lolita dress manufacturers

[mia_zombie_chan]

I'm thinking of starting my own Lolita clothing brand, it's not something I'm taking lightly. Anyways, I'm currently researching what companies I can get to print the fabric i'll design and the company I'll pay to sew the dresses, I'm very very picky on who is good enough as I want the most uperior quality. It got me thinking, what companies do the

Comments

[mia_zombie_chan]

I'm thinking of getting about 50 to 100 metres of fabric printed for one design of dress, depending if it takes 1 or 2 metres of fabric to make 1 dress. I've been on Alibaba and there's a company that has a minimum fabric order of 200 metres, so 100 dresses. I was thinking of only making around 50 dresses in each design to start out with and see how they sell. It seems better to make a larger amount if the are popular rather than make a small amount and say they are limited edition, although that would probably help drive sales, if there arent many of the dresses, people will re sell them on sites like mbok and the profit won't go to me, I'd prefer to have a bigger supply of dresses so theyre in stock for people to buy them off me. Also, I don't want to set up an online shop straight away when all i've got to sell is 1 dress, I want to set it up when I've got maybe 3 dress designs and a bag design or something, otherwise people are more likely to forget about the brand if I don't have a lot to offer. I know that this is a gamble

[mach2kudou]

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[goldendays]

+1.

I sew a lot of my own clothes, using my own original designs. I've started screen-printing my own fabrics, too. I've had people tell me, "You should start a company and sell your own line!" And while it's a nice fantasy to play with on days when drafting/sewing/printing is going well, you've just mentioned a lot of the reasons why I'm going to keep on making garments solely for myself. I've read Fashion Incubator on and off for years, and the more I learn about the fashion industry, the less I want to get into it--especially as a tiny brand catering to a niche fashion.

Okay, maybe I'd do it. Like, if an angel investor with deep pockets and a savvy business partner with plenty of fashion experience were drop out of the sky and promise me that all I'd have to do is design the clothes and sew a few samples, LOL.

[mach2kudou]

I think everyone goes through that fantasy at least once or twice :)

[milkteamilk]

I think maybe you're both overestimating, and underestimating, the sort of reaction the community will have to, really, any on dress. If you have 50 dresses to sell, that's by no means a small run in Lolita, judging from other indie Lolita brands, you're probably going to consider yourself lucky if you sell 10 of them in any reasonable amount of time. Search around for preorders for indie brands on the comm sales and you're going to find a lot of interest, but not a lot of preorder slots filled. Many indie brands who only sell through preorder tend to take around 10 (if not less!) preorder slots, and they rarely fill up unless it's a stunning print

[gurliebot]

I think that it would take more than 2 meters for a print dress, unless you have super wide fabric or have your prints situated so you use both sides of the fabric.

Have you had sewing experience? Would you know if a pattern needed to be tweaked?
I know a major issue that happens when my workplace gets samples, is that the fit isn't right.

Would your brand offer different sizes? Would it be a single, versatile size?

Just some things to consider :)