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Since we have been talking about freelance services this week so far I decided to talk about what a freelance worker is and why it is better than hiring an employee in my opinion. There are pros & cons of both worlds, but I think the advantage is toward freelancers when it comes to independent or smaller clothing companies meaning it is more cost effective for short projects. When a company’s financial situation is better I would encourage them to hire a employee that can grow with the company and better understand their needs in the long run.

In its simplest form a freelance worker is an independent contractor for hire. They are a business within themselves because many of them make a full-time living off of freelance work from major clothing companies.

Many of the clothing companies you know and love have at one time hired freelance workers for design jobs. So it is not something only smaller apparel companies make use of, but smart clothing businesses.

I guess we can declare this freelance day. I really didn’t notice until I actually typed out all these articles that they all relate to freelancers in the apparel industry in some shape, form, or fashion.

Design Source Studios is a full-service design firm that caters to the apparel and t-shirt industry. Design Source is a collective effort of designers all from the world of fashion under one roof. According to the site they are willing to work with startups companies and well established clothing businesses.

Let’s just hope they have the service prices to match what most startups can afford.

Don’t get Design Source wrong this is not a design agency. So you don’t have to worry about any hidden fees, but Design Source is a group of talented freelance designers with experience in the fashion industry who want to make your idea come to life.

From reading the site to my understanding they get paid by the amount of hours a particular project may take.

I just found out about Guru today…I don’t know maybe I’m behind, but so far it seems like a great place to find some freelance for all trade industries not just in fashion.

Very easy to navigate website with categories to help you get what you need faster. In the fashion designer section they are ranked by money earned on the website and individual customer feedback. So that weeds out all the guys who are going to jerk you for the most part.

Best of all registration for the site is free and only takes 2-3 short minutes to fully access the freelancers’ profiles.

You can have the team of designers give you a quote on your project or just ask them a direct question concerning their background or more information on their company or services. Guru already does a good job of giving you the initial information including background, base fee per hour, skill areas, expertise, and a self evaluation from the designers’ perspective.

NY Fashion Connect is for the unknown, but up and coming designer who needs a market place for their new truly creative garments.

That is exactly what they provide with a clean interface and easy to navigate website. It might seem like another Cafe press or Spread shirt, but they present a more professional atmosphere and makes room for designers who want to be taken more serious in my opinion.

I don’t want to confuse anyone with the comparison (Cafepress/Spreadshirt) no they do not offer printing services, but everything an online retailer or boutique would for the indie-clothing designer in a professional manner.

Each designer has their own integrated store to market and sell their designs. Take a look at the screen shot below:

I’m going to setup a test account shortly and see exactly how New York Fashion Connect really works to give you more feedback. In the mean time head on over there and tell them Dobizo sent you.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I’m just getting back into the groove of designing apparel and graphics. As you may know I’ve put my clothing line Scout Union Apparel on hold while I develop the Dobizo Network.

I plan to relaunch it in full force with a better team, more financing, and a solid foundation. Right now I have started to get back into the design process and feeling out the different programs I’m accustomed to working with Photoshop and Illustrator so far.

I know for a fact that here on How to start a clothing line from scratch we have many readers that design handbags, women apparel, children’s wear and much more. All of them probably have their own way of going about what theme to pull their design inspirations from and a way to get these creative juices flowing.

That is exactly what I wanted to talk about today how do you get your design inspirations. Do you use themes or is your clothing company based around a certain lifestyle and you pull your designs, graphics, or prints from that culture.

Fitlogic is a company out to do away with the days of women shopping for hours just to get that right “fit”. With a creative idea and a motto to follow it “If you like the idea of never trying on pants again then Join the Movement!” Fitlogic might actually be onto something that could revolutionize the way women shop for pants.

The below article is from the site explaining what Fitlogic has created:

Fitlogic has developed The FITFINDER to help you find your ideal fit according to your size, body shape, and maturity. Fitlogic has been proven to fit 95% of women over 30. Once you have your Fitlogic size and shape symbol, you can shop with confidence whenever you see the Fitlogic label… knowing you’ll get the same fit every time!

As of now the Fitlogic system is available in pants for women size 0-18, but they will soon develop Petite, Tall, and Plus sizes for women. In due time they plan on making it available to women of all ages, shapes and sizes in tops and bottoms…sounds like a plan to me.

