How to launch an in-demand clothing brand. How to register a trademark: instructions for self-registration How a clothing brand was created

How to solve the problem of personnel shortage, work on the principle of small print runs and go to the regions, Elena Fimina told in an interview with Kontur.Zhurnal.

Idea

My sister and I have been working in the fashion industry for over 10 years. In 2002, a store of the Spanish brand Mango was opened in Chelyabinsk. There was nothing like it in the city back then. On a competitive basis, we got a job at Mango as sales consultants and gradually grew to a managerial level. During this time, we understood how a fashion business is built, how clothing collections are created and promoted, we figured out the intricacies of merchandising, the work of a showroom and the factors that affect successful sales. Since my sister worked specifically with the Spaniards, she learned all the nuances of fashion promotion.

I started making clothes more than five years ago. At first it was a hobby, although I studied individually with high-level specialists in the field of clothing production, studied the technology and subtleties of design and modeling. Gradually, the process dragged me on, and when my sister gave birth to two children, they became a source of inspiration for more serious works and collections.

One day, my sister and I came up with the idea to create a children's clothing brand. FiFi. We started with a starting amount of 100,000 rubles, but the experience in the industry that we managed to gain helped us a lot. The first collection was sewn at home, using homemade seamstresses.

In fact, we immediately determined who our client is: these are progressive mothers different ages who understand fashion, know the trends, love to dress their children stylishly and tastefully.

Investments

Participation in the SKB Kontur competition "" is our first attempt to attract investment for business development. Our video was seen by an investor and offered financial assistance. At that time, we refused, because we were not satisfied with the conditions, and decided to develop on our own.

At the regional level, we participated in the federal program “You Are an Entrepreneur”. Our project was also interested, but we realized that it would be difficult to get financial support, since this program is more educational.

Now we have applied for participation in the Made in Chelyabinsk contest and we are waiting for the organizers to contact us.

Production details and complexity

The production of clothes is a very long and painstaking process. It all starts with the emergence of an idea, we determine what exactly we want to do. Then sketches are drawn, at the next stage materials are purchased. Next, designers work - they develop patterns. During the construction of the model, many changes are made and something is necessarily rejected. But that's not all.

Seeing the result, we begin to discuss how we can present and present the finished collection. We choose a location, invite photographers and create a photo shoot with child models.

Organize in Russia manufacturing process very difficult. One of the most acute problems that we have encountered is a shortage of personnel: there are neither competent designers nor seamstresses in the country.

Of course, there are specialists who are 50-60 years old, but they are no longer in the ranks, and it is almost impossible to find young professionals. You have to spend a lot of time and effort on training, and efficiency suffers from this.

In the sewing industry, the speed of performing a particular job plays an important role. For example, to launch a children's dress into mass tailoring, you need to calculate how much time it takes to tailor one model - in minutes and seconds. Thus, it is calculated how many hours and days the entire batch will be sent off. And people of the old school just can't work fast. But we connect them to another work - designing, because they competently make patterns and think over sketches, taking into account the fabrics that are available to us.

Solving the problem of personnel shortage, we involved specialists from the department light industry South Ural state university. We invited the best of them to work with us, and now they advise us and also train our employees. Currently, the company employs seven seamstresses.

Another issue is fabrics. Production in Russia is barely working, factories are fulfilling some incomprehensible orders on old equipment - they have a very hard time, people work for a penny. But even those factories that are still functioning do not always produce what we need. For example, in Yekaterinburg, there is a wool-producing plant. Tyumen produced similar fabrics, but, unfortunately, the factory closed recently. We buy something in Russia, but basically, of course, we bring everything from abroad, more often from Italy. As long as the euro exchange rate was more or less stable, there were no problems with purchases. Now the situation has changed - we have become more careful in choosing fabrics: when drawing up an estimate, we have to calculate how affordable things will be for the consumer, although, of course, we would like to buy more original and expensive fabrics.

The principle of small runs

We produce small collections - ten models each. The collection is built on the principle of a capsule, where each item complements the other. Thus, we increase our turnover, because people like to buy things in sets. At the same time, we have models that we sew constantly. As a rule, this is a festive assortment, basic models, the so-called "commercial".

