How to Start a Fashion Brand: Anna Wintour’s Tips for Starting a Brand

Creating a clothing brand involves much more than sewing and cutting. Starting and running a successful clothing line requires business acumen and marketing know-how. Here is what you need to start your own fashion brand:

1. 1. Concept: As you begin to shape business ideas for your clothing company, think about the basics—like who your target market is, what kind of clothing you want to make, and what you want your clothes to communicate (i.e. haute couture makes a very different statement than streetwear). There are a lot of fashion brands out there, so find a gap in the clothing industry and fill it with a unique point of view. Think of a business name and design a logo, both key elements in brand identity.
2. 2. Business model: What kind of clothing company will you create? Most fashion designers create a private label. This means they design every element of a garment—from pattern making to fabric selection to the finished piece—to create a unique collection that they put under their brand name. Private labels need to find a manufacturer to produce their clothing. Some designers simply create custom imagery and buy premade casual wear clothing, like hoodies and t-shirts, from a third-party wholesaler who also does the screen printing and fulfills orders direct to consumer. This method is known as print-on-demand.
3. 3. Business plan: Business owners always need to write a plan to outline a business statement, company information, product descriptions, sales and marketing strategy, market analysis, and financial predictions. Learn how to write a business plan in our guide here.
4. 4. Budget: Create a budget like you would for any small business and start crunching numbers—everything from fabric to employee salaries to production costs. Figure out how much money you have to cover expenses, from cash to credit card limits. If you look for outside funding, think about approaching angel investors or creating a crowdfunding website. This is when, if you haven’t already, you need to think about the price point for your brand.
5. 5. Manufacturer: To start a clothing business, you need to find a clothing manufacturer experienced in producing the type of garments you’re designing. Meet with several different manufacturers to look at examples of their work. It’s a good idea to visit the manufacturer during your production run, especially if it’s your first collection. See if there is a local company, or make sure you have the budget to travel for on-site visits.
6. 6. Marketing plan: A marketing plan is what will connect your brand with your buyers. Hire a great fashion photographer to style and capture your collection. Modern consumers are tech savvy, so on top of traditional and word-of-mouth marketing, map out an online strategy to reach potential customers. Have social media accounts for your business, and connect with influencers to promote your brand to their followers.
7. 7. Sales plan: As you’re developing your fashion brand, decide where you want to sell your clothing. Where does your target audience shop? In today’s world there are a number of options. You could sell your clothing on in a local boutique, your own online store or ecommerce platform like Shopify, your own clothing store, or an established clothing retailer with an online presence as well as brick-and-mortar shops.
8. 8. A great team of people: There are many moving parts to starting a fashion brand. If your strength is designing, find the right partner to oversee the business side of the brand. Find a talented group of people to help with different areas—including great writers who can create and implement your marketing strategy.

Anna Wintour is a firm believer in creating a platform for new talent. As a leader in the fashion industry, Anna felt she had a responsibility to help buoy the next generation of designers. Here are Anna Wintour’s six tips on starting your own fashion brand:

1. 1. Know what you want. Not everyone has the same goals. Know yours, and stay true to them as you pursue success. Perhaps you want to be the next Ralph Lauren, and have stores in every city, and expand into home goods and even restaurants. Or maybe you want to make beautiful, unique clothes on an intimate scale, such as sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy of Rodarte, whose ethereal, delicate dresses are prized as heirlooms because they are not mass-produced. Either way, pursue the avenues that will get you closer to your goals.
2. 2. Work for others. It may be appealing to launch your own brand immediately because you have a large social media following or have seen examples of others who have done it successfully. But most people will struggle without having the experience interning or apprenticing under an established designer or fashion industry leader.
3. 3. Go big or go home. It is important to go as big and bold as possible, especially at the beginning of your career. Channel Anna during her Harper’s & Queen days: Be fearless and extreme, because it will help you hone in on what’s at the core of your brand. That passion and sensibility are what people will keep coming back to you for and identify as the heart of your brand.
4. 4. Think outside the box. Don’t hold a fashion show just because everyone else is doing it. Hosting an intimate presentation in your home or filming a video of the collection might make more sense for your brand. Anna points out that video, rather than runway photos, is a great way to show how the clothes move and convey the personality of the pieces. Do what is right for you and your true vision.
5. 5. Break the mold. When considering replacing a designer at a historic fashion house, either as the designer coming in or as the one hiring them, make sure you are not hiring a shadow of the departing designer. Instead of trying to find someone who will rigorously uphold the codes of the house, find the most brilliant designer available and allow them to break those codes and create new ones.
6. 6. Set yourself up for success. Many creatives are also business people. Identify your weaknesses, then hire people who excel in those areas. Make a five-year plan for the business, then use that as a blueprint as you tackle each step going forward. “Try something that is the most extreme, that is the most creative, because when you’re doing that, you get to the true heart of who you are.”

Whether you’re starting our own business or a veteran CEO looking to brush up on the basics, understanding the ins and outs of people management, team building, and effective workplace communication can make all the difference between a successful business venture and an unsuccessful one. No one knows this better than Anna Wintour, who has served as Vogue magazine’s editor-in-chief since 1988. In Anna Wintour’s MasterClass on creativity and leadership, the current Artistic Director of Condé Nast provides her distinct and priceless insight into everything from hiring and managing a successful team to how to best serve the right audience.

Want to become a better business leader? The MasterClass Annual Membership provides exclusive video lessons from business luminaries, including Anna Wintour, Bob Iger, Sara Blakely, Howard Schultz, and more.