If you haven’t noticed by now all the Ceo Audio’s are now free and ready to download, email, distribute, place on your blog, link to, whatever you want to do except for resell them as long as you associate ownership with Dobizo.

The new Ceo Audio page is live and you may stream, download, or listen through a feed from each audio’s page.

Below is a list of the Ceo Audio’s pages separately or you may go to the Ceo Audio Index for all audio’s on one page:

Willie Esco Serial Designer

Andres Izquieta/Five Four Clothing

Design a shirt T-shirt Millionaire

Cody Murray/Raw Talent Custom Manufacturing

How To Succeed In Urban Fashion

Hope you all enjoy each minute of the interviews lots of information to learn from them and their 100% free. Leave me a comment on the articles to let me know what you think of each.

Popularity: 5% [?]

In my opinion choosing a manufacturer for your clothing line is one of the most important steps in building the foundation on which your business operates.

I receive so many emails from aspiring designers/clothing companies looking for manufacturers that I recommend or think would be a good match for their business.

All I can really give most is a link and my experience from working with that particular manufacturer that I recommended. I think the final decision should be well thought out and catered more toward a particular fashion lines situation and not off the mere opinion of one man or woman’s experience.

You should sit down and compile a list of what services and requirements you will need out of a clothing manufacturer.

I remember when looking for my first manufacturer I had no clue where to start and was very overwhelmed by all the options available to me. The only way to narrow the list was to weed out the bad guys and the manufacturers that didn’t provide all the services I might need in the future or at the present time.

 

 Cody Murray Raw Talent Inc: Play Now | Download (145)

Yes that is true anything that you see on Dobizo.com will be made available to our readers FREE.

What this basically means is that any Ceo Audio we release will be free of charge to our readers, which we value very much. Considering this is the only product that we have ever charged for, but not anymore.

That means that the Ceo Audio is yours to bookmark, post on another forum, download and place on your myspace, facebook, email to a friend, you are pretty much free to do anything with the Ceo Audio except resale it…of course.

To start everything off in good spirits I am including the first of many Free Ceo Audio’s in this post for download.

Enjoy!

Popularity: 1% [?]

This post is from one of our members in the Dobizo forums.? I want to make sure anybody looking for sources in the forum gets all the information possible so by placing it on the front blog it will give them a better possibility of getting the answer they are looking for.

So if you need any information on a Plus Size Lingerie Manufacturer check out the answers posted and if you have any information please Join and post what you know.

As I type this article the forum is right at 1,000 members (30 more to go) we should hit that goal by the end of the week.

Here is a run down of some other interesting post from the How to start a clothing line forum:

Have A Clothing Label? Design Clothing?? (Nice Little Debate Going on In This Post)

List of Resources

Selvedge Denim Sources Needed

Things To Expect and Ask When Working With A Manufacturer (Oldie, but a Goodie Instructional/Informational Post)

Popularity: 1% [?]

Dobizo is now number 1 out of 3 Million sites on the World Wide Web for the search term “How to start a clothing line” on the number 1 search engine Google.

Now we have to conquer Yahoo for number 1 we are currently number 5 and number 1 is Target (As in the clothing store) that explains why they are the number 2 search engine in the world.

Many of the other sites have been out for 3-4 years and Dobizo has/will take over as the number 1 site on the web for the apparel industry .

Popularity: 2% [?]

We spoke about the Material World?global fabric?and sourcing trade event?earlier this year here. By the way don’t forget it is coming up this September 25-27, 2007.

I received an email from their newsletter Material Issues and they highlighted some of the shows educational programs. After reading over some of the conferences I have to say it is definitely more than just a sourcing show for the textile industry.

The topics they touch on describe fabric trends, color, legislation, technology and design.

On the first day they get the ball rolling with a discussion from AAFA’s headliner event People, Planet, and Profit: Reaching for the Pinnacle of Environmental Sustainability, which goes in-depth about notable companies who are profiting while still reaching the pinnacle of environmental sustainability.

I spoke about the PLM event in the introduction review of Material World, but didn’t really go in-depth. AAFA’s supplier resource committee will present Winning Life Cycle Management Strategies-Achieving Speed, Visibility, and Control on the second day of the event.