When the collection comes out, in the process we can supplement it if we see that the demand for things is good. Elegant dresses remain a bestseller - they are in demand all season.

During its existence, the FiFi brand has gained its admirers. We are working to expand their circle. But we do not fight for our client - he finds us himself.

In Chelyabinsk, during production, we have a showroom where our customers can come and try on things. Two months ago, the FiFi brand entered the Moscow market: new shop"Children's shelf", where our models are presented among the things of Russian designers.

In order to promote the brand, we are actively working with the social networks Instagram, VKontakte, and also developing our virtual store on the Fair of Masters website. From experience I can say that social networks in many ways more efficient than stores, because they cover more potential consumers - people see our products from different parts of the country and even the world. We receive orders not only from Russia, but also from abroad.

In the next five years, we plan to launch a franchise business to increase the number of outlets for our product. We plan to make clothes at the production site in Chelyabinsk and negotiate with regional stores to represent our brand. Such stores will place orders for certain models from the catalog before the season and receive the necessary volumes of products.

Author's clothing market Russian production each season is replenished with new brands, while not reaching the saturation point and not creating a competitive environment. Three-quarters of players leave the niche after their first year, lacking the resources, skills, and often the inspiration to keep their energy-intensive but low-revenue business afloat. How to open your own clothing brand, release the first collections and make a profit, is described step by step in this instruction.

1. Market Research and Buyer Profile

The main mistake of novice owners of a clothing brand is a misunderstanding of the structure of the market and the needs of the buyer. This results in attempts to cover several areas at once, to compete with global chain stores, or, conversely, to create a product of a very narrow focus, which does not allow expanding the range. Marketing research on initial stage creating a business will help create a buyer profile, assess the level of competition and outline niche features that will help make the brand unique.

If the size of the initial capital does not allow placing an order for market analysis with a special agency (the average cost is 30,000–60,000 rubles), then the research is carried out by the entrepreneur. At this stage, you should:

estimate the geography of sales and the approximate number of buyers;
determine the average age, income, purchasing habits of potential customers;
identify needs that the market is unable to meet, and the reasons (economic inefficiency, low demand, complexity of implementation);
make a list of competitors and explore the range, quality, prices, loyalty policy, reviews;
discover weaknesses in the existing niche structure and make them your main strengths.

The main advantages of local brands over network brands are unusual design, unique construction, rare fabric, quality control of each product. You should not try to compete with the giants of the industry in terms of prices, speed of reaction to fashion trends, coverage of advertising campaigns - these indicators tend to improve with an increase in demand for the product, without any special costs on the part of the entrepreneur.

2. Formation of the concept and development of the logo

After analyzing the information about who and under what conditions will be the buyer of clothes, it is necessary to start forming the brand concept. This stage is necessary for the correct positioning of the company in the market, and therefore for more accurate satisfaction of niche demand. The process of describing a concept is in many ways similar to conducting marketing research. Only the object of analysis in this case is the newly created company, and not the client or competitor. Five questions to answer at this stage:

What clothes do we produce and for whom?
What are the core values and principles of the company?
What additional needs does the brand's clothing satisfy? (in prestige, in convenience of purchase, in environmental friendliness of materials, etc.)
What is the main advantage over competitors?
What will make a customer a permanent customer?

All decisions made in the process of creating a brand should fit into the outlined concept. First of all, this concerns the name, logo and style of printed materials (lookbooks, labels, tags, stands). In the absence of skills in graphic programs and design vision, the creation of a visual brand concept is entrusted to an agency or a freelance artist. From the date of the conclusion of the contract to the receipt of the finished graphic product, on average, about 1 month passes, costs - from 20,000 rubles.

