many processes overseen by many different experts before it reaches the shop floor. It will be designed by a designer, pattern cut by a pattern cutter and sewn by a machinist. These three people are the ‘stars’ we’re all aware of but who is the person behind the scenes?

The mysterious person who liaises with designers adapts designs to suit production methods, sources fabrics and accessories, undertakes quality evaluations of materials and responds to product queries, including complaints, from wholesalers and customers.

Drum roll, please…

The cog that keeps the wheel turning is the Garment Technologist, commonly referred to as the Garment Tech.

In the past they were typically known as the quality controller, however, their role has now evolved to include the aforementioned in their job description. Considering that there ...

Designing a fashion collection is relatively easy. Anyone can do it. But creating and putting together a cohesive fashion collection that sells requires you to know the secret sauce. Say YES if you want to know the secret ingredients?

Because we live in an age where we all want the recipe and a step by step process to success, below is a list of the top 5 most important ingredients you need to have in order to create a cohesive fashion collection.

RELATED READING: How to design commercially strong fashion collection.

It pays to put some time upfront and think through the elements covered below. Do this and you will reap the results later.

Repeatedly. That sounds good, YES?

Ready to get stuck in and discover the secret sauce?

OK, pay attention and make a note of the key questions below so you can work on them later.

Let’s start briefly by explaining what “cohesive” means – so there is no confusion.

“Cohesive” means something is well-integrated and unified. Synonyms that also can...

There is a fine line between inspiration and plagiarism. It’s a line that many companies, well established or otherwise, are happy to cross, if they think they can get away with it.

https://youtu.be/N4TnhhL6GjA

Read on to find out what you can do to stop getting plagiarised and protect your designs.

“Imitation is the highest form of flattery” Coco Chanel.

In the pursuit of the next big thing and when your own reserves of originality may be on the wane, temporarily, it’s easy to jump onto someone else’s bandwagon and pass their work off as your own.

This type of behaviour is rife in all creative industries including but not limited to music, art and fashion. It’s really difficult not to be influenced by the things we see or hear every day.

This overexposure to imagery seeps into one's subconscious so perhaps some designers could be forgiven for thinking that their ideas are their own.

Read more on Design & Development in the BECOME A FASHION INSIDER Book

Why is it so Easy fo...

The perfect fitting of a garment lies at the heart of your customers' evaluation of an apparel product. With vast differences in body shape and size, fit problems form the basis of returns of online clothing purchases.

As part of the product development process, designers and their team, typically develop sample size garments for a specific size range based on their target market.

When a sample is finished, it is usually checked for fabric type, compliance with specified garment measurements, and construction details. However, it’s imperative that the garment is evaluated on a model in order to judge comfort, appearance and last but not least, fit.

A fit session is a meeting between the design and technical teams where they assess the fit of a collection.

A fit session is a meeting between the design and technical teams where they assess the fit of a collection. Fit samples (samples sent from the factory at various stages of development to assess the fit) are sent from the fact...

As anyone who knows or follows the luxury goods industry will tell you: there are luxury goods companies, and then there is Hermes. The family-owned leather goods maker is a true champion of "the art of craft." They continuously find new ways to educate and showcase what true craftsmanship means – be it through pop up exhibitions, store demonstrations, or videos.

The latest new initiative paying respect to the true unsung heroes behind the brand is a series of videos simple titled "No Comment."

The idea behind these short videos is to let its products speak for themselves and shows the Maison's artisans at work. What they achieve is to add a human side to the brand by showing the master craftsmen and designers responsible for the look and feel of products, to provide the viewer with an up-close-and-personal perspective about how Hermes products are handcrafted, and the attention to detail – from the painting, to the polishing, cutting and packaging.

What makes this new campaign so c...

The past looms large watching imperiously, hawk-like, over its legacy. And so it should, in the case of famous fashion houses such as Lanvin, Dior, Chanel and Balenciaga. Once the original designer has left the building, an ever-changing supply of new talent is entrusted with the stress-inducing task of keeping the flame alive.

There’s a fine line between adding one's own signature style to a grand house while also remaining sensitive to its history.

Fashion archives allow new designers to delve into a past that was very different to the present. It can be used in order to gain some insight into the brands DNA and identity, the construction techniques it employed and the research materials it used to inform the shapes and proportions it became famous for.

Clothing was made more sustainably back then, with items made to last longer than a mere season.

An attention to detail was bestowed on well-cut, hand-sewn garments that stood the test of time. With so much there to inspire contem...