How To Start a Clothing Business in 14 Steps (2024)

Sarah’s experience spans design, production, education, and physical retail. In 2016, she was a contender on Project Runway’s 15th season. 

Since that moment of fame, Sarah has launched her own clothing line and ecommerce store, won multiple awards, and appeared in several publications and retailer shops. Tap into the secrets to her success with these steps to developing your own clothing brand.

1. Develop your fashion design skills

Self-taught designers like Vivienne Westwood and Dapper Dan show it’s possible to thrive in fashion, no matter your background. In the internet age, the basics of tailoring can be learned simply by watching a YouTube video.

While it’s possible to skip school and launch your own clothing line, formal education, whether in a classroom or online, has its merits. You get to learn the latest industry standards, access resources and equipment, make contacts, and receive feedback from pros.

Sarah learned basic skills in a classroom, but found much of her fashion education was gained on the job, working in corporate retail. 

“I wanted to work for myself,” she says, “But I felt that it was important to get experience.”

It took me a long time to be confident enough that I could fill a store with my clothing.

Sarah Donofrio, fashion designer and entrepreneur

Sarah is an advocate for spending a few years learning the ropes from other brands and designers. 

“It took me a long time to be confident enough that I could fill a store with my clothing,” she says. “I think that I needed the time to grow and to get advice and experience.”

Many institutions offer fashion design and small business programs in varying formats. Schools like Parsons in New York and Central Saint Martins in London are world renowned for their fashion programs.

There are also a growing number of online courses for fashion industry hopefuls. Check local community colleges for virtual or part-time formats, or consider sites like MasterClass and Maker’s Row Academy.

2. Create a clothing business plan

Starting a clothing line requires many of the same considerations as starting any business. How much does it cost to start? When should you pursue capital for your startup? What outside help will you need to navigate legal, financial, production, and distribution aspects of the business? Where and how will you produce your products?

Let’s dig in. 

Fashion brand business models

For those designing a clothing line from scratch, this is the point where you will decide what type of business you are looking to run. Getting clear on your business strategy will help you determine how much time, effort, and funding will be required upfront.

A few business models to consider are:

• Hand production: Make and sell your designs directly to customers through your own website or at markets and pop-ups.
• Manufacturing partner: Create collections and produce pieces of clothing through a manufacturer, then sell your clothing line wholesale to other retailers.
• Print on demand: Design patterns or graphics to print on blank t-shirts and other clothing items using a print-on-demand service, selling online through your own store. 

Choosing a business type and structure

Your business plan is also where you’ll determine your business’s official structure. You may choose to operate as a sole proprietorship, a corporation, or something in between.

If you decide to focus on sustainable business practices and produce clothing ethically, you could also consider becoming a B Corp. This designation signifies to conscious consumers that your clothing business is committed to sustainability. 

What does it cost to start a clothing line?

Once you have a small business idea for your clothing line, you may be able to fund it yourself and bootstrap as you go. Designing and sewing made-to-order clothing on your own means you don’t have to carry a ton of inventory. However, you will need to invest upfront in equipment and large quantities of fabric to be cost-effective. Other major costs include shipping fees and a marketing budget.

If you plan to go all in and work with manufacturers on a production run, you’ll have high upfront costs to meet minimums. A solid business plan and costing exercise will help you determine how much funding you’ll need. 

“In fashion, you’re not just costing fabric and buttons and labor,” says Sarah. “You’re costing shipping, you’re costing heating and rent.” 

To come up with startup capital, look to secure a business loan or crowdfund product runs. If it’s a truly zero-investment, online clothing business that you’re after, consider dropshipping clothing or running a consignment store. 

Creating a financial plan 

When investors or banks are looking at your business model, they’ll want to see a well-thought-out financial plan. This part of your clothing line business plan should detail how you will set a budget, manage cash flow, and track expenses. It should also demonstrate a clear path to profitability.

When writing a plan for your own clothing business, try using a business plan template to guide you through the essential sections. 

