Sourcing can be complex. It also can be simple. It just depends on what you’re going for. If you’re a company that wants to simplify your supply chain, then you usually go for an all-in approach, right?
Go with one company, they’ll source everything for you. They’ll produce the product for you. You pay them one price, you bring it in, and then you sell it.
If you’re a company that cares about where everything comes from, if your customer is concerned about sustainability, if your customer is concerned about child labor practices, if your customer is concerned about the environment, you can’t put your trust in one company and assume that they’re going to also have those things top of mind as well.
In today’s world and in today’s market, how the customer is so important to how people buy and what they produce, go to each company individually. Maybe you have to source a button from this factory and fabric from this country and this factory and maybe zippers from this country in this factory because you really are looking into the business practices, the reputation of the company, who they are, and what their story is.
Then, when you bring all of those pieces together, you can communicate with your customer, “Hey, we were thinking about you in this entire process. That’s why it took us three months to find three components to get you this hoodie because we know what’s important to you and we know that sustainability and the environment are also important to you.
If you care about who your customers are, maybe you can find a company that does all in production that also has the same business ideals that you do and the ideals that your customers have. But from my experience, sometimes it takes going to three different manufacturers, getting different components, and then bringing it all together to make the final product so that you can be really proud of the product that you’ve produced.

When you’re looking at materials, understand what the function is. If we’re looking at a sportswear shoe, are we looking to ensure that there is a four-way stretch? Then we have to look at what that means in terms of our manufacturing partners to deliver that.

Is a four-way stretch going to influence the dyeability of the fabric? Is the dyeability of the fabric going to influence the tensile strength? Is that going to influence any sort of friction on the wearer’s foot?

These things all start from a material selection standpoint.

If it’s a sports shoe, do we want it to be moisture-wicking? Do we want it to take water away from the wearer’s foot during activity?

If it’s a boot, do we want to make sure that it’s wipeable? If it’s faux leather, real leather, or any other mixed material, are we going to ensure that mechanical finishes can be applied to it?

For example, a common material used in faux leather footwear is PU, which is polyurethane. It’s important for polyurethane that it passes stretch, heat, and temperature testing. Also, what is the dyeability of that fabric?

When we’re looking at materials, understand the purpose of your footwear. Is it for formal or creative purposes? Is it going to be able to reach the design aesthetic that you’re looking for?

Ensure that your material selection can be dyed, finished, and manufactured to your liking. Also, make sure it has a great hand feel and colorfastness.

These are all things to consider when selecting your materials.

Fashion merchandising has the ability to create and transform a retail store’s environment. Whether it’s selecting light wood furniture for an airy, beachy vibe or going with a darker wood to convey a more serious tone, small details set the store’s scene and invite customers to explore. It’s an extension of the design of the garment on display. What is the environment you envision that garment in?

It’s important to lay store merchandise out in a way that’s going to guide the customer around the store. Rather than having potential customers come in, see the first rack of things and leave, merchandising encourages the customers to stay. In the fashion business, you want customers to end up at the back of the store so they then have to make a circle through the store to view all of your merchandise.

Merchandising ties in fashion education and has a creative, theatrical flair that draws attention. When someone stops in front of your store’s window and takes a picture, you’ve already captured the interest of that person who’s now a future potential customer. Writing on the windows and displaying your Instagram QR code means people can scan it and easily go to your Instagram.

From there, a customer can get an online fashion education of sorts on the store, view the store’s Instagram highlights, learn more about the founders and their story, and find out what’s in store and what’s coming soon. All of these tactics are interactive for the client. We want to provide them with ways to interact with the brand and the store before they even step inside. This is something that’s really important in today’s digital age where consumers want to be more educated and conscious about where they shop.

When you get to transform a logo into hangtags, packaging, and that bag that everyone will carry their lunch in, that’s when it gets really fun—the storefront, how a store looks, and how your product is displayed on the shelf. In New York City, that’s going to make you famous.

It becomes very exciting because you get to take a really basic brand and figure out how to move it around and transform it into various spaces.

Because of e-commerce, one of the design trends we witnessed in the 2000s was logos becoming horizontal. For example, when we first started moving online, many fashion logos tended to be vertical, meaning they went up and down. So the most renowned design that comes to mind is the Yves Saint Laurent logo, which was created by hand and was very vertical. That is the worst type of logo to use on a website because it pushes the rest of the content down.

Another thing we saw, which makes me sad, is that many luxury brands are becoming blander, with many of their logos using the same typefaces.

There is a lot of discussion on social media about the differences between logos from the 1990s and today. They’re also mainly black and white. Again, this is due to e-commerce, as you must have things that do not compete with the product on your page when selling online. When you have many products, images, and editorials on a page, a black and white logo that is really straightforward and not too fussy is important.

