A wholesale fashion line sheet is an essential sales tool for every brand. No matter how small or large, a line sheet must be presented to buyers if they are to be taken seriously.

As a fashion start-up, you may well be considering the wholesale route to marketing your designs. It’s a valid proposition to want to see your range stocked in brick and mortar shops, and a goal that you should pursue. To achieve this you’ll need to approach stores' buying teams in order to build wholesale accounts, and they should be approached professionally. Once you have secured an appointment they will expect you to have all of your selling documents to hand, such as lookbooks, order forms and most importantly your fashion wholesale line sheet.

You may well ask, what is a wholesale fashion line sheet?

Simply put, a line sheet is a sales tool designed to visually communicate all of the information necessary for a buyer to make a decision about purchasing your collection.

It will include vital inf...

Let it not be forgotten that no (wo)man is an ocean and that in the pursuit of a successful fashion career it's impossible to thrive singlehandedly. This is a genuine story of a fashion professional and her mentee journey.

The Journey of Monisola Omotoso from a fashion designer to a pattern cutter.

When I embarked on my first enterprise as a fashion designer, while in my final year at University I felt invincible and ready to take on the fashion world. I had designed a menswear item that was bought by Paul Smith, the design emporium of the times, Jones, on the Kings Road, and the Duffer of St George. I was supported by my university tutors and the buyers at the stores I sold to.

They advised me and introduced me to members of the press who gave me a lot of coverage in their newspapers and magazines. Looking back, I guess they were my early mentors but at the time I wasn’t even aware of the term and its importance.

After graduating and with the confidence of selling to such illus...

For an industry as dynamic and fast-paced as fashion, why do so many fashion brands fail? A topic that's covered more and more of late, in the wake of so many retail stalwarts and iconic fashion brands filing for bankruptcy.

The fashion industry is famous for its smoke and mirror image. Things are never how they appear to be. This ‘opaque-ness” is often engineered on purpose. It suits the industry to hide the truth and only show the glamour and success. After all - it is glamour and success that create desire and lust, that in turn generate sales.

But peel off the top layer and the truth is rather different.

The fashion industry has been going through a decisive era of major consumer, channel, and supply shifts while suffering from increased economic volatility.

This in itself has led to the bankruptcy of countless small, medium and large brands. Many have come out as a surprise to those not “in the know”. The few on the inside of the industry have seen the writing on the wall ...

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The fashion industry is like no other. To those on the outside – it is a glamorous and glitzy industry that looks fun and promises fame and riches. The truth is far from it. Yet there is no shortage of career changers willing and wanting to try their luck in it.

Where those who hadn’t studied fashion in the past may have felt excluded and unable to "just" become designers, the age of internet has removed this obstacle. Everyone and anyone can become a fashion designer and turn their ideas into products and launch a fashion brand.

What is interesting to note here is, a large amount of mature professionals making a career change and choosing to enter the fashion industry as career changer. The mistakes career changers make, can be very fatal for mid-career changers.

Many may have years of corporate experience under their belt and a long list of higher education accomplishments, while others may have spent years at home looking after the fam...

To launch a fashion brand to a specific niche of customers or market is an age-old tested recipe for business success. In these 3 part series, we show you how to do it and why it is important in fashion to follow and apply what already is proven to work well.

In part 1 of these series, we looked at why defining a niche is important and the wide positive effect it will have on your future fashion business. In this article, we focus and look into the second phase - once you have completed your research and development and are ready to launch a fashion brand, product or service.

There are 3 Stages in Fashion Brand Business Development

2. The Launch Phase

Once you have fleshed out your idea and done enough research to ascertain that your idea is viable and that there is a product/market fit, you’d have progressed onto developing your idea into a finished product. You would have spent much time, resources and finances to get to a point where you feel ready to plan your launch.

The mi

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Knowing how to grow a fashion brand is always useful, least of all because it can be very costly. I often say that launching and growing a fashion business is akin to throwing money into a black hole. You always need to put in more and the returns are rarely apparent and immediate.

But in our fast-changing world, knowing how to grow a fashion brand and business is more important than ever. Brick and mortar shops are closing their doors in never before seen numbers and at an unprecedentedly fast pace. Most businesses if not already online - are moving online. Those already there, are doubling up and doing more to just standstill.

So - is there space for more? Should you even bother, if it is that noisy and oversaturated?

Yes and yes! There is always space for those who do business well and understand what it takes to grow a fashion brand.

In 2020 what is required is a fine balance between a few tangible and intangible skills. So let's dive in and look closely at these.

"How you d...

To launch and grow a fashion brand online seems like a glamorous way to make a living. Fashionistas and those with an eye for style would be perfect for this job. Unfortunately, there’s more to selling stylish clothes, shoes, and accessories in today's overcrowded online space.

Most businesses usually start small. To launch and grow a fashion brand online at the beginning, it is usually crucial to keep it small because this is where many fail. The reasons for failure, such as the inability to adapt to market changes, not listening to customers, and not marketing online.

In this day and age, people are reliant on the internet for various reasons: it is an indispensable tool for information and communication. Because of that, small businesses should take advantage of this channel for their cost-effective way of being available to customers at any time and any day.

Where do you start to launch and grow a fashion brand online?

A business needs considerable capital, effort, and research...

A fashion Lookbook is a catalogue of well-styled images that convey the essence of your brand through creative storytelling.

Creating your fashion Lookbook should be a natural occurrence for a creative. Wanting to tell your story and market your products to the public is all part of building your brand.

Brand building is all about weaving stories to engage your audience.

In the highly visual world of fashion, how you communicate your design ideas is extremely important.

Once you have perfected the design process, product development and sample making, your marketing should begin in earnest. There are many eye-catching ways to entice buyers, press and customers but the most effective is a Lookbook.

With this fashion catalogue of well-styled images, you will be in a better position to sell yourself in a professional manner. The lookbook conveys the essence of your brand through creative storytelling and works in a multi-functional way. It shows your products on models, in a stylised...

Providing factories with a "Technical Drawing" otherwise known as a "Flat Drawing" is one of the essential requirements when manufacturing garments or accessories.

Whether you are a designer who has skills in fashion sketching, or a newcomer with moderate drawing skills, sketches are great for relaying an impression of your design ideas but should you choose to take these designs to the next level and have patterns made (followed by samples and production), your beautiful sketch -  although they look lovely in your sketchbook, will be useless - you need a technical drawing.

For the people responsible for turning your idea into a finished, fit for purpose product,  they need clear and detailed drawings so that they can produce your vision accurately.

So let's break it down and have a look at what a technical drawing is, why they’re important, where and how they’re used, and how to draw them.

[caption id="attachment_3936" align="aligncenter" width="496"] Flat technical drawing of a f...

Ever thought of starting a fashion label? Many have but as soon as they think about it, their heads become inundated with questions about the Fashion Design Process.

These can be general questions such as...
Do ideas come from inspiration or from materials?
What is the best way to go about designing a collection?

Fashion, by its very nature, is about current populism – and the fashion designer expresses the spirit of the times, or zeitgeist, in their work.

In an industry that is constantly changing, the designer is expected to reinvent the wheel seasonally. Due to the public’s demand for the new, and with ever-increasing pressure placed on them, designers have to dig deeper and search further for ways of interpreting new inspiration into their collections.

The role of the fashion designer could be compared to that of a magpie, obsessively collecting objects and always being on the hunt for new and exciting things to inspire them. This compulsion to source and collate material for use...