FAQ: Can I make a profit in the fashion business?

I received some great questions in my mail box the other day from a new childrenswear designer:

Is getting into children's wear a big business? I mean, can one be profitable? I see a lot of my friends who are women's wear designers just breakeven after all that hard work. I enjoy designing for kids and feel that it might be less competitive that women's wear so therefore one may be able to be a tad more profitable in this area?

Let me tackle these one at a time.

Is getting into children's wear a big business?
Yes. I won't take the time to find the numbers, but there is a lot of money to be made in children's apparel. Well known designers may start with women's wear, but they end with children's. It may seem they add a children's line as an afterthought, but that is also where the largest profit margins are. With a well established women's brand, it makes sense to extend it into children. Labor and material costs are less, but the prices can be as high as women's. Hollywood stars and well-meaning, new mothers launch their own children's line when they start a family. Then let's throw in cheap imports by the major chain stores. How is one supposed to compete with that!? If you don't fall into any of these categories, it can seem overwhelming! There is a lot of competition in children's clothing.

I mean, can one be profitable?

With all of the competition that already exists, this is a good question to ask. And it all depends on how you run your business. Any business is difficult. If you start a business, you are the one that bears the responsibility to make it successful. Often the hours you work will be longer and harder than a regular job. You will take your work home at night, lose your weekends, and may never really take a vacation. You do all of this in the hopes of making a profit (and maybe because you love it too).

The simple definition of a profit is to spend less money than you make. Even with the complexity of the fashion business, this simple definition remains true. At the end of the day (week, month), you must sit down and analyze your income vs. expenditures. If you are spending more than you make, you will not make a profit.

The real question here is "How do I make a profit?" This is a slightly more complex answer. There are a lot of variables, even in the childrenswear category. I have read business books and talked with many people in the fashion business. Here are some of the guidelines I have learned that I now use for my business:

1. Spend less than you make.

2. Avoid debt. Most small businesses will take out a small business loan or use savings to get started. Determine a plan to pay off your loans as soon as possible. A debt payment is less money earned in income.

3. Put a little into business savings and make a small charitable donation to your favorite organization (It will make you feel good, is tax deductible, and it just might help somebody). You can use your business savings for future equipment, expansion, and to cover lean times.

4. Try to deal on a cash basis as much as possible. If you are just starting out, you are not in a position to extend credit to anyone, nor to overextend your own credit situation. If you make a sale, try to get money as soon as delivery is made.

5. Plan carefully. More mistakes are made by not planning carefully. Kathleen Fasanella's book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing explains how to manufacture your designs. If you follow each step of the process outlined in her book, then you will more likely succeed.

6. Keep growth under control. You may have received a $20,000 order, but unless you can fill it, don't do it. It may seem ludicrous to turn down such a large order. But if you take the order and don't fill, you can do a lot damage and may put yourself out of business. When you are ready to start taking such large orders, have everything in place beforehand.

7. Set goals. Why are you in business? Where do you want to go? These can be large and lofty or small and mundane. One of my goals is to be able to pay my bills and earn X amount of income. Another goal of mine is to provide X number of jobs to the local economy. Try to set goals that are realistic for the short term, but keep in mind the big ones.

8. Stay focused. When starting out, it is best to focus on one category - like girl's dresses or boys outfits. Later, you can expand into related categories.

9. Ask for help (or hire it). It is easy to get overwhelmed. But believe it or not, there are many out there willing to help.

10. Enjoy what you do! If you love what you do, you are more likely to stick with it.

I see a lot of my friends who are women's wear designers just breakeven after all that hard work. I enjoy designing for kids and feel that it might be less competitive than women's wear so therefore one may be able to be a tad more profitable in this area?

The first few financial years of your business will either break even or run in the red. It is a simple fact of life. But if it has been longer than that, then I have to wonder if these designers are following any of the guidelines above. And really, it doesn't matter what you design, you must pay attention to the business end. At the end of the day, the numbers must make sense. Any category has an equal chance of success or failure. If you want to design kid's clothes, then go for it!

I hope these guidelines are helpful. They have proven to work for me. You can succeed in fashion and as Tim Gunn says, "Carry on!".

An analysis of a girls spring time dress

I found some time to analyze a dress from another manufacturer. I do this from time to time to see some of the innovative engineering that others have built into their infant clothing. (Infant clothing requires a lot of engineering, btw). This is the best way to learn how to put things together. This dress is a department store dress from Baby Togs. It would retail for about $20. There are some things that make this a department-store quality dress, with some interesting observations. The dress is a three piece set, made from a cotton/poly gingham. The dress is very cute and a good value. BTW, this dress was made in China.


Good Quality Points
1. The fabric is not a regular gingham. It is more like a dobby fabric. It is a better quality check fabric than I usually see. The content is 55% cotton 45% poly.