3. Business registration and trademark protection

For official work and the conclusion of contracts, it is necessary to issue an individual entrepreneur or LLC, if there are more than one founders. When filling out the registration form, indicate OKVED-2 from the following list:

14	Manufacture of wearing apparel
14.11	Manufacture of leather clothing
14.12	Workwear production
14.13	Manufacture of other outerwear
14.14	Manufacture of underwear
14.19	Manufacture of other clothing and clothing accessories
14.20	Production of fur products
14.31	Manufacture of knitted and knitted hosiery
14.39	Manufacture of other knitted and knitted articles
46	Wholesale trade
46.42	Wholesale of clothing and footwear
47	Retail trade, except for motor vehicles and motorcycles
47.91	Retail trade by mail or via the information and communication network Internet

At the same time, an application for the application of the simplified tax system must be submitted. Since there are official costs for the purchase of materials and wages for workers, the simplified tax system “Income minus expenses” of 15% looks like the most profitable. Sometimes it is more effective to use the patent system for the type of activity “Repair and tailoring of garments, fur and leather products, hats and products from textile haberdashery, repair, tailoring and knitting of knitwear”. The choice of a specific option depends on the region of registration of a legal entity and the number of employees.

The direct name of a clothing brand may have nothing to do with the name of an individual entrepreneur or the name of an LLC, however, at the same stage, you can also register a trademark with the Patent Office. A registered trademark provides advantages in the form of protection against copying by competitors, free placement of advertising in the media, and the possibility of launching a franchise.

Self-registration of a patent can take up to six months, and the total cost of state duties is about 40 thousand rubles. The work of commercial structures offering assistance in registration costs at least 10 thousand rubles. Therefore, it is not always advisable to engage in copyright protection at the initial stage, but this will help to avoid lawsuits in the future.

4. Development of sketches and creation of an assortment matrix

The owner of the business is most often engaged in the development of clothing sketches on his own. A diploma from a course, school or institute of design gives many advantages when creating a collection, but having it is not prerequisite. There are examples when a sought-after product was created by specialists in related specialties: buyers (professional buyers of clothes for multi-brand stores), models, marketers, fashion journalists. At the next stages of creating a collection, the initial sketches are necessarily finalized by professionals, so the uniqueness of the idea, a fresh look and compliance with the market needs defined earlier are important to begin with.

You can start with three models of clothes, sewn from various fabrics, the design of which fits into the concept of the brand. Work with assortment matrix, as a rule, begins after the first sales as a reaction to feedback and new requests from buyers. Models that have shown low sales are removed from the assortment with an obligatory understanding of the reasons for the lack of demand from the client.

5. Designing clothes

The designer is responsible for the development of patterns for production based on the created sketches, who can be hired under a contract only for the actual provision of services. It is difficult to find a professional who is able to translate a sketch of any complexity into the language of patterns and templates, so you should be puzzled by this in parallel with taking the very first steps to create a brand.

On average, it takes about a month to design several types of clothes, as a result, the customer receives layouts with gradation in size, as well as printed patterns with comments for technologists. Such work can be done remotely, with the subsequent sending of patterns by courier mail, which means that the place of residence of the fashion designer, if he has a good reputation, is not so important.

6. Purchase of fabrics, accessories and decor

Simultaneously with ordering patterns, it is necessary to search for suitable fabrics and accessories. Experienced market participants speak of this stage as the most difficult in Russian realities:

fabrics available for wholesale in the domestic market are characterized by a scarcity of assortment and average quality;
high-quality American and Italian materials are problematic to acquire due to the country's customs policy and high shipping costs;
affordable fabrics from Asia and the CIS countries may vary in quality even within the same batch;
reliable suppliers of materials from Turkey do not work with small wholesale.

The best ratio of quality, design and purchase price is shown by fabrics from the Baltic States, which can be bought through intermediaries in border megacities (especially in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad). Purchases from other countries can be made remotely: get fabric samples from the manufacturer by courier, place an order, wait for it to arrive at customs, and use the services of brokers for customs clearance. On average, this process can take up to two months and will seriously affect the cost of production.

Little things that you should not forget about: fabric labels with information about care, a size label, decor (beads, rhinestones, sequins) are purchased on the domestic market.

7. Sewing prototypes and launching into production

It is not necessary and sometimes not profitable for a clothing brand to have its own tailoring shop. Tailoring equipment: cutting tables, sewing machines and overlockers do not require large investments, but the workshop needs regular loading, payment of rent and labor of employees. With the release of collections twice a year, such regular spending to nothing, therefore, orders for releasing are most often transferred to third-party industries under a service agreement.

