A customer profile is extremely important because if you’re trying to sell to everyone, you won’t sell to anyone because you’ll be too spread apart. You have to have a focal point on the kind of customer you want to go after because after you grow, your customer profile will grow, and you will gain others. You have to have that strong focal point in the beginning of what’s the customer you envision wearing your brand or wearing your shoes. One customer profile is a sexy, sassy woman or man that loves wearing stiletto heels.

When identifying a customer for your product, it’s important to know who your customer is, but also what is your product and service? After identifying what your product or service is, you’ll be in a better place to identify who your customer is. Start customer identification through demographics. What is their income? What is their location? What do they do for a living? What is their age? What is their ethnicity?

There are cultural nuances that influence a customer’s buying decisions as well. To further that customer selection, it’s also important to know customer psychographics. What are their hobbies? What do they enjoy doing in their free time? What are their favorite colors? What is their personality?

A lot of times this research is readily available, and you can search past footwear outlets or resources to find that information. Another great way to find this information is through social media. You can maybe hold a small focus group. You could reach out to your friends and family to get their insights.

If there are different groups on different social media platforms, whether those are sneaker lovers, leather shoe lovers or Timberland lovers, you can reach out to these groups to really tap into finding out what it is that they look for in their footwear selection.

If that is your customer, that is a great way for you to identify them. Talk to them and get inside their mind. What are their hobbies? What do they like to do? Are they the ones who are going to be purchasing your shoe? If not, then maybe you need to direct and find someone else. When you are doing the research to identify your customer, keep these things in mind: demographics, psychographics, and everything else will fall into place.

CLO 3D is bringing the technical aspects of fashion design under one program.
The first thing we need to understand about the program is how it handles measurements. Measurements aren’t universal, so the first step is always working out, for example, what a size six means for your company. What are those measurements?
Those measurements are built into the CLO system, but what does this mean? Well, when you’re designing on your avatar, you have that size six. You have the sleeve length and all the measurements you need to design a pattern around that size. Not only do you have the measurements, but you also have the grading – all that information can be put into the program.
The technology allows you to print out the pattern based on the information you input. This includes the styling, the measurements, and all the details. It’s a fantastic way to build a garment from the ground up, ensuring internal consistency between all your designers and the products they create.
As with any modeling technology, there is an initial learning curve, especially for designers who tend to work with traditional mediums. Still, design students tend to pick it up quickly within the semester, with many of them building their own garments using the technology.
It may take a while to understand, but it’s not needlessly complicated. Everything has a function. For example, you don’t need to understand flat pattern making. Of course, having a background in traditional design is beneficial. You’ll need to have some background in sewing and how pieces come together to make the most of the technology.
As with any aspect of design, it takes time to master. Still, it’s a great tool, especially for students who are working online from home right now. Online you can learn the computer technology aspect well and start playing with the system. You can create your avatar and start designing as someone interested in the program.

When fashion designers need to instruct manufacturers how to create their products, they communicate the specifics by creating a tech pack. These documents explain all the information required to transform an idea, drawing, flat pattern, swatch selection, or combination of such concept elements into a finished garment.

After creating a tech pack, a designer typically forwards it to their product development, or PD, team. The PD team then sends the information to a factory – or multiple factories. This strategy reveals which factories can meet the desired standards and which are the most cost-effective. According to experts, cost differences are common, so it’s vital to aim for the highest quality at the lowest price.

Eventually, the factory returns samples based on the tech pack specifications. At this point, the designer evaluates the results based on various criteria. One common consideration is whether the factory produced an item to the stated specifications. In many cases, the quick turnaround times involved at this stage will result in some variability. For instance, early samples may incorporate substitute materials since a factory won’t have had time to prepare for the new specification in advance. Nonetheless, designers and their merchandising teams can benefit from considering whether the garments are aesthetically pleasing or correctly fitted.