2. Embroidery. Anytime embroidery is added to a dress, the cost goes up, especially if made in the USA. This style has embroidered daisies only on the front bodice and embroidered flowers on the pockets. There is a minimum charge to run both pieces. They get bonus points for the amount on the dress.

3. The flower on the dress is not tacked on with a tacker. Instead the flower center is actually embroidered through to the hat band. This ensures the flower does not fall off!


4. The diaper cover is rather ordinary, but it has wider elastic at the waist - 1/2". Normally, budget clothing will have 1/4". The elastic is fully encased for a smooth finish and is not stitched through. They also probably saved money by doing a 4-piece diaper. This allows the cutter to move the pieces around to save money on fabric. Of course, it adds additional labor - but so far that is not an issue in China. In China, fabric is more expensive then labor.

Some interesting observations
1. The first thing I noticed about this dress was the skirt gather ratio - it is rather skimpy. Looking closer, you can tell the skirt is actually A-line. Even more amazing, they were able to put a straight grain band on the skirt. This kind of application would frustrate most people. The skirt hem could easily stretch out of shape, and yet I could only find minor stretching on one side seam. I did find evidence of basting, perhaps that helped. Personally, I would have cut the skirt straight and use the width of the fabric. The a-line skirt sweep is about 45". If you are using a 45" fabric, then there would be no difference in making the skirt straight. Plus it would have been easier to sew.


2. I have only seen one way of gathering skirts in China. This is because most Chinese manufacturers do not have shirring arms on their overlock machines. As incredible as this may seem, it is true. (And believe me, I have tried to show them this labor saving device, but labor is very cheap in China and they are not motivated to change). Instead of gathering and attaching the skirt in one operation, it is done in 3-4 steps. They will use a straight stitch machine with a gathering foot to create the gathers. Then they will baste the skirt to the bodice, and finally overedge the seam. This dress also has topstitching along the waist seam (a fourth step). It is hard to see in this picture, but here it is. You can see two rows of straight stitching. Another problem with this method is the gathers do not look neat and even. From the face side, it looks fine, but the inside is another story.


3. The final interesting point is where the manufacturer attempted to save fabric. The front bodice is fully lined, but the back is only partial. I am not sure this would have saved any fabric. Chances are the fabric saved was actually tossed out.

This was a fun dress to inspect. I don't quite understand some of the things they did, but despite that, it still turned out cute. It is right on for a department store dress and hits the right price point.

2019 notes - I lost some of the original pictures of this blog post, but the notes are still interesting!

Sew What? Sewing a VW Convertible Bug Top Cover

This VW Convertible Bug looks better than the one I made!

I am sure many of you who sew have had this exact reaction to a sewing request. In this case, one woman named her company Sew What? Inc. Megan Duckett started a business sewing draperies. Her employment sewing for a theater company is how she decided on a company name. The complete story can be found at U.S. News and World Report, July 31, 2006 edition.

I am always impressed by women who start sewing related businesses. Megan even ran her company out of her garage for a time. What an inspiration! For more info about Megan, check out her website Sew What Inc.

My blog entry is not really about Megan's company, but about those Sew What?! moments. For Megan, she was asked to sew a lining into a coffin for a theatrical production. I have had many Sew What?! moments, but one stands out. I was asked to sew a vinyl car top cover for a convertible VW Bug.

Yes, I took this job. I knew I wouldn't make any money from the project, but it was the challenge that grabbed me. This was during college and I thought I could sew anything (I still think that, provided I have the right equipment). During college, a friend of mine bought a convertible bug. It had no cover. He welded a frame together and then asked me to sew a top together. I had an average home sewing machine and a lot of ambition.

With a budget of $60, I purchased some black vinyl, extra large snaps, and some clear vinyl (for a rear window). The only equipment purchase I made was some teflon coated needles in size 18 and a snap kit. This fabric was very thick. I have to say my initial pattern actually looked very good. The execution is where I had trouble.

This is one of those instances where a walking-foot machine would have come in handy. Instead, I sewed this thing together with my Singer 503A. For all of those Ebay sellers out there that claim this machine can sew through 4 layers of vinyl, well they are half right. It will do it, but it may not look very good. This is a tuff little machine and I really pushed it to the max sewing this together. The seams were overlapped on top of each other like a lapped seam, but the material slid and stretched as it went along. In any event, I finally finished it.

The top was attached to the car with the snaps. The snap kits available in the fabric stores are not really designed to go through heavy-weight vinyl or to be glued onto a car surface, but somehow we got them attached. Despite our efforts, this car was not really safe to drive with a home-made car top. I could just see it fly off at 25MPH. My friend ended up using the car top for rainy days while it was parked. He also bought a real vehicle that was safe to drive.