Orders for sewing large batches of clothes are placed at factories in China and India, small local brands prefer Russian ones. sewing production located in the regions. The complexity of this stage is that it is necessary to control the quality of sewn clothes in the process, which means that a long business trip cannot be avoided.

Possible and distant work when materials, patterns and accessories are sent to the factory transport company. A garment factory technologist works with patterns and fabrics, after which test samples are created. Approved copies are put into production. Order of three models, 100 pcs. the factory completes in an average of two weeks, with another two weeks allowed for shipping and unforeseen problems. It must be understood that in this version, production errors (crooked stitches, fabric damage, poor overlock quality) will be detected only after the delivery of the finished batch of products to the customer’s territory, when it will be impossible to prove and correct anything.

8. Registration of the declaration of conformity

After the approval of prototypes, it is necessary to start certification of products. Small companies that distribute their product through social networks and local markets often omit this stage due to the high cost and complexity of paperwork. However, it should be remembered that retail stores do not accept clothes without certificates for sale, which means that their absence may be the reason for refusal to cooperate.

At the moment, quality certificates mean two mandatory documents: a test report and a certificate of conformity (underwear, children's clothing, overalls) or a declaration of conformity (the rest of the nomenclature). The minimum period for which a declaration can be issued is one year, so you can start processing even after the first sewn copies have shown a good level of sales.

A package of documents for declaration is submitted by nomenclature groups. That is, if it is supposed to produce both dresses, and jackets, and jumpers, then three different documents must be drawn up. AT general view clothes are divided into the following groups:

garments (skirts, dresses, trousers, suits, jackets, etc.);
outerwear (jackets, coats, raincoats);
knitted jersey (jumpers, sweaters, knitted jackets, etc.);
textile headwear (hats, panamas);
knitted headwear (hats).

Adult clothing subject to mandatory certification, not declaration:

Underwear;
linen jersey:
swimwear;
socks and stockings.

The task can be facilitated by contacting commercial certification centers that have their own accredited laboratories for testing. The test report in this case will cost about 5 thousand rubles, the execution of one declaration of conformity - from 4 thousand rubles, the execution of a quality certificate - from 10 thousand rubles. The maximum processing time is 5-6 weeks.

9. Taking pictures and creating a lookbook

When the first samples are ready, catalog and creative shooting is organized.

Catalog shooting is aimed at photographing the fit of each product on the model, showing the features of the cut and fittings close-up. This process can take several days (depending on the number of models sewn), it requires professionalism and maximum efficiency of all participants in the process: professional models of various types, a photographer, a retoucher. The location and interiors of the shooting place, as well as the work of the makeup artist and hairdresser, in this case do not matter much. Finished shots are posted on websites that sell the collection, on social networks, in printed product catalogs.

The task of a creative photo session is a visual display of the concept and philosophy of the brand. For a high-quality result, it is necessary to involve a photographer with a special creative look, models that correspond to the portrait of the brand buyer, the work of professional makeup artists and hairdressers, as well as careful retouching of images and bringing them to a single stylistic solution. Ready-made images form the basis of the lookbook - a portfolio of the brand, which shows what trends and images are presented in this collection - and are also used to create advertising materials, registration of marketing campaigns.

Ideally, a technical photo shoot, which aims to show the item on the model from all sides, should be held separately and with a different team than a creative shoot for a lookbook, designed to familiarize a potential buyer with the concept of the brand and the new collection.

10. Sales and promotion

A marketing campaign can be started even before the clothes arrive from production and the photos are ready. Then there is a chance to get the first orders in advance and sell the first batch of the new collection as quickly as possible.

For sales in the absence retail store use all free and low-cost distribution channels, tracking the highest response of buyers: social networks, exhibitions, fairs, markets, local designer clothing stores. In the future, sales are carried out on two or three sites that have shown the best results, or an online store is added to the sales channels. However, it is worth noting that the development of a high-quality selling website and its regular support will cost the entrepreneur at least 50,000 rubles, which means that it is worth doing this after the project shows economic efficiency.