Brand packaging for an ecommerce fashion business is very important.
It’s discouraging as a customer when you get something in a standard plastic shipping envelope and dig inside to find the product you ordered rumpled at the bottom in a plastic bag. You would be turned off if you went to a restaurant where you know the food is good, but it’s spilled all over the edges of the plate. The same is with your packaging. It’s all in the presentation.
Everything your customer touches and sees is your brand. Do not treat packaging, labelling, and branding as an afterthought. If you want someone to love your product, put some care and attention into your packaging. It’s synonymous with the quality of your product and the story of your brand.
Designing your own packaging is going to cost you a bit of money, but you don’t have to spend a ton. Even designing your own little envelope that your product is going to go inside of will show the customer you’ve put thought into your brand.
Spend some time thinking about what type of packaging you’re going to ship your product in and what it will look like when your customer receives it. It’s also the opportunity to show your personality. If you are humoristic and want to take that tongue in cheek approach, you can. If you want to be more serious, you can be that as well.
Shipping your product is an excellent opportunity to personally connect with your customer. Throwing in some extra freebies is a nice way to thank them for supporting your brand. Some examples would be a key ring, stickers, a trinket, a hand-written note, or giving a gift with purchase. These thank you gifts can really be anything and provide that personal touch.

“Every season as a team we collectively go through all of the runway shows from New York, London, Milan, and Paris, and pull through actual looks that we think will work for future stories at Teen Vogue,” Says Sarah Brody. “Once we’ve identified the trend for the season, we go through all of our market images, which are the photos that we’ve taken at all the appointments that we’ve gone to so far, and we pull out the lower end market and the more affordable pieces that we think that our readers want to see on the page that still relates to the bigger trends that we’ve seen this season.”

“After that, we compile a book that we present to Amy, our editor in chief and our creative director at Marie. We go over every single trend, what styles we think might like that trend, what photographer would work well with it, and we send them out to all the stylists and photographers that we work with regularly. They send back their feedback and some inspiration images that they would want to incorporate for a future shoot for the magazine.”

“As shoots are confirmed, we work with stylists to call in the best pieces that we think will work for the story that they’re doing. Whether that’s a sweater from Guess or a pair of jeans from AG, we’re always looking for the best pieces in the market because it’s our job as editors to not have everything here.”

“Once everything is here and laid out, it’s organized on racks and tables. We then, as a team, edit through to what we think are the best of the best pieces that we want to show the stylists and show Amy in the run through. For those of you that don’t know what a run through is, it’s like a dress rehearsal before a show,” Explains Brody.

“We go through everything. Amy picks out her favorite pieces as the stylists goes through the looks that they’ve created. We talk over the shoot before it actually happens.”

“My favorite part of my job is meeting with new designers and figuring out how I can incorporate them into the book. After all, the Teen Vogue tagline is ‘fashion starts here’. A special experience for me was our main cover story with Kylie Jenner where our sales brand and Maxwell asked the fashion team if we knew of any designers that sent a muslin dress down the runway, and no one really did.”

“I thought of a friend that was just starting out on his own, and I asked him if he would make a dress. Brandon, myself, and my friend Max designed the entire thing from scratch. I was super excited when it ended up being shot. Here’s the image of Kylie and her friends wearing it. That was just one of the many, many memories I have of working here at Teen Vogue.”

Sample creation is essential to making fashion products that sell. According to Angela Gao, no design process is complete without time spent creating and refining these mockups.

“When I’m designing, I like to have a mood board right where I work. If I find appealing images for a new collection, I pin them up along with fabrics I’d like to use.”

Next, Gao refines the creative inspirations she’s collected. “I sort the fabric I’ve gathered. Then, I develop sketches representing flat joins of what I’d like to produce.”

Sample making comes next. Many designers produce samples in factories or designated sample rooms, but smaller designers may prefer in-house production.

“I usually produce the initial mockups and send them directly to my factories,” continues Gao. “Then the factories send me the completed samples.”

Sample-making ensures that everything fits before it goes into production or gets sold to stores. Gao says the extra effort helps her create quality products for her target consumers through a “fit modeling” process.

“Working with fit models is important, but it differs from runway shows,” Gao explains. “Runways are glamorous, so everything is slim, skinny, and tall. When you’re selling to a customer or buyer, however, your work must fit real people. Fit models have the perfect sizing that matches typical clientele. The fitting process lets the designer fix aspects that they dislike and adjust poorly fitting elements. For example, if an armhole looked too big, the designer would pin it up and resize it at this stage.”

Gao also says that fit modeling is just the first step – It’s important to recheck the work afterward. “After you finish fitting a garment, you can send the sample back to the factory. When the factory returns an adjusted prototype sample, you’ll check it against a fit model again.”

Sample making also facilitates business opportunities known as sample sales. “A sample sale is a retail channel for designers to sell samples,” says Gao. “Companies can generate some extra profit by selling samples that would go unused. The only downside of this practice is that samples aren’t perfect. Sometimes, they might lack buttons, closures, zippers, or other features. They also can have fit issues. Nonetheless, sample sales offer great deals.”

“Claire McCardell is one of those names that’s synonymous with American sportswear. She is somebody who redefined the sportswear market by adding things such as play suits and swimwear,” Patrick Michael Hughes explains. “She followed her customers from the late 1930s, to war bride, to movement to the suburbs, and into the early to mid-1950s.”

