How to become a luxury brand designer

All fashion brands can be divided into different segments. Luxury brands are on the top of this pyramid - they are the most desirable and expensive. For example brands Chanel, Prada or Gucci. 

Many new designers dream to produce clothes in luxury segment. However, it's not so easy - luxury items are made with a completely different quality than in the economy segment, and therefore it's a big problem to find a good production (studio, factory, workshop), who can turn all your ideas into reality.

Today Yulia Kulakova, our teacher of online course “Fashion design” will give you detailed instructions on how to become a premium segment designer and where you can produce such clothes.

Where do luxury brands produce clothes today?

There are 2 variants in a fashion business today:

1. Luxury designers produce their collections in Europe in their factories or collaborate with other European factories.
2. It is possible that the brand may have its own factory in China, where highly skilled Chinese specialists work, but under the guidance of European ones. Otherwise in China if you do not control them day and night, it is difficult to achieve proper quality.

Where to produce luxury clothes if you're beginner designer

One way to find where to produce such clothes in Europe is to go to the international exhibition of fabrics Premier Vision and find manufacturers of expensive fabrics. Talk to them and they will advise you somebody. This exhibition takes place in Paris in September and February.

How to organize the production of luxury clothes

There are several ways to build work on the production of luxury clothes:

1 WAY

To recruit your specialists, create your own small workshop and educate the staff under your own control. The disadvantage of this option is the high cost.

You will have to pay a lot of expenses:

• renting a space
• salary
• taxes
• it takes a lot of equipment (for example, a press to make a good ironing, several types of machines for different types of lines and nozzles for edging, a machine to break through loops eye).

2 WAY

To find already existing small production.

You can try to search for such an atelier through the Internet or at exhibitions.

• At the first meeting it is important to declare your high demands (I am sure that a large percentage of production will disappear at this stage. Not everyone will want to get involved in luxury quality).
• Now almost in all cities there are small sewing workshops that can be brought up to meet your requirements. It is good if they had previously worked with designers.

Advantages of this way:

You do not need to maintain your production and atelier, there won’t be any expenses on this part.

Disadvantages:

• You need to understand that the price for the production will not be small.
• Be prepared for the fact that it will not be very easy to find an understanding with the garment designers. They will tell you all the time about the impossibility or complexity of a particular node or design.
• It’s checked by me more than once.
• The complexity of remote sewing is a misunderstanding and production error. Such errors will definitely be at first.

3 WAY

There is also such a scheme of work - for me personally, the most ideal.

• You create a team of the designer and the garment designer.
• Together you are developing samples of clothing.
• Then these samples will be the given for sewing in a special atelier or a small factory.