The next step could be the opening of a showroom where customers can try on clothes before buying, which is especially important for products in the above-average price segment. Opinions of entrepreneurs differ regarding the opening of a retail store. In regions with an undeveloped system of sales via the Internet and a low rental rate, opening them is cost-effective. In large cities, sales through your own store do not pay off the cost of monthly maintenance, so selling collections on a commission to multi-brand boutiques is the most effective marketing strategy.

Conclusion

Launching your own clothing brand in the face of high competition from world famous brands and the lack of quality materials for tailoring seems to be a laborious and high-risk type of business. To make a profit, a combination of several factors is required: a carefully thought-out brand concept, an understanding of the industry and the processes in it of the business owner, the establishment of high-quality professional connections at each stage of development, a reserve working capital to create several collections before reaching payback.

Today, no self-respecting company can do without its own corporate identity and a trademark that distinguishes its products from other similar ones. A trademark includes a set of names, textual information, and graphic design that identify a particular product of a particular brand. The brand name is unique, recognizable and is an object of intellectual property protected by law (Chapter 76 Part 4 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). AT Russian legislation the terms “trademark” (TM) or “service mark” (for services) are used. TK can not be used by anyone other than its owner, but on one important condition: if this mark was registered by its owner. How to register trademark? Read the instructions for issuing a certificate for company symbols.

Step 1. Trademark development

This step can be skipped for those who are already selling branded products or services that have their own custom designs and names. If the brand managers of the company have conscientiously approached their work, then there should not be any difficulties with registering a trademark and you can safely proceed to the next stage.

For those companies that are just starting to create their own corporate identity, you need to come up with a name (for a company, product), a verbal description (slogan, advertising slogan), an image, order fonts, colors, and a company logo for designers.

All these elements should not only attract attention, correspond to the mission of the company, but also be unique, not repeating the symbols of other companies.

Step 2: Brand Verification

The second stage is designed to check how the trademark developed by the company meets the requirements of uniqueness. Before registering a logo, it is necessary to search for similar trademarks in the registers of Rospatent. You can do this yourself through online databases or contact specialists.

This stage is the most important in the process of preparing for registration, because a “missed” repetition of an element of a foreign brand can result in a refusal by the patent office and the loss of paid fees. The found similarities allow to make timely changes to the trademark.

However, even the absence of matches between the new sign and the lists of registrations posted in the public domain does not guarantee anything. Officials quite often find similar, in their opinion, symbols in their databases, and applicants have to “defend” the originality of their trademark.

If you have not fully figured out how to register a trademark on your own, it may be at this stage that it is worth resorting to the help of professionals who have knowledge of the patent examination methodology and have relevant experience. A specialized firm will competently and promptly conduct a preliminary assessment of the trademark and issue a conclusion on its uniqueness.

Step 3. Selecting classes of goods and services

A patented trademark must be used unchanged, so it is important to choose the right types of goods and services to which it will apply. Product classes are selected according to the international classifier (MKTU), which is not an easy task to understand. For example, one product name can be contained in different classes, so the search for the required code must be carried out not only by the purpose of the product, but also by the material of its manufacture and other properties. Before "getting" into the classifier, study guidelines Rospatent for work with him.

Step 4. Application preparation

To apply, you need to collect a set of documents:

application for registration with data individual representing the trademark;
receipts for payment of duties;
image of the logo in 8 copies with its description and list of goods according to the Nice Classification;
certificate of state registration individual entrepreneur.

Just like registering a trademark for an individual entrepreneur, you can also patent it for entity: in addition to the listed documents, the organization must provide the charter and a copy of the document with the OKPO code, certified by the head of the company.

Step 5. Submission of documents

The completed set of documents is submitted to Rospatent in one of the following ways:

in person at the branch of Rospatent;
by mail;
by fax with the subsequent transfer of originals;
an electronic application after preliminary installation of the software and receipt of keys;
through an intermediary company.

The Patent Office fixes the application on the day of receipt of the documents and informs the applicant of its registration number.

