Designing/Selling Clothes

I want to design and hopefully sell apparel - in particular, shirts, shorts, and shoes. I don't have any experience in clothes design, and cannot at all draw. But I do not what I want my first products to look like, and have even sketched them out.

Where do I go from here, though? First, is it possible/reasonable to design clothes, render a prototype, and then sell them online without spending (and maybe wasting) much money? If it is, how can I turn my ideas into physical products?

so you want to know if you can start a small business with little to no investment and low chance of loss...


Id like a golden toilet.

guys, help. i want to open a restaurant, but i dont know anything about food, money or people

Originally Posted by stylar

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I want to design and hopefully sell apparel - in particular, shirts, shorts, and shoes. I don't have any experience in clothes design, and cannot at all draw. But I do not what I want my first products to look like, and have even sketched them out. Where do I go from here, though? First, is it possible/reasonable to design clothes, render a prototype, and then sell them online without spending (and maybe wasting) much money? If it is, how can I turn my ideas into physical products?
Go to school.

To be fair, it CAN be done, no? Go to school is exactly right. No doubt it'll be painstakingly difficult without any experience whatsoever. But one can learn and if you really have a knack for it, you never know.

For example, many great chefs got into the profession later in their careers. The "just took a cooking class for fun, enjoyed it so much I changed professions, and..." is a common narrative amongst some very successful restaurateurs. Of course there are also many failures. But it's not like pro sports where if you didn't pursue it while you were younger it's pretty much moot to try now.

Of course I know nothing about the industry so I could be 100% wrong.

Yeah. But I don't know. A lot of people who don't know **** about what they're doing end up making a lot of money.

I am in school, but not for clothes design.

This is something I want to do on the side. It might even just be a way for me to make clothes for myself, though if others are interested I would for sure sell.

So, putting the sarcasm aside, what's the process like for designing and prototyping a piece of clothing? Technology should make it easy and cheap, I assume.

If you have experience taking an idea and making it into a product, how did/would you do it?

Try emailing someone in the industry, maybe. The very worst response you can get is being ignored, and even a short response from them would be far better than the best response you'll find here.

Originally Posted by stylar

Click to expand...

I am in school, but not for clothes design. This is something I want to do on the side. It might even just be a way for me to make clothes for myself, though if others are interested I would for sure sell. So, putting the sarcasm aside, what's the process like for designing and prototyping a piece of clothing? Technology should make it easy and cheap, I assume. If you have experience taking an idea and making it into a product, how did/would you do it?
If you don't even know how to draft patterns you will fail before you start. Then you need to know construction (how each part comes together to make a whole) and you need to be able to make prototypes (ie: you need to be able to sew). Just because you can draw designs doesn't mean you're anywhere near ready to start, that's the least important piece of the puzzle. You'll also need to know about textiles (because every fabric will drape, stretch, and look differently). And that's just from the actual "design" part of the deal, then you need to know how to manage production and buyers, market your brand, etc. I wasn't being sarcastic when I said go to school.

Your best course of action is to find someone, maybe a design student or recent grad, that can do the actual designs to be your partner and you be more of the business manager. That way, you can put in your own inputs about the clothes but not have to have the expertise in executing the design.

You'll need to do the business side, like finding a manufacturer, doing sales, etc... but that should be more doable for you given that you have no design experience or knowledge.

Honestly, I think the only way this can be done (the 'right' way) is to learn how to make clothes, then make them, and see if they sell. How are you going to design clothes if you don't know how they are made?

Cafe press lets you make your own shirts

Hmm.

Okay, well, for starters, what do you guys know about painting directly onto shirts? I think I might get some acrylic paint and paint on some v-necks.

Any recommendations on what specific paint/paintset to use?

I can smell a Fuelstar.

Damnit, I've been had. I was so optimistic that this would mean actually designing clothes My hope for the world is undeserved