Designers commonly have seemingly great ideas that don’t quite translate into appealing real-life apparel. In most cases, however, they prefer not to deviate too far from their initial tech pack specifications. Sticking to the plan helps brands satisfy tight timeline constraints.

Many production teams operate around something called a “Time and Action Calendar.” This well-known industry schedule involves a heavy, continuous workload. For instance, companies may work on three seasons’ worth of collections simultaneously, each with its own tech packs. Further complicating the timetable, a typical tech pack can progress through a cycle of multiple sample runs before being ready to go to market. In other words, it’s best to keep the initial tech pack as close to the desired target as possible.

“What inspired these young designers started almost a year ago with sketches, inspiration, and research,” Explains Explains Francesca Sammaritano. “The end product is what you see over here. You’re only seeing one look per designer. But, I wanted to share that with you.”

“It gives you a wide range of specializations that you can go into within the fashion industry, whether it be men’s wear, outerwear, women’s wear, or a more designer-level collection or aesthetic that you want to pursue.”

One designer did a collection of women’s wear outerwear with a lot of in-depth research on how outerwear works, what kind of technical fabrics you need, what colors work best, water repellency, all kinds of removable liners for when it’s cold or when it’s raining while also giving the option to wear the garment in different ways.

If you zip out the liner, you can wear the liner as a vest. She went a step further. She had a collection of shoes and boots made to go with her collection. The design process is inclusive of accessories as well as garments. She will pursue an opportunity in outerwear.

Another example of the variety of jobs or opportunities that you can pursue once you become a designer could be women’s wear designer on a higher level. This designer really values the art of craft. He invested in a weaving machine. He made this fabric. He bought the yarns.

He designed the fabric, made yardage, and then he sewed the garment. He is now pursuing an opportunity in designer women’s wear with a focus on craft. Another example that I thought would be wonderful to show is our menswear designer who coincidentally won the Menswear Designer of the Year.

This is just one example of his extensive collection. In this, he incorporated a few different aspects. He used natural fibers. He printed his own fabric and his own print from curtains that inspired him from growing up in his house in childhood. He is a menswear designer.

But, we found that in the conversations that we had with him and in the presentations that he’s had of his collection, a lot of people would ask him, would you consider designing for women’s wear too? Because as a woman, I would wear your garments. Or you could do both. Or there could be a customer for either/or. This is a very interesting, trendy category that we find a lot of students are going for.

Costing your fashion product usually involves a few components. As a merchandiser, you may have 10 styles and want to have a certain markup. If you’re selling within your own stores, you usually want at least a 75 to 85 percent internal markup. If you want to retail a jacket for $695, you need to then back it up and already know that your landed cost needs to be 20 percent of that to get your 80 percent markup.

If the coat designer wants beautiful satin made in Italy, your cost of goods will increase. Generally, when you’re looking at cost of goods and cost on the item, around 70 percent is the raw materials. In your fashion business, you must think about the actual materials – the thread, the trim, the buttons.

If you are going to get your desired 75 or 80 percent margin, this coat is going to be $1,500 versus the $695 you wanted. You’ll then have to go back to the design team since the market and your brand can’t retail this high. The cost value is not there, so you’re going to see where you can cut costs using fashion education and sourcing. Can you counter source a material in another country that looks and feels the same? Can you take a few pockets off to lower the cost?

The second component of costing is having a loss leader. A loss leader is the one item that’s the showstopper, the most fashionable piece. You need this piece to draw interest to the collection, although you’re getting a lower margin, possibly a 40 to 50 percent margin. You’re going to make fewer units, but the other styles have higher margins. Many fashion brands use this blended costing because ultimately it’s the blended total that makes a difference.

