Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Starting your own Clothing line

Since I was young ive always had a passion for drawing and creating artwork, and wanted to share it with the others. And as I got older I became more aware of my skills and ways of letting others see my work. Also being a fan of graphic tees and other forms of clothing I became more interested in this and wanted to start my own clothing line of original graphics and artwork of mine. So I can see people wearing my artwork and not just having a painting or something that’s going to sit in a showcase or in some ones living room. So I did my research to figure out the right steps of reaching this personal goal of mine. And I was quite successful in finding good websites that helped me a lot with this, here is what I found out.

So first you have to think what’s your idea? What can you do that other people cant do or haven’t done yet. And who is your target audience. Who will be the one buying for product.
A good way to start is by creating an online presence. Having a web domain with blogs so people out there will know that you have a product that can be purchased. If you don’t know how to create for one webpage you can hire someone to build it and maintain it. And starting a blog telling people your background and history and vision will help you build a fan base that can lead to further success.

when thinking who your target audience is, you have to think, what is the message your trying to send. who will be wearing your clothing? You can follow trends or even get inspiration from other clothing lines that achieved success. check out other clothing lines and get ideas from them, see what they are doing well that you like and put your own creative twist to it. Start your own sketch book and take some time out of your day to just do some drawings and let your mind run free on it. but you have to take into consideration that not everyone is going to like your work, thats just the way it is. Not everyone can be pleased but to the people who actually like your work and appreciate it will keep coming back for more.
When thinking of a name brand for your clothing line, think of something catchy but original that when people hear the name, they will automatically know the clothing line. Almost like a house hold name. A good website to copyright your brand name is www.ascap.com . On this website you can request an application for $35 that you fill out and send back to them that you can get your brand name copywriten so you can start publishing your product under the name and start your way to being an official business.
So when I looked at some people who have already started making the own clothing line I found Edgar Munoz, he created a clothing line called “Rebel-Spirit”. when he first started out he was just 15 years old with an idea and making clothing for his friends and people in his neighborhood. With the success of his original clothing and started selling his product online threw his website. And was doing pretty well. Then one day he was watching the Chris Angel Mindfreak show and when Chris angel came out on his motorcycle he was wearing a Rebel Spirit shirt. So they sent him a bunch of free clothing to say thank you for wearing the clothing on a televised event. After that it was on and poppin. Now a huge list of celebritys are wearing his product including, Boyz II Men,, Pauly D. (Jersey Shore), the "Situation" (Jersey Shore), Snooki (Jersey Shore), Cristiano Ronaldo, Hulk Hogan, Mc Hammer, Jermaine Jackson, Joey Guila (Comedian), Joey Medina (Comedian), Bell Biv DeVoe, Corey Feldman, Sean Paul, and Bret Michaels. The list goes on. This is pretty impressive for someone who didn’t even intend for this line to make it this far. And its inspirational to me to see someone start from nothing to become so successful. It lets me know that its possible and that I can too do it if I put my mind to it.

So for education wise, you don’t need a Degree to start your own clothing line but it doesn’t hurt to have education. If you’re a graphic designer then your already ahead of the game. With a creative mind you will start making designs that you can publish and print to tee shirts easy. A bachelors degree in graphic design is usually required for most entry level jobs. But you don’t necessarily need that to become a clothing line designer.

When I was looking for some good websites that sell custom original clothing I found a site called www.etsy.com. An online store that sells peoples clothing on there page and anyone can create a domain on there and sell there items. The site charges 3.5% fee for every product you sell but theres nothing wrong with that. Its cheaper then renting out a building and selling product from a store. Specially when people do a lot of online shopping anyways.
Here is a video of this site and a brieft detail of they have to offer. This link was from a tv show called attack of the show on G4.




Here is another website that sells upcoming artists and designers t-shirts. All the shirts on the site are limited edition pieces. And who wouldn’t want to wear exclusive artwork on there clothing. www.tanktheory.com Both these webpages have blogs on them that people review the site and products with full detail. And also have help blogs about how to start your own clothing line and do do your of shirt screeing. Another helpful thing i also found was the YUDU. its a desktop base screen printing machine thats only around $250 that you do your own shirt screenings from home and on your own time.




The reason i chose this topic for my blog is because creating a clothing line is something that i am looking forward to doing in my life, and think that will be very successful at it too. i have alot of ideas in my head that i want to express and i believe that others will appreciate my work and wear my original pieces. I also make music too working on my album, with music and clothing both go together with helping promote each other.



Steven Dean



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