Best Websites For Helping Beginners With Starting a Clothing Line – 2024 Edition
Starting a clothing line is an exciting yet serious endeavor to take on. Luckily there is a lot of help these days that can offer divine guidance to beginners setting out on this journey. Beginners in 2024 do not have to make the same mistakes that would-be fashion entrepreneurs made in the past. Does that mean that starting a fashion brand is any easier? Not necessarily, but it does mean that creating your own fashion brand is within reach like never before as long as you are committed to your vision. This article will feature the best websites for helping beginners with starting a clothing line. It will list fashion websites & pages that have awesome tools, helpful information and resources such as:
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- Guides On How to Start a Clothing Line
- The Business of Operating a Fashion Brand
- Fashion Design Software to Design Your Clothing
- Clothing Manufacturing and Factory Contacts,
- Garment Measurements
- Pantone Color Guides
- Hangtags, Labeling, Buttons, Zippers, Trims
- Screenprinting, Embroidery Service
- Blank Apparel / Private Label
- Apparel Design Process
- Spec Sheets & Technical Sketches
- Clothing Line Marketing
- Fabric Suppliers
- Graphic Design
- How to Become a Fashion Designer
- Creating Your eCommerce Website / Clothing Website
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1. How to Start a Clothing Line / The Business of Operating a Fashion Brand
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How to Start a Clothing Line from scratch involves a few key components. Here are 10 Major Steps / Components:
- Come up with a great name for your clothing line that will inspire you, your team and buyers
- Trademark your clothing line name
- Decide what type of clothing line you want to start / identify niches
- Clothing Design Software (see our list of the best ones) to design you line / create your sketches
- Sourcing Out Manufacturing
- Creating a Budget for your line which includes everything from licenses to manufacturing to warehousing
- Funding your clothing line / finding investors
- Assembling a great team (you can’t do it alone)
- Marketing your clothing line and getting your line sold in stores
- Operating, Managing & Growing Your Clothing Line
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Here is a list of the top 4 websites that can help you with these items / how to start your own clothing line:
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1. Digital Fashion Pro Style Blast Clothing Line Start-Up Kit – Is a Total Package that comes with a complete step by step guide to starting a clothing line for beginners, fashion design software that lets you design any style, over 175 worldwide manufacturing contacts, creating your budget, how to find investors, how to get your line in stores and spec sheet templates. This awesome kit will empower you to immediately take to the road with launching your own fashion brand.
Company: Digital Fashion Pro
Website: https://digitalfashionpro.com/
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2. A great guide to starting a clothing line from A Better Lemonade Stand. This page walks beginners through how to start their own fashion line. It has many helpful tips and resources. It is definitely a worthy stop on your road to creating your own fashion company.
Company: A Better Lemonade Stand
Website: https://www.abetterlemonadestand.com/how-to-start-a-clothing-line/
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3. Sewport offers a great read on how to start a clothing line. It is a comprehensive article based on feedback from 43 designers / fashion brands interviews. It covers staring your clothing line, marketing your clothing line, getting you clothing made and more. Definitely worth the 75 minute read.
Company: Sewport
Website: https://sewport.com/tips-on-starting-a-clothing-line-from-43-brands
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4. Step by Step How to Start a Clothing Line From Scratch Article. This article covers all of the major points of starting a clothing line.
Company: DigitalFashionPro.com
Website: https://digitalfashionpro.com/how-to-start-a-clothing-line-beginners-guide/
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2. Fashion Design Software – A Tool Needed In Starting a Clothing Line.
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One main component of starting your own clothing line is being able to create your fashion design sketches. Some might say that this is one of the most important aspects of any fashion brand. Creating clothing designs that people will want to buy and wear is imperative to any clothing company. Professional digital sketches are needed to communicate your fashion ideas to manufacturers and retailers. Digital Sketches also serve as digital samples that act as blueprints to how your designs should be made. There are a few companies that offer fashion design software – see the list of the best choices + info about each here. One great choice for beginners is Digital Fashion Pro. Users all over the world use Digital Fashion Pro as it is easy to use, comes with training and you do not have to know how to draw to use it.