3. Follow fashion trends

Through Sarah’s years of developing her brand, she’s learned that while watching trends is extremely important, it’s equally important to focus, hone your strengths, and be true to your own design sensibilities. 

“The trick is finding what you’re good at and focusing on that,” she says. 

I’ve always had a really good trend intuition. But it’s all about translation.

Sarah Donofrio

Sarah’s product line has a year-over-year consistency; design choices in her pieces are unmistakably hers. But she is always watching trends. She says that the key is adapting those trends to your brand, personalizing them, and making them work for your customer. 

“I’ve always had a really good trend intuition,” Sarah says. “But it’s all about translation.” Sarah worked on plus-size collections during her time in the corporate world and said that translating trends meant also considering the needs of the plus customer.

Though she sticks to her strengths, Sarah factors what’s happening in fashion—and in the world around her—into her development. “Take athleisure,” she says. “I don’t make tights, I don’t make sports bras, but this cool woven crop would look kind of awesome with tights, so that’s how I would incorporate the trend.”

To get inspiration for your own idea, devour fashion publications, follow style influencers, and subscribe to fashion newsletters and podcasts to stay inspired and catch trends before they emerge. 

In the noisy world of fashion, consider finding niches or meeting market demand, just like these founders did:

• Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart launched vegan winter coat brand Vaute Couture after finding a disappointing lack of cruelty-free options on the market. (Update: While Vaute has since shuttered, Leanne’s new venture, Humans We Love carries the same ethos.) 
• Camille Newman threw her hat in the plus sized fashion game with Body by Love (formerly Pop Up Plus).
• Mel Wells launched a gender-neutral vintage-inspired swimwear line. 
• Taryn Rodighiero also joined the swimwear game but focused on custom suits, made to order to each customer’s exact specifications.

4. Build a strong brand

Your brand extends far beyond a name or logo. Building a strong fashion brand is an exercise in capturing your values, your mission, what you stand for, and your story.

Creating brand guidelines will help inform all your business decisions, and dictate visual direction, website design, and marketing campaigns. Your brand will even dictate what you look for in a retail partner or a new hire.

Use social media to build a lifestyle around your brand: share your inspiration and process, inject your own personality, tell your story, and be deliberate with every post. 

“The key to social media is consistency,” says Sarah. “I think you have to post every day, but it also has to be interesting.” She mixes up her content with travel, inspiration, sneak peeks at works in progress, and even some interesting stats from her analytics dashboard.

5. Design and develop your clothing line

Sarah is an advocate of the sketchbook as one of the most important tools for a designer. “I take my sketchbook everywhere with me,” she says. “As I’m sketching away, every so often I’m like, ’Oh, this little drawing would translate really well into a repeat pattern.’” 

As a contender on Project Runway, she wasn’t allowed to have her sketchbook with her, due to the rules of the competition. “That really threw me off my game,” she says.

Sarah’s tips for designing a clothing line:

• Always be doodling. A doodle is the first step toward a refined design. For Sarah, every idea starts on paper before being translated to Illustrator or another software tool. “I always use a mix of new technology and notebooks full of scribbles,” she says.
• Make your own clothing samples by hand. This way, you can enter a relationship with a manufacturer with a better understanding of what production might entail. You’re in a better position to negotiate on costs if you’re intimate with the production process. 
• Focus on being creative. If production or other business tasks start to get in the way of development, it’s time to outsource. 

6. Source fashion fabrics or design your own 

Sarah says that fabric sourcing has a lot to do with who you know. Building a network in the industry can help you access contacts for fabric agents, wholesalers, and mills. When she lived in Toronto, she knew the local fabric market and used an agent to get access to fabrics from Japan. 

But even that route has pitfalls. 

“In Canada, everyone’s using the same agent,” she says. “All of the local clothing lines are all using the same fabrics.” 

When fabric from all over the world became easier to access online, Sarah began to find it difficult to source unique prints and materials, despite her contacts. Her solution: she began to design her own. 

