How much money does it really take to start a fashion line?

Here are some real world budget number$ on what it takes to launch a fashion collection. 

A lot of “want to be” fashion designers have a misconception that they can eventually quit their day job and easily compete with clothing prices they see in stores. It’s a flawed premise, to think you can do any of that without replicating the selling platform and back end garment production process, required to support storefront or online clothing prices. Here’s the kind of investment you’ll have to make to compete in the real world of “off the rack” fashion. First of all you’ve got to know and understand how “Fashion Math” works - If you want to sell your design for $20, then you’ve got to get your cost down to $5 or 1/4 to be profitable or you’ll undervalue your design. Wholesale to retailers should be 2x your cost. Retailers are going to want to use the Manufactures Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) or Suggested Retail Price as the top dollar price and offer sales or promotional discounts off that price to stay in alignment with the perceived value of the item. If you don’t follow this logic from the beginning everything else you do without it will be a wrong thinking struggle. Consider it a Fashion Law. 0. Garment Development - Plan on spending $500-$2,500 on the design illustrations, flats, patterns, prototypes, grading, digitizing and technical specifications of each item in your collection. This process can take several experts to pull together. A good pre production coordinator or design house like mine can pull together the team and resources you need. 0. Fabric and Notions for each design in your collection needs to be purchased by the 50+ yard roll and in bulk amounts of zippers, buttons or whatever else is included in your design. If you want to graphically design your own fabrics, knits, or hardware notions add a few weeks of turn around time and lots of design and set up fees to the cost of those goods, plus ordering a minimum quantity on getting each of those items produced. Multiply this times every single garment in your collection. Attending trade shows like the Apparel Textile Show in Miami or Canada or the DGEXPO show can help you source these items. 0. Labels - graphic design and development of your garment labels plus production needs to coincide with Production. You’re going to need at least 500-1000 labels per item for a small factory production run. The average high volume production run for brands you see in stores and online is in the 10,000’s. Attending trade shows like the Apparel Textile Show in Miami or Canada or the DGEXPO show can help you source these items. 0. Production - getting each item in your collection produced may have to be done at more than one kind of factory if you’ve got a mixture of jeans, dresses, t shirts, swim or active wear. Finding a small volume (10-100 pieces at a time) production house is possible, or look on websites like MakersRow.com for more volume made in the USA. You can source worldwide production at trade shows like the Apparel Textile Show in Miami or Canada or look Online at Manufacturer.com 0. Photography is going to be an ongoing expense but can be used for all of your social media. Hiring models, hair stylists, make up artists, a studio and photographer should be an ongoing expense. 0. Website - having a professional looking shopping cart website to support your brand is mission critical to gain subscribers, market and sell. A profitable website can cost an average $10,000 with content development, set up fees, hosting and programming. Ongoing web updates will cost about $500 per week. 0. Instagram has become a huge selling platform. Companies like KelpSocial.com (tell Tyler I sent you) are mission critical to building your followers to an influencer level BEFORE you launch. Plan on spending anywhere from $20-500 per month to build your content, post coupon codes, promote sales and gain followers. 0. Facebook marketing is another mandatory platform to be on for connecting to Instagram and sharing your offers and coupon codes to other groups and pages. You can hire a Facebook marketing expert for about $150-400 a month. 0. Influencer Marketing with a company like ApexDrop.com can launch your brand over the top. You can put your product into the hands of 100-400 micro influencers to gain photos, posts about your brand on their social media, testimonials and unlicensed content you’ll be able to use indefinitely. These campaigns cost thousands of dollars, but the results are guaranteed. Put this in your budget! Ask for Shea Sullivan and tell him I sent you!! 0. Runway Shows - entering your designs into local Runway shows and events to promote your brand can cost anywhere from $200 at a local event to $10,000 for a celebrity attended event like the Oscar Awards. Make sure the promoter has a good reputation, references, a history of successful shows, buyers, media, bloggers, and influencers in attendance in addition to the entertainment value of fashion fans or sponsors, because at the end of the day you want this event to be an investment in your brand. They should also be supplying models, hair stylists, make up artists, photographers and videographers. 0. Retail Contracts can be negotiated in advance if you’ve got sample garments and production in place though people like Lilyana LoVela of Florida Fashion Chamber Of Commerce. 0. Tradeshows like “Magic” in Vegas can put your designs on display for retail buyers looking for what’s new and hot from around the world. I have a client who sells an average of $12,000 in clothing at bodybuilding tradeshows. I had another client who had an amazing product, but was completely embarrassed when an interested top retailer pulled up his social media, while standing at his booth and found nothing online to support his brand. 0. Crowdfunding Campaigns can help you raise all of the funds above if you’ve got a prototype to work with and have the numbers together on what it will cost to do the rest. Many amazing brands have overshot their funding goals by hundreds of thousands of dollars with revolutionary fashion ideas. In closing, getting in the the Fashion business can quickly become an expensive venture and full time job. I’m for hire and can help you coordinate all of the above resources. Gina Vincenza Van Epps House Of Vincenza Gina@HouseOfVincenza.com Psycho Seamstress Gina@PsychoSeamstress.com Orlando Fashion District Gina@OrlandoFashionDistrict.com