Serious about starting a clothing line? If so subscribe to our RSS feed or Email notifications for exclusive articles/updates that you don't want to miss!

This is the third installment of Dobizo Answers for the day already you guys/girls really have it cut out for me…I got myself into this, but I never back down from any challenge believe it or not .

Kami wants to know:

I am looking to start my own clothing line, I have all my ideas, I am not a great drawer, How should I go about getting my ideas to come to life?

and

How do you rule out good manufacturing companies, from bad manufacturing companies? What are the necessary things I should bring to the table when approaching a manufacturing company, I know funding is one of them, but what else?

Kami I have to say you are already making the first step by reading Dobizo and the second step would be joining the forum and network, because there is so much information going on in there.

This is the second installment of the new renamed FAQ now Dobizo Answers page.

Gabrielle wants to know:

What is the best way to go about obtaining buyers names and contact info? I am trying to compile a target store/contact list and I am finding this task incredibly difficult.

This post is going to be a little shorter mainly because I wrote an article on how to contact store buyers and obtain their contact info (email, number), but I still want to give some more tips.

One way you can also gain some contacts without all the hassle you have to go through that I explain in my article is spend a little money on attending a trade show. If you pay to exhibit at a trade show most offer an attendance list either up to date or past list with all the stores and buyer names and store numbers. That is the easy, but costly way. I know one of the cheaper trade shows that does this is Americas Mart Alpha show.

This is our first entry on the Dobizo Answers/FAQ page, which I can already see is going to be a big hit….I mean huge. Already the page by itself gets over 1,000 visits per day not views, but visits the pageviews are a whole other story!

I just want to thanks anyone for contributing to the blog, because that is the point of the Dobizo Answers page. It helps me create more content, because you guys give me something to write about.

Every post that I make about the Dobizo Answers question will be on the front page and then archived into a link on the Dobizo Answers page.

Well somebody over at the Real Brother Collection asked the question(s)… below:

My questions are these:

1. Deciding on a minimum order, which one of these below should I use?
1. 6 units per style, per color, per size.
2. 6 units per style, per color,
3. 6 units per style, color and size?

Does it matter if you know how to sew or make clothes at all?
Knowing how to sew is not required, but is a great advantage do too cutting cost on overhead for samples and some production cost. When producing a line at first most use blanks anyway so no sewing from your end is required unless of course u want too sew in your custom labels!

Fashion06

Popularity: 4% [?]

Do u know how to get custom labels and tags for your shirts? How much do they cost?
U can find a label manufacturer anywhere on the internet. We will be highlighting manufacturers throughout the blog. Cost all depends on the type of label you want produced and how many colors. There are many quality levels from taffeta to damask, satin, twill or plain come into account with the cost of labels. Best would be to figure out what type of labels you want and call a manufacturer listed in our Industry section of the website for a price quote.

Fashion06

Popularity: 4% [?]

Where can I find a clothing manufacturer?
There are plenty of manufacturers out their. Get on the internet and search. Look in your local yellow pages and you will be surprised at the resources u will find. You have to do your research as I stated above. This is only the beginning if this is too difficult there is no reason to go any further with starting your own apparel line from scratch. Now start researching! (?Only place success comes before work is in the dictionary?) (apparelsearch.com) Our Industry Page!

Fashion06

Popularity: 6% [?]

How much capital would I need to start an apparel line?
It depends on the market you are in. I produced my first season of t-shirts with $3,000 Of course trying to start a high end designer line is more costly than producing a line of t-shirts. I?ve seen people start a line of t-shirts with $1,000 or less and build it up from there. That?s also one of the reasons most apparel lines fail is lack of sufficient capital. First do your research on what market of apparel you want to venture into and look at some of the businesses before you, and see how they started

Fashion06

Popularity: 4% [?]

What are different avenues to go about promoting a clothing line?
There are many ways to go about promoting a clothing line. First and foremost is a fashion show, word-of-mouth (very important), free publicity (newspaper, style section in a magazine) and trade shows. Those are just the most common ones you can also print flyers, stickers, and develop a website. All this and more will be covered in our daily blog!

Fashion06

Popularity: 3% [?]

Do I need a bachelors/associates or any kind of degree to start my own apparel line?
NO! I believe anyone with drive, determination and patience can start and operate a successful apparel company but, no one said it would be easy. Theirs many things to take into factor when starting any company.

Fashion06

Popularity: 3% [?]

How do I need to finance my apparel company? There are many answers to this question but, in my case I used school loans because I was just a college student when I begin. There are all types of ways of financing a business from credit cards to purchase-order financing. This will all be covered in depth throughout my daily blog!

Fashion06

Popularity: 5% [?]

How do you profit from your apparel line? Some clothing lines don?t see profit for years, a lot of times that is due to lack of capital so u are forced to produce small amounts of garments which in turn u receive lower profit margins due to high production cost.

Fashion06

Popularity: 4% [?]

How do you produce your graphic designs to be used on your garments? I use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator(Vector Art) which can be purchase online or at some local bookstores.

Fashion06

Popularity: 4% [?]

What are some tradeshows I can attend? Magic, Pulse, AmericasMart Alpha, AAE show, Agenda, Pool, and annual tradeshows in New York. (We have reviewed most of the trade shows listed above search blog for more info)

Fashion06

Popularity: 4% [?]