CLOTHING DESIGN

Irrespective of your design skills our design team will work with you to develop your briefs and ideas to create a winning clothing label concept. This can include the brand identification, direction and styling as well as the brand imagery and marketing. Having done this our designers then use the most up-to-date CAD packages to ensure your specifications are as clear and comprehensive as possible and seek your approval at every stage of the design and sampling process to make sure that the clothing and the brand is achieving what you require it to.

* presentation of different themes: colours, silhouettes, yarns and/or fabrics
* design briefs from drawing board through to first samples
* developing range plans with buyers
* creation of original designs unique to you
* collection presentation to your in-house team

Deciding on a brand identity is the first and most crucial step in creating a collection of clothes that will not only stand out from the competition but will also appeal and sell to as many customers as possible. This is a decision that can be researched, and focus-grouped providing your budget will allow this, but ultimately it is a subjective profile of your potential customer that you have developed by reaching into your customer's brains and subconscious's and developing an image or view of how they would like to see themselves.

It is important that your clothes be different and have your brands message and styling ingrained into their design. If your customers can see immediately from the clothes what your company's brand is saying, what it stands for and what other people will think of them when wearing these clothes, then your company will have less need for expensive advertising and marketing. Whether you have a large marketing budget or not it is vital that you communicate your brand's identity to your market. This can be done through your designs.

On the other hand by creating clothing that is less unique but perhaps has a larger market a campaign of brand identity and differentiation is essential to make your clothes stand out from your competitors. Even if your clothes look very similar to your competitors, if they stand for something else in people's minds they will still be different in the eyes of your customer.

Modern life dictates that your customers be fashion aware and use their clothes to signal to the world who they are and what they stand for. Modern life also dictates that there is little time to actually do this and there is always the danger that they may get it wrong so your customers look to clothing brands to do it for them, they want to join an appropriate tribe or gang and by so doing signal to the world how they want to be seen and who they are.

In the modern fashion industry, and for the modern fashion company finding your brand's image, message, tribe, group etc is equally important to creating comfortable wearable clothes that your customers will love. Seeing as this association will be such a major part of influencing your clothes character and design you may even say that it is more important than any specific clothing design. It is important that the styling and detailing make sense to what your brand is saying, and fit together as a collection. Misinterpret your brand in your clothing and styling and you won't appeal to your target customers. While on the other hand, misrepresent your clothing in its branding and your customers will not understand what your garments stand for and what your customers are saying by wearing them.

The best way to initiate the branding and/or design process is to develop a collection of images that encompass and speak your message. Often these are pictures from magazines, films, posters, art, anything and everything that triggers an emotional response and represents what it is your brand wants to say. Often our clients have a specific target market in mind about who they want to sell to, but rarely are they clear about WHAT they want to sell to them.

Sure you want to sell a collection of tee shirts to surfers aged between 15 and 35, but what is it that you want to sell them?? Do you want sell them the simple joy of catching that first wave in the morning, the smell of barbecues on the beach with your friends in the evening, the sand under your feet, and the smell of the sea. Or are you selling them clothes to compete in, clothes that shave valuable seconds off your 100m time, or give you the edge to get those vital points that will mean the difference between victory and failure. There are many ways to attack a target market and to sell them clothes that may seem to be similar to those being sold by other brands but in reality are completely different, through your styling and brand image.