Costing a product is a full-time job and usually takes many people. You can look at costing in a couple of different ways. As a merchandiser, let’s say you had 10 styles, and we wanted to have a certain markup. If you’re selling within your own stores, you usually want at least a 75% to 85% internal markup. If you want to retail a jacket for $695, and you already know that your landed cost needs to be 20% of that to get your 80% markup.
A designer wants this beautiful satin made in Italy. When you’re looking at the cost of goods, around 70% is the raw materials, like the thread, the trim, and the zipper or button. A designer goes to Premiere Vision and finds the most beautiful Italian satin they want to use. If you are going to get the 75% or 80% margin you want, the jacket is going to be $1500 compared to the $695 or the $595 you wanted.
You go back to the design team and tell them that if the market can’t retail nor our brand can retail a jacket this high, there’s no the cost value is not there. Start taking things out of it. Can we counter source material in another country that looks and feels the same but not the higher quality? Can we take a few pockets off of it to lower the cost?
Let’s say a loss leader is the one item that is the showstopper—the most fashionable piece. You need it to draw everyone in to look at the collection, but you already know you’re going to get a lower margin on it. It might be 40% or 50%. You’re going to do a few units, but the other nine styles are going to have higher margins. That’s a trick that all fashion brands use. It’s called blended costing. They look at key items, but they also look at it as blended because ultimately, it’s the blended total that really makes a difference.

Branding is a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs.

In today’s world, there are so many ways an entrepreneur can use branding to strengthen their business. For little to no cost, entrepreneurs can post branded content across social media platforms to sell product and grow their business.

The Branding Challenge

The challenge with branding, however, is that it can be difficult for entrepreneurs to be creative and come out with unique and differentiated content. As a low-cost strategy, many entrepreneurs are using branded content, and this is saturating the market and creating more competition. Entrepreneurs will publish great content on social only to find that they are only gaining a few likes and not generating the attention and engagement they need to sell product and successfully run their business. To be successful, entrepreneurs need a couple hundred thousand, or millions, of likes to achieve significant business growth.

TikTok is the Latest Dream Machine for Marketers

With global popularity, TikTok is gaining traction as one of the most popular platforms for advertisers. With 15 seconds to capture consumers’ attention, advertisers are leveraging music and parading to something fashionable to develop memorable branded content.

It’s a common human trait that we can receive information faster that we can send it, so in 15 seconds brands have enough time to tell their whole story, brand it, and repeat it umpteen million times. And the best part? It cost literally nothing.

The catch, however, is that to be successful on TikTok, you need to be more creative than the next guy. With so many brands fighting for consumer attention, your content must be differentiated and unique to be successful. So, for all the entrepreneurs looking at low-cost solutions to share their brand message, TikTok is a great option. But you must be that much more creative to succeed.

Fashion is changing rapidly and speed to market is a huge part of this transformation. In the past few years in fast fashion we’ve seen a lot of disruption, decentralization, and Instagram monetization.

Think about the original fashion business supply chain and how it’s been set up with department stores and a push model of the industry deciding what’s available and what we’re going to wear. Everyone was shopping in malls to engage with products.

Today, we’re operating more on a pull model where customers can tell us more about what they want. We’ve seen retailers like Zara, Forever 21, and H&M operate in this model of what we consider fast fashion. The real difference is the speed to market and the time it takes for the production process for that product to make its way to a floor.

Zara has been able to innovate and engage with feedback loops and speed up the process to market. Engaging in smaller batch manufacturing is helpful when you’re competing for space on a manufacturing line. It takes more effort and resources to produce 30,000 garments in one place versus spreading out demand in several factories since you’re competing with other retailers and brands to get manufacturing facility space and capacity.

Using fashion education, you can pivot more quickly when you’re dealing with fewer units. There’s opportunities to use customer feedback to shorten production lead time.There are so many points in the supply chain where, when you’re dealing with less units, it becomes easier for stores to more quickly funnel their product.

In historical department store retail, it could take six to nine months to go through this process. Fast fashion really disrupted that process and we no longer have to wait for the season to end to continue iterating, innovating, and ultimately bring newness on our time.