Step 6. Track the status of the application

The documents received by Rospatent are subjected to a formal examination: the correctness of the drafting, the availability of all the necessary papers, the content of the application are verified. This check takes up to two months, after which the application, if it is correctly executed, is accepted directly into work.

Examination of a trademark is essentially a lengthy process. It takes up to 18 months, during which experts analyze company logo for similarity with others and compliance with the specified classes of goods and services. This stage is usually accompanied by active correspondence between Rospatent and the applicant. Experts may request various clarifications and additional documents. It is at this stage that some of the logos are “slaughtered” due to the inept behavior of the applicant: untimely response to requests, unpreparedness to “defend” their trademark. If there are no grounds for refusal, the patent authority decides on the registration of the trademark, and informs the owner thereof.

Step 7. Obtaining a certificate

Having received a notification of a positive decision, the company must pay the fee for issuing a certificate of registration and provide a receipt to Rospatent. The certificate is issued within two months after payment. During this time, the trademark is entered into State Register and is published in the monthly Trademarks Bulletin. The registration certificate must be renewed every 10 years.

From the moment of registration, the owner of the mark acquires exclusive rights to it and, if an unlawful use of his trademark is detected, he can demand compensation for damage.

A trademark is an intellectual property that has a certain value and is on the company's balance sheet as an intangible asset. Trademark rights can be transferred or sold like any other product.

Registration fee

How much does it cost to register a trademark? If you file a patent yourself, your costs will consist of paying government fees:

filing an application, checking a set of documents - 2700 rubles;
examination of technical specifications for one class of goods and services - 11,500 rubles;
surcharge for each additional class of the Nice Classification - 2050 rubles;
issuance of a certificate - 16,200 rubles;
making changes and additions to the application and accompanying documents - 4900 rubles;
delay in response to a request from Rospatent (for each month) - 850 rubles;
restoration of the right to submit the requested materials if all the deadlines have expired - 8100 rubles.

The minimum cost of registration, therefore, will be 30,400 rubles. (for one class of the Nice Classification), if you manage to competently approach the matter and correctly draw up all the documents the first time. Otherwise, each mistake will cost the company almost five thousand rubles, appealing against a refusal to register a trademark - another 13,500 rubles. additionally, and the process itself will stretch for two or more years.

If you are not confident in your abilities, it is wiser to contact a specialized company. Services of this kind are offered at a price of 15 - 20 thousand rubles and more, depending on the complexity of the trademark (word logo, graphic image or a combined representation, the number of used classes of services and goods) and the timing of the necessary checks, the preparation of recommendations to eliminate errors.

Professionals will prepare documents for you, submit an application and negotiate with Rospatent, it may even allow you to save some amount on additional fees due to errors in self-registration and get a patent as soon as possible.

Most fast way apply for registration - submit an application under the international procedure (under the Madrid Agreement). Such a certificate is more expensive, but you can get it in about six months - a year, and it will be valid in more than 70 countries.

Text: Irina Dubina

Launch and keep afloat your own fashion brand in Russia- not an easy task. First, worthy educational institutions there are practically none that could compete with respected Western counterparts: education in the field of fashion as a phenomenon is in its infancy in our country. Secondly, it can be problematic to enter the market and establish sales through stores: the vast majority of domestic retailers work on a sales basis, which means that a designer can make a profit, or may be left with nothing.

Finally, as the nasty stories that have happened to brands and Oh, My have shown, business in Russia is still often conducted using schemes from the 1990s: there is no guarantee that your brand will not end up in the hands of an unscrupulous business partner or that a major fashion department store does not owe you more than a million rubles. However, these difficulties are not able to cool the ardor of those who want to launch their own clothing brand: new Russian fashion brands appear every year with enviable constancy.

If the fame of Gosha Rubchinsky and Vika Gazinskaya haunts you, here's what you need to do to start your own design brand and make it commercially successful. Our rules are not universal and do not give one hundred percent guarantees of success, but they will definitely help you understand the basic things.

