Being a freelance fashion designer

Rutendo Chidawanyika

STARTING your own brand can be interesting and a financially rewarding venture but with definite ups and downs. There is no question that there are a lot of talented designers out there, but being a freelance fashion designer is DIFFICULT especially in a third world country. A lot of individuals are still trying to break out into the fashion industry but are failing due to a number of reasons.

First of all you need to understand the market, what do people need? Is fashion a priority with the current economic situation? Is the market receptive of new fashion trends? All those questions come into play before you even start working on a collection. This will save you time and resources.

Thorough research is mandatory before you make any decisions regarding your project.

The truth is fashion design is an excellent career, especially if you are doing well and have people who are interested in your brand. Most local designers claim they do it for the love and passion, but if your passion cannot pay your bills or bring in revenue it becomes a challenge. Aint nothing wrong with being passionate but it has to count for something unless it becomes a hobby. In developed countries there are investors who are willing to take the risk of investing in your project because fashion is a way of life. They want to see fashion entrepreneurs succeed. On the contrary in developing countries fashion is a luxury investors hardly give a chance.

Most fashion designers enrol into design school in order to improve their skills while others just have the talent to design and sew crazy garments and will feel school is not necessary. I know individuals who studied fashion design and are content working under an organisation as commercial designers. Then there are those individuals who want the fame, to travel and get recognition. The second sets of individuals mentioned above are the freelance fashion designers. A freelance fashion designer usually participates in fashion shows as a