“When I got out of fashion school in 2005, you couldn’t just go online and go to Alibaba. Now, lots of people I know do that,” Sarah says. “That’s why I really got into honing my textile design skills.” 

For those just starting out, agents can be helpful, but Sarah suggests building personal networks and joining communities of designers. Start meeting others in the industry at local incubators, meetup groups, online communities, and live fashion networking events.

7. Set up production and manufacturing for your clothing line

In the early days of your fashion business, you may not be producing volumes that warrant outside help, but as you scale, a manufacturing partner will let you free up time for other important tasks.

Unless you’re producing one-of-a-kind handmade items, manufacturing your designs can be accomplished in a number of ways:

• Made by hired staff or freelance sewers but still owned in-house (small studio)
• Sewn in your own commercial production facility (owned, shared, or rented)
• Outsourced to a local factory where you still have some oversight (try Maker’s Row or MFG)
• Produced at an overseas factory (completely hands off)

In-house production

Adrienne Butikofer of OKAYOK has kept her production in-house by bringing on staff as she scaled. She also outsources her dye runs to a factory. In Michigan, Detroit Denim produces clothing in its own manufacturing facility, where the founders are able to control the process—at scale.

If you’re starting out from your home, be sure your studio is set up to accommodate flow from one machine to the next, has ample storage, considers ergonomics, and is an inspiring space where you’ll be motivated to spend time. If you need more room, seek out co-working spaces, incubators, and shared studios.

Working with clothing manufacturers

In the beginning, Sarah’s line was produced primarily by her own hands, but she began outsourcing some elements to local sewers as she grew. Now, she’s working with factories and taking back her time to focus on building her brand, developing new collections, and expanding her wholesale channel. 

Obviously American-made comes with a higher price point, but it’s worth it to me.

Sarah Donofrio

Sarah feels that her customer cares about local and ethical production—enough to pay extra for it. 

“Obviously, American-made comes with a higher price point, but it’s worth it to me,” she says. “I think transparency is a big plus.”

Sarah’s experience working in the corporate world taught her not to put all of her eggs in one basket, when it comes to working with manufacturers. She weighs the strengths and weaknesses of each factory and collects her findings in her own database. 

“Big companies use different factories for different things,” she says. “Maybe there’s a factory that does knitwear better or one that does pants better.”

Ultimately, how you choose to tackle production and choose a manufacturing partner comes down to a few questions:

• How large are your runs?
• Is “made locally” important to you?
• Are you more concerned with ensuring ethical manufacturing or finding the lowest cost?
• How hands-on do you want to be in the production?
• Do you plan to scale?

Quality control

For Sarah, closely monitoring the production process was key. When vetting local factories, she believes it’s important to visit each one to get a feel for their practices. She initially requests samples from the factories to inspect their craftsmanship. As you work with a factory, spot-checking the work and carefully examining pieces when they arrive and before they ship will help reduce returns and keep your reputation for quality intact. 

8. Build pricing and inventory strategies for your clothing business

On the less creative side of running a clothing business, you’ll need to establish some strategies to help keep your back office in order. This includes setting pricing strategies and inventory management practices.

Pricing your clothing line

Pricing your clothing items involves the same exercise as pricing any item for sale. You’ll need to consider costs (fixed and variable) to produce, market, and ship the product, as well as any overhead for running the business. Look also to the market to see what consumers are willing to pay for a brand like yours. Competitive research will help you establish a pricing strategy that is in line with the market.

Inventory for clothing businesses

Managing inventory is a delicate process for any business. Clothing won’t spoil like perishable products, but trends move quickly. Work with your data to understand what’s selling and what isn’t, and tweak your production and design cycles accordingly. This way, you won’t end up sitting on unsellable stock. 

If you ship your own orders, establish an inventory system that keeps clothing protected from sunlight and moisture, and organized in a way that makes it easy to find.

9. Plan your collections around fashion seasons

The fashion industry operates on a seasonal cycle (fall/winter and spring/summer), and working backward from each season means that development of a collection can start a year or more out. 