Understand what you want to do, for whom and why

The first thing you need to decide if you decide to embark on the path of a fashion designer is the concept of the future brand, its identity and how it will differ from thousands of existing analogues. “The concept of sending off at least something and just like that is fundamentally wrong,” Denis Yerkhov, the founder of Items, is sure. - Before you send off a collection and shoot a lookbook, you need to answer important questions for yourself. Who are you doing this for? Where can you sell it? Who is your target customer and does he even exist? In fact, preparation for launch is the most difficult and important process. Based on the answers received, you can already create a product and shoot a lookbook. The strategy should be thought out at the very first stages.

“Most of our girls and boys make collections simply out of a desire to express themselves,” says Dasha Samkovich, creator and designer of the I AM Studio brand. - But if you decide to make clothes that will be worn, you need the collection to be understandable not only to you, but also to people with their own vision of fashion. Decide on your goals: for you, your own brand is just a tool creative self-realization, in which third-party investors can invest, or a full-fledged business project? If you decide to make a commercial product, that is, clothes for people, it is important to understand who your the target audience, her age, social status, financial position- these will be your starting points.

Gather a team and find a production

If you are seriously planning to develop your own brand, and not just sell dresses sewn on the knee through Instagram, you can’t go anywhere without qualified staff. First of all, you will need to find people who can sew your collection: cutters, seamstresses. You can already apply existing productions, who collaborate with novice designers, but in this case, you won’t have to wait for a return from the team.

“I made the first collections at third-party productions: if you cooperate with them twice a year for a couple of months, while the seasonal collection is being prepared, this format is often more profitable,” designer Zhenya Kim shares her experience. - Over time, I began to recruit my own team: in the same industries I was looking for the most competent people and lured them to me. There are many advantages in such a scheme of work: you cooperate with people who are most involved in the process, and it is in their interests to do everything efficiently. On the other hand, it can be costly if you don't have regular customers or stores where you need to make things for."

“If you have a goal of producing large circulations of clothes, you need a so-called experimental workshop: a designer, a tailor and an order placement manager - this is the minimum from which you can start,” says Dasha Samkovich. - An easier way is to contact one of the companies that offer the development of a collection from scratch: you bring them sketches, fabric, they make the design, you come to try on, approve, and get the finished product. Sometimes such companies even help with the placement of print runs - now it is much easier for a novice designer to start his own business than even five years ago.

“It is important to understand that the fashion industry is a team game, and team members, a professional environment and the support of beautiful fans are vital here,” says designer Lyudmila Norsoyan. - And the team, and partners, and customers - all need to be carefully and carefully raised over the years, without getting stuck yourself. Emotion, attitude, fidelity, reliability are a terrible deficit in the fashion world, and it is the ability to these emphatic qualities that makes it possible to build loyal associates around oneself.

Make a good lookbook

You have a finished collection, your potential hit, the next step is to shoot a presentable lookbook that you can send to print or online publications and show to buyers of stores. Not everyone pays due attention to the preparation of the lookbook, but in vain - these are not just image pictures, but a PR tool: the more beautiful the images are, the more likely they will be wanted to be published. At the same time, we must not forget that a lookbook is not equal to a campaign, that is, photographs should present clothes in the most advantageous way, and not just be a creative outlet for the designer and his team.

“It's important to remember that a quality lookbook is an understandable lookbook,” says Picls founder Sveta Müller. - If we talk about the availability of pictures, then, obviously, buyers and buyers should first of all see the clothes, all its details and the texture of the fabric - we must give maximum information about the thing to a person who does not yet hold it in his hands and does not have the opportunity to try it on . A quality lookbook is essentially the same good catalog, just with a more interesting shooting concept and, as a rule, limited number a photo. All you need is a technically talented photographer who knows how to work with light, and a talented stylist who won’t lead your lookbook into a wild of creative shooting.”