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*All Sketches Featured Above Were Created With Digital Fashion Pro Software.
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Here is a short list of the 5 best websites offering clothing design software / To see the full list of websites offering Fashion Design Software + Prices, Reviews, Features and more:
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1. Digital Fashion Pro is Fashion Design Software System that let’s users easily design their own clothing line even if they lack experience or can’t draw. The program comes with a wide assortment of customizable garment templates, models, vector artwork, digital fabrics, training and free technical support.
Company: Digital Fashion Pro
Website: https://digitalfashionpro.com
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2. Adobe Illustrator is a graphic design software / cloud application that let’s users create their own designs.
Company: Adobe
Website: https://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator.html
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3. Corel Draw is a General Vector Graphics Editor that let’s users create their own designs and artwork.
Company: Corel
Website: https://www.coreldraw.com/en/
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4. Optitex is an online fashion design software that let’s users design clothing.
Company: EFI Optitex
Website: https://optitex.com
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5. Browzwear is an online fashion design software that let’s users design clothing.
Company: Browzwear
Website: https://browzwear.com
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3. Clothing Manufacturers / Getting Your Clothing Line
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Manufacturing Your Clothing Line / Working With Manufacturers is a critical step in staring and operating you fashion brand. It is important that whatever apparel factory or clothing manufacturer that you work with delivers the following:
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- Quality Merchandise
- On Time Delivery
- Prices that work within your market
- Willingness to make small quantities if necessary
- Safe and Legal Work Standards in their factory (No child labor or harsh working conditions)
- Great communication with you
- Provide samples
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Here are some web resources that can help you with the manufacturing component of starting a clothing line:
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1. StartingAClothingLine.com offers the HA Ultimate List of Clothing Manufacturers eBook. This eBook, updated yearly, offers users contact information to over 250 worldwide manufacturers and fashion resources. It is a easy to use list that also details what market each resource specializes in. You also have contacts for custom buttons, zippers, trims, hangtags, samples, labels, grading, fabric suppliers, screen-printing, embroidery, sublimation, packaging and more.
Company: Digital Fashion Pro
Website: https://digitalfashionpro.com/clothing-factories/
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2. Apliiq is a company that will create and sew your labels into ready made garments.
Company: Apliiq
Website: https://www.apliiq.com/site/how-to-start-a-successful-clothing-line
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3. Alibaba is a company that you can buy ready-made apparel from so you can then add your designs or labels to / private label
Company: Alibaba
Website: https://www.alibaba.com/Apparel
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4. Other Fashion & Business Resources That Will Come In Handy As You Start a Clothing Line
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1. Pantone Textile Color Guide. This guide is used to communicate what color your design will be. It helps all parties get on the same page. It is the most used color guide system in the fashion industry. It is a must for any fashion brand.
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2. Standard Garment Measurement Specification Guide. This guide is a great resource for coming up with the measurements for your styles that you are having manufactured. It also contains grading rules.
Website: https://digitalfashionpro.com/upgrades
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3. 3DCART / Shift4Shop is a eCommerce Platform to Set Up Your Clothing Website.
Website: https://www.3dcart.com/
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4. Shopify is a eCommerce Platform to Set Up Your Clothing Website.
Website: https://www.shopify.com/
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5. The Guide to Raising Money to Fund a Clothing Line / Finding Clothing Line Investors by StartMyLine.com.
Website: https://startmyline.com/raising-money-to-start-a-clothing-line/
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6. Register your clothing line domain name.
Website: Get the domain name you want for your clothing line / check on it / register it at Godaddy Ad Today
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7. How to become a self-taught fashion designer even if you can’t sew or draw.
Website: https://digitalfashionpro.com/self-taught-fashion-designer/
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8. How to become a fashion designer.
Website: https://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-Fashion-Designer
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