When we take a look at our Claire McCardell shirtwaist dress, we find a number of historical elements. The first of which is the shirtwaist. The shirtwaist is something that is synonymous with American fashion. It’s something that American women at the end of the 19th century into the 20th century are absolutely going to fall in love with. It’s the look of the Gibson Girl, which is really an exciting moment in history and for women. The Gibson Girl is a woman who is going to ride bicycles, operate typewriters, and have dreams of voting.

By the time we take a look at this shirtwaist dress from around 1942-1943, we have a simple cotton dress in war-time kind of proportions. It’s very paired down and very clean with just a tiny little bit of something to keep it fresh and new. The collar is able to be tied into a bow tie.

What’s also fun about this are the prints. This is a whimsical shamrock. Morality prints during World War II are very exciting to take a look at. Who are they fighting for? Why are we fighting? Keeping your morale going and looking pretty while the men are fighting abroad. This is also part of the World War II message and something that McCardell will plug into.

“If you take a closer look at the McCardell shirtwaist dress, you’ll find an interesting enclosure. McCardell was known for interesting enclosures like brass hooks, brass studs, and all kinds of things that are different than just plain buttons. When we started styling and having fun with our timeless shirtwaist dress, we put a Beastie Boys t-shirt underneath it. We tied it with a Double RL Ralph Lauren flannel shirt. We’re mixing an American message, and she’s ready for grunge. Grunge is making a comeback. Grunge never really went away,” Says Hughes.

It’s something that is also tremendously romantic. When we think about grunge, and we think about grunge dressing and the story or the narratives of a songwriter or a poet, and tragic endings. We have a really fun sort of look here.

“We find the white dress at the beginning and end of every century emblematic of the rise of democracy, going back to a classical theme. I love the white dress, in the sense that it’s fresh, it’s new, and it can say a great deal about revival,” Patrick Michael Hugues states.
“Our particular white dress is made of two components—one from the late 1970s and the other from the early 1980s. It’s the stretch lace bodysuit made by American designer Giorgio Di Sant’Angelo. Di Sant’ Angelo began his career as a Lucite jewelry designer until 1968 when the legendary Diana Vreeland discovered his talent. From there, it took off,” Hugues explains.
Hugues continues, “We have a skirt in white cotton muslin made by Geoffrey Beene from his designer clothing line Beene Bag. The white muslin skirt takes us to the beginnings of the white dress and white clothing at the beginning and end of every century. It has a classical mix. It has purity.”
“There are a couple of wonderful details when taking a closer look at our Beene skirt. One of them is a cartridge pleating, which we can trace its origin to the 18th century,” Hugues claims and continues, “the hem has a wonderful trapunto stitch hemline which gives a sense of wadded weight to our muslin skirt.”
Hugues explains further. “The wadded hemline is another fashion we can trace back to the early 19th century, something that we can trace back to the early 19th century. It has a sense of romance. It’s almost the end of the white dress, taking us into the age of romance. The age of romance, of course, referring to the time of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, Emma, all of those things.”
“While I was making up a story for our white dress, which has a bit of a Gibson Girl look to it, I realized the collar is a high neck with a sense of romance,” Hugues explains. “We place on it, Tibetan beads, glass beads, ceramic beads, a wonderful sort of silver brooch with turquoise stones. and of course, a huge sort of dramatic Marc Jacobs collection sort of raccoon or fox hood to complete the look.”
Hugues claims, “Mixed with this, of course, is also a piece of surplus clothing, or Army and Navy clothing. We find a tremendous amount of Army and Navy clothing after World War II. I believe this is something that the troops will leave behind in Europe, and something that America will export to Europe.”
“This is a time where we’ll see a strong presence of American clothing in Europe. So, this green Army jacket has another level to this wonderful sort of American narrative. When we think about sorts of the white dress, about new dressing—we have a number of narratives to refer to,” Hugues concludes.

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In the fashion industry, working with a factory is a day-to-day process for entrepreneurs. That’s why fashion education covers communication.

“I do daily chores as a designer,” explains fashion expert Angela Gao. “To ensure that your samples and products are being produced on time, you need to be in touch with your factories on a daily basis.”

Bigger design houses, Angela explains, usually have a design development department that can handle these tasks. Angela is an entrepreneur, however, and she does this work on her own. Many fashion designers do the same.

For Angela, whose factory is in China, this means figuring out the time difference and choosing the best times to call her factory agent. She makes sure to call during times when both she and her factory agent are working.

When Angela calls her factory agent, she follows up on specific items and designs. She may ask if the factory received her latest design specs, for example.

The agent answers her questions and tells her about any issues with fabric, potential delays, and more. The agent will also tell her when things run smoothly. During this conversation, Angela also asks for updates on production dates and shipping.

In addition to receiving updates from the agent, Angela may also provide some updates of her own, if necessary. For example, if she changes the style of a garment, she’ll let the agent know when the factory can expect her updates.

Other conversations can include email. With email, Angela can send design specs and tech packs. Email also lets Angela communicate without worrying about the time difference.

In any case, direct communication is key for fashion entrepreneurs like Angela. Both phone and email conversations help Angela maintain her success. This way, Angela can avoid surprises and stay up to date on her design production.