Starting your own private label clothing company is not as difficult as you may think. I assure you that the founding members of Volcom, Paul Frank, Hurley and Von Dutch, are not mad geniuses of fashion. You can duplicate their rise to brand stardom provided that you have the following: 1. A decent logo 2. Creative concepts and graphics - Design Talent 3. A unique, blank apparel supplier 4. A decent screen printer 5. A Line Sheet to show potential buyers 6. Sales and promotional talent. Which do you think is most important? Its obviously design talent you say? Are you Joking? You must be joking. Have you stepped out of the house recently? Have you seen Von Dutch clothing? Crayon weilding Chimpanzes produce better designs. Furthermore, I imagine the monkeys are more sanitary, but I digress. #6 is clearly the most important element. You can create an entire line of fashion forward, beautiful clothing but if you can't pitch it - no one will ever see it (excluding your mom of course). So, unless you want a closet full of your fantastic designs, ask yourself the following two questions: Can I sell? In other words......can I hit the pavement with my line sheet and walk into every boutique clothing store I can find? Then will I harass the hell out of retail clothing store buyers so that they'll try to squeeze 5 minutes of time in for me at Magic 06' (Clothing Convention) ? Will I be able to make a professional presentation to a Nordstroms buyer? Can I promote? Do I have and creative viral or gureilla marketing ideas to get this label kickstarted? If the answer to both of these questions is No - you better get some help. Namely, find someone passionate for fashion who also happens to be ridiculously outgoing, great on the phone and aggressive as hell. Lastly, (and superficially) it would help if your sales rep is hot. I know, how horrible.....so sorry, buy I didn't say anything about this being an equal opportunity blog :) That being said, let me welcome you the shallow end of the pool..... i.e. the fashion world. Good luck with your label! |