When asked whether it is worth saving on a lookbook, the answer will be rather negative: after all, this is an investment that will help recoup the costs and bring the brand to a high level. “The biggest mistake young brands make is shooting with friends,” Muller says. - Okay, maybe it works if you are from the industry and your friends are from Condé Nast. But in general, there are no options. Just trust me, because many Picls clients came to us after just such an experience with a broken heart and the hope of a normal shoot. You can save on anything - shoot at home and with natural light. Call a friend who seems to have a camera because he travels so much. Invite a friend to be a model, who herself will do makeup (as it seems to her) and styling. You will have fun and hide your lookbook deep in the table. After all, industry professionals do this for a reason - they know how to do it best of all, they will not let your concept fall apart and do everything on their knees. You can talk for a long time about such shoots, but I advise you just not to waste your time.

Start selling things

Firstly, it would be useful to say that in the total digital era, all the worked out schemes for promoting your own name and selling clothes cease to be absolutely categorical. In fact, you may not set the task of entering existing retail sites at all, but simply create a separate Instagram account, which will be your PR tool and online store at the same time.

However, the notorious SMM is not an imperative for a young brand. Many young designers who have already made a name for themselves still put a lot of effort and time into selling themselves in large multi-brands and concept stores. “We will only now be launching our own online store,” Zhenya Kim says. - Firstly, I did not feel the need for it before, and secondly, soon I plan to do regular collaborations with artists and other young creative people and I want to sell these collections through my website. From the very beginning, my goal was to go to the coolest retailers, I never wanted to sell my collections through Instagram, it seems unpresentable to me.

“There is no single strategy in finding the right retailer - it depends a lot on the product. Some brands can even be recommended to start selling through their own store and exclude wholesale, - advises Denis Erkhov. - If there is an understanding that the goods need to be sold through retailers, then it is more efficient to start cooperation with more image projects and gradually expand distribution through smaller and simpler ones. If you see a prospect in large projects, then look for contacts of buyers; in smaller projects, often the same person is the owner, director, and buyer. Look for personal contacts, if it doesn’t work out, go to the store and show ready-made things. It is better to arrange a meeting in advance by writing to the mail. If you don't get a response, don't worry, the email may have got lost and you should send a reminder. “They didn’t let you in the door, climb in the window” - contact the other person, but you shouldn’t sell too aggressively either - no one likes that!

If you wish, you can get to any site - it all depends on how interesting and potentially commercial successful project you are willing to offer. As the former head of the PR department of the Tsvetnoy department store, which presents many Russian brands from ZDDZ to Sorry, I’m Not, Pasha Bobrov, says, “the department store team always carefully examines all new collections, paying attention to quality and relevance. The assortment of the department store is often replenished with things of Russian brands, both those whose names are already well-known, and young ones. Many new Russian brands enter the department store themselves, send lookbooks and samples for consideration.”

Having got involved in cooperation with third-party stores, be prepared for the fact that you will have to put up with conditions that are not always favorable for you: retailers usually have a special conversation with young designers and small brands. “The cooler the store, the worse the conditions, but the presence in the top stores for any brand is extremely important,” says Denis Yerkhov. - If we talk about the foreign market, then basically stores buy out things, so many designers dream of a foreign market. In Russia, such cases are rare, but again, it all depends on the product. The cooler the product, the more likely it is to push through its conditions, especially in cases when the store itself enters the brand.”

The vast majority of stores in Russia work with young brands on a sale basis - this means that the designer gives his things without a deposit, and the store pays him off after the sale of things, usually at the end of each month. For many, this option of cooperation seems not the most fertile: if for some reason the store could not sell the collection before the end of the season, the designer simply gets it back in his hands.

“In fact, implementation often turns out to be more profitable history for both sides, - says Denis. - First, mark-up (margin on cost. - Approx. ed.) in a relationship based on implementation, it is always higher than in a buyout, that is, the brand receives more money. Secondly, in the case good sales it is almost always possible to sort the goods, that is, to add what has already been sold, or additional models. On sale, as a rule, orders are larger and wider. In the event of a buyout, stores are rarely sorted, and even if everything is sold, they will wait for the next season, so theoretically, on the terms of sale, you can sell much more, if possible. Before agreeing to cooperate with a particular store, it is important to read the contract, ask other designers who have already collaborated with this project, since, unfortunately, there are a lot of unscrupulous stores on the market, which often do not pay designers what is due for the goods sold ".

Photo: J.Kim, KM20, I am Studio, More, Braventru

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