Starting a clothing brand: an honest step-by-step plan

Most guides to a clothing brand start with a business plan and a catchy brand name. In practice, it starts somewhere else: with understanding how clothing production works, before you spend any money. In 29 years, we have guided 239+ brands from idea to production. The mistakes we consistently see are rarely in the idea. They lie in the steps between the idea and the first sample.

Building a clothing brand involves setting up a production process. This begins with designs that are ready for production: technically detailed, with fit, seams, materials, and colors defined. Next, you translate each design into a tech pack, the document a manufacturer needs to produce your garment correctly.

What many startups underestimate: you don't start with a single garment. You start with a capsule collection of usually 4 to 8 styles. Each style has its own design and its own tech pack. That is the true scale of what needs to be ready before you can start production.

Alongside that technical process runs the strategic side: brand positioning, target audience, and the choice of how you will sell. This determines whether your brand is viable, and you want to know that before you start producing, not afterwards.

The sequence looks like this: brand strategy, fashion design, a tech pack per style, manufacturer and sampling, production, and finally sales via your own channels or through stores.

Before you make a sketch, you need to know two things: who you are making it for and how you are going to sell it. That second question determines your manufacturer, your minimum order quantity, and your cost price, and you cannot make those choices afterward.

Do you sell directly to consumers (D2C), via your own webshop or Instagram? Then you retain a higher margin per item and can start with smaller quantities, but you handle marketing and customer service yourself. Do you sell to stores (B2B)? Then your margin per item is lower, you need larger quantities, and you wait 30 to 90 days for your money, but you reach more people faster.

Many startups begin with D2C and add B2B once the collection is running. That is a logical sequence, as long as your pricing and production are set up accordingly from the start.

Most startups seek confirmation. Good market research seeks the opposite: why wouldn't this work, who is already doing this, and what do people you don't know say when you present it to them? Only when you have those answers do you know if your idea is more than just a wish.

Many startups begin with D2C and add B2B once the collection is running. That is a logical sequence, as long as your pricing and production are set up accordingly from the start.

A capsule collection consists of 4 to 8 styles that form a cohesive whole, for example, a pair of trousers, two tops, a jacket, and an accessory. Small enough to afford and produce, large enough to establish a brand.

Designing for production is different from sketching for a mood board. A production-ready design defines fit, seams, hems, label placement, and color per material. If you cannot do this yourself, now is the time for professional fashion design. Read more about custom fashion design.

A tech pack is the technical document you send to a manufacturer: technical drawings, size charts, fabric and color specifications, seam and finishing instructions, label placement, and quality requirements. Without a tech pack, the manufacturer fills in the details themselves, which almost always results in incorrect samples.

Count on one tech pack per style. A capsule of five styles means five tech packs. We create them at four levels, depending on how complex the garment is:

Prices per style, excluding VAT.

Portugal, Turkey, Poland, China: each country has different strengths, minimum order quantities, delivery times, and quality levels. Which one fits depends on your product, your budget, your schedule, and your sustainability requirements.

What always applies: request at least three quotes, check references, and do not work without a contract. A good tech pack is your strongest asset in this regard, because manufacturers then all price the same product and you can truly compare the quotes.

Evaluating a sample is skilled work. Are the dimensions correct, is the finish good, does the color match your Pantone code, and does the construction hold up in use? Document your feedback for each sample and keep track of what changes in each round. Allow 2 to 4 months for the entire sampling phase, including correction rounds.

In step 1, you chose how you sell. Now you make it concrete. For D2C, that means your webshop, your photography, and your first campaign. For B2B, it means your price list for stores, your lookbook, and the trade shows or agents through which you reach stores. Many brands do one thing first and then the other, but your production and pricing must allow for both routes from the start.

Fashion Path is our mentoring program for startups and growing brands. It is not intended for when things go wrong; it runs alongside all the steps mentioned above, from brand strategy to production. Whether a startup gets stuck after the first sample or simply launches rarely depends on talent or budget. It depends on structure and knowledge of how the industry works.

You can get started in three ways. With a brand strategy session , you define positioning, target audience, and sales channel. With StartUp Boost , we go from idea to a production-ready collection, including three tech packs. And with ScaleUp Brands , we help existing brands with production strategy, sourcing, and growth. View all Fashion Path tracks.

We see the same mistakes recurring. Not because new hires are sloppy, but because no one told them beforehand.

For a serious first launch, there is no honest answer under €5,000. Below is an indication for a capsule collection of four styles, which we consider a realistic minimum.

Prices exclude VAT. Fashion design based on a quote, depending on the number of styles and complexity. Tech packs are calculated at the Basic level; for Technical (€600) or Advanced (€900), the price will be higher.

Anyone who cuts corners on design or tech packs pays it back in incorrect samples and manufacturers filling in the blanks themselves. That is more expensive than the savings.