New Beginnings

So for the first month of 2011 I spent my life either meeting business advisors, going on short business courses, searching for articles and advice on on small fashion business start up, studying all the new designers and their stories, talking to people, reading book and getting loads of general advice.... basically gaining as much knowledge on business and the idustry as I possible could before the SS12 designing season begun!
I can safley say that 'How to set up and run a fashion label' by Tony Meadows, is possibly the most helpful book I have read so far... (well worth a buy)

I spent weeks at a time chained to my computer while I researched factories and fabric suppliers for production, methods of selling, marketing, branding, buying, botiques to stock in, PR to represent me... the list was literally endless.

After all this very thorough research, I decided the most important thing was making sure my clothes were beautiful, covetable and very well made. Of course the beautiful covetable bit I take care of myself in the design process, but the well made bit was out of my control. My priority was to suss out which factory and fabric suppliers could offer me the highest quality at the most cost effective price.

So i set out for fashion capital London. Feeling positive and optimistic I had researched some real gems! I had a couple of days of meetings to see how these places and people operated, to get an idea of the costs, qualities and timings I would be looking at. Despite the excellent recommendations and the fantastic quality these places had to offer, the prices were completely outrageous and the timings not much better - so laughably un-affordable for a fashion start up. I left London that day feeling deflated, confused and totally disappointed.

I got back home to lovely Norwich and had a serious re-think of the situation.
In my opinion I had 2 options.
1) Admit defeat, these prices are too silly to even begin this venture. It's doomed.
2) Think outside the box and find a better solution away from London.


I didn't want to produce anything outside the UK as quality is one of the most important factors for my brand, and producing in the far east or abroad would definitely compromise this. It may be massively cheaper abroad, but quality control is difficult when your a one man band!

Before London became the hub of the fashion industry, all UK textiles were manufactured in the Midlands and the North of England. This got me thinking positively again and so the frantic search to seek out the best fabric manufacturer and production factory in the Midlands had begun...

After about 100 phone calls, countless email, alot of 'no we don't do small production runs' or 'no, our minimum order is a millon meters'.... My persistence paid off....
I FINALLY STRUCK GOLD!!