“In corporate, we were developing two years in advance,” Sarah says. “Big corporations tend to design faster, so they’re doing a lot of trend research.” 

Without the big team and resources, though, independent designers like Sarah are working closer to delivery dates.

Your design and development period and delivery dates depend on your customer and your launch strategy, Sarah says. She suggests that you have your collection ready for the next season at least six to eight months in advance. If you’re selling wholesale, buyers will need to see your collection a month before Fashion Week.

Work backward from your delivery date to establish your design and production timelines. Add dates of important global fashion events, like New York Fashion Week, to your calendar to help set goals.

Evergreen fashion collections

Seasonality doesn’t have to dictate all of your collections, however. 

“It’s always such a shame when I design a beautiful print and I think, ’I only have this for one season. I only have a six-month window,’” says Sarah. 

Therefore, she’s inspired to work toward prints that work regardless of season.

While product development is a constant concern for fashion brands, signature or core bestselling pieces may stay in your collection for years. This is true for basics brands that focus on, say, “the perfect cotton tee,” a classic that occasionally gets a color update. KOTN’s brand is built around well made, sustainable basics with core tees selling alongside seasonal releases. 

10. Pitch your clothing line to fashion retailers

Wholesale played a huge part in the growth of Sarah’s brand in the beginning. After navigating other sales channels like her own retail store, she’s returned to a wholesale strategy.

In fashion, there are two main ways to sell your clothing line through other retailers:

Consignment

This is a win-win for everyone, as it gives your line a chance to get exposure in a store with no risk to the retailer. The downside is that you only get paid when an item sells.

Wholesale

This refers to retailers buying a set number of pieces upfront at a wholesale price (less than your retail price). This option is riskier for the retailer, so you may have to prove yourself through consignment first.

“It’s a lot easier for stores to take your whole collection on consignment, as opposed to just one or two pieces,” says Sarah, “because they have nothing to lose.” 

Approaching buyers is a daunting experience, and Sarah has worked on both sides of the transaction. Her experience looking through the buyer’s lens helped her stand out when she was pitching her own line. 

Be prepared, Sarah urges. “The first time I pitched my line, I asked myself, ’What are buyers going to ask me?’” she says. “You can’t just have pretty clothes. You have to know every detail.” 

Hitting the pavement was a strategy that worked for Sarah when she was starting out. While she advocates for face time, Sarah doesn’t recommend an ambush. Start slow, she says. Introduce yourself with a card or a catalog and try to book time to meet later. 

11. Build an online clothing store

A professional online store serves two main purposes:

1. It’s a way to sell directly to your potential customers.
2. It’s a living, breathing look book to share with buyers and media.

Setting up your online store

An ecommerce platform like Shopify is simple to use, even if you don’t have graphic design or coding skills. First, choose a Shopify theme that suits your brand and prioritizes images. Then, customize the theme by adding your logo, colors, and any other design elements.

Try themes designed for fashion brands like Colorblock, Broadcast, or Pipeline.

To provide the best shopping experience, your product pages need to capture details like fit, feel, and draping. Add the right elements by using clothing store apps from the Shopify App Store, designed specifically to help fashion brands.

Try these popular fashion store apps:

• Kiwi Size Chart & Recommender
• XO Gallery
• Loox Product Reviews & Photos

Consider making your store accessible on other online sales channels, such as on Instagram and Facebook. Integrating your store with marketplaces like Etsy is another worthwhile way to reach more customers.

Critical pages for your online clothing store

Every website needs a few standard pages that customers expect to find. These include an About page, Contact page, collection pages, product pages, and an FAQ. Because brand is so important for a clothing business, focus on the pages that help visitors understand what you’re about.

Your clothing brand’s aesthetic and values should be clear from the get-go, starting with your home page. And a dedicated About page can help potential customers create a connection with you and your brand.

Photography for clothing brands

The right theme helps photos pop, so make sure you invest in professional photo shoots. For a smaller budget, a simple lighting kit, a decent camera (the latest smartphones work well), and some tricks of the trade can help you produce professional-looking DIY shots. Be sure to capture details: fabric texture, trims, and closures.

A lifestyle shoot produces content for other pages on your site as well as marketing campaigns, a press kit, and lookbook. Show your clothing on a model to demonstrate drape and tips to help your customers style the piece.

12. Market your clothing business online

Marketing and driving sales remain the single most reported challenge for online brands, regardless of industry. As fashion is a saturated market, developing a solid brand with a unique value proposition will help you focus your efforts on your ideal customer rather than throwing money away.

In the beginning, your budget will be small, but there are still ways to grab attention with creative and organic ideas:

• Invest in content marketing. Use optimized video or keyword-targeted blog posts to drive traffic to your site. 
• Build an email list even before you launch. Tease your upcoming clothing collection on social media and incentivize sign-ups with exclusive deals.
• Lend your clothing to other businesses for photo shoots (example: beauty brands) to get shoutouts and exposure.
• Try influencer marketing by finding emerging Instagram or TikTok stars to hype your brand.
• Set up a loyalty program or referral perks to engage your loyal customers in spreading the word. 
• Find collaborations. You can collaborate with complementary brands to launch a collection, pop-up, or co-promotion.
• Learn search engine optimization (SEO). Honing your SEO skills can help you drive traffic to your online clothing store through search.
• Try social media advertising. This can include paid ads, promoted posts with creators, and even organic content with viral potential. 

13. Open a retail store, launch a pop-up, or sell at markets

It took Sarah 11 years to be in a position to seriously consider opening her own retail boutique. Throughout the evolution of her brand, she used local markets to gain more insight into her customers, test her merchandising, get exposure, and build relationships in the industry.

After her move to Portland, Oregan, she took her retail experiment to the next level with a three-month pop-up before opening a permanent retail location. 

“I was always afraid of opening my own store because of the overhead, especially in Toronto,” says Sarah. “It just wasn’t attainable.”

Through the process, she learned that she could use more hands. She hired a fashion design student to help in the store. 

“When you have a retail store and a clothing label, as a lot of entrepreneurs do, you just have to learn how to allocate things,” she says. “It’s taken me a long time to learn that, but what I’m paying her to work in the store, my time is worth so much more.”

Temporary retail space for your clothing business

Opening a physical store doesn’t mean signing a 10-year lease. You can dabble in in-person selling in more affordable and non-committal ways:

• Subleasing retail space to host a temporary pop-up shop
• A mini experience on a shelf or in a section of a retailer’s space
• Applying for booth space at craft shows or fashion markets
• Vendor booths at events like music festivals

Sarah has since closed her retail location. 

“I did not like running it,” she says. 

The store took her away from the aspect of the business that she loved—designing. She still sells direct to customers via the website but has switched much of the brand’s focus to wholesale. 

14. Learn from the pros

Sarah’s experience as a contestant on Project Runway taught her many important lessons about herself and her industry. 

While she understands that being reactive in fashion is an asset, Sarah knows she thrives when she has more wiggle room. Because of her development background, she was amazed at the work her fellow competitors could do in a short amount of time. 

“For me, it was not a realistic pace at all,” she says. “It’s a shame that my best work wasn’t on national television.”

She also faced one of the scariest things any artist has to face: the haters. She was eliminated in the fourth episode when her swimwear didn’t resonate with the judges. 

The lesson: Your target audience is not everyone. 

But she was also surprised to see many supportive messages from new fans she amassed during the show’s run. 

“The show taught me that everything comes down to taste,” she says. “There’s always someone who will like your stuff.”

Design your own clothing line

As you launch your own fashion brand and enter the competitive fashion industry, remember to focus on what makes your ideas unique, as well as what your target customers want. Success as a fashion brand relies on a solid business model, a design perspective, and a keen sense of consumer and market trends.

Sarah’s business is thriving because she pursued her dream and let every misstep guide her next pivot. Sometimes, those pivots were risks, but were also her path to growth.