How to Build a Strong, Sustainable Fashion Business: Tips on How to Get Started With a Fashion Business

We all want to make the most out of our lives, and owning a slow fashion brand business can indeed be on the brim of our bucket list.

But unfortunately, the constant fever of altering trends in the fashion industry has made this business more complicated and competitive than ever! Not only this, but it has also imposed a great threat towards natural resources as we have started dumping the clothes more often.

Hence, the concepts like fashion for good and slow fashion are brought into play so that businesses can contribute towards sustainable fashion.

But let’s just first quickly understand the meaning and concept of sustainable fashion and its basics:

What Is the Meaning of Sustainable Fashion?

Sustainable fashion is also called slow fashion. It is a thoughtful concept of designing and manufacturing fashion items without harming the environment, and at the same time, ensuring its longevity. The whole idea about sustainability is to promote fashion for good.

Imagine dumping your tees just after 2 months of buying! Is that sustainable?

Tips on How to Get Started With a Fashion Business?

We had some real talks with the fashion business experts, and here’s what they suggest for building a strong and sustainable brand.  Let’s learn how you can

•  Observe, identify and understand the need of the market

Your idea is your seed, so ensure that you sow the best one. Move out, talk to people and observe what exactly they are looking for?

It could be jeans that can elevate their curves, or maybe a dress that can create an illusion of tallness.

The trendy transparent heels are made just to meet this demand!

So, let your brain come up with something unusual but still being under the ambit of slow fashion.

•   Document your business plan: Once you are firm on creating your business on the concept of fashion for good, lay down a step-wise plan. Keeping everything and anything in your brain would be an unorganized way of starting up.

Let your plan incorporate all these:

o   What is the USP of my brand?

o   What is the target audience?

o   Is this going to be a premium brand like LV or an affordable one? 

• Get a clothing manufacturer that fits your budget: Slow fashion needs slow planning. Unless you plan to outsource, you need to get your hands on a manufacturing team. Now, this can include a fabric supplier or stitching items supplier. One can support fashion for good by sourcing raw material from countries like India, Vietnam, China, Sri Lanka, or Bangladesh. They are hubs of fabric manufacturing and hence are quite affordable for bulk material.

•  Let your PR team play first: Do not wait for hefty investments to launch your lineup. Start with a soft launch, and let your PR team get you the media attention first. This will extrapolate the challenge of getting your first-ever investment.

• Do not daydream with unrealistic sales and distribution goals: To run a successful fashion business, you need to be creative, mindful, passionate, and hardworking, but to top it all, you need PATIENCE!

With crazy competition in the fashion industry, you cannot expect overnight success, so set realistic and achievable goals for the first few months. You can raise them month by month. It will nourish the journey of your sustainable and slow fashion business.

• Secure your fashion business with insurance: A sustainable fashion brand takes substantial capital investment, and it is imperative that you back it up with business insurance. Look for options in online retailer policy, product liability insurance, and stock cover.

Tips for Establishing an Environment Fashion Business

Environmental Considerations

• Do not set up your manufacturing centers that have endangered species. This is against the ethics of fashion for good norms.
• Incorporate renewable sources of energy as much as possible. Leverage your power and improve these resources to their best standards.
•  Make sure your fabrics and other raw material items are free of toxic dyes, detergents, and animal produce.
•  Install catchments to refrain from the budding of microfibers.

Disposal consideration

• Adopt an efficient waste management practice to dispose of hazardous chemical waste.
• Sell off the rejected lots at cheaper rates instead of discarding them completely. Another alternative move towards slow fashion can be recycling and reuse of the material.
• Use environment-friendly packaging material. Dump plastic bags if you want to contribute towards slow fashion.

Conclusion

To kick start with an idea of establishing a slow fashion brand business, develop a recycle and reuse plan. And adopting an efficient waste management practice to dispose of hazardous chemical waste can support your initiative towards building an environment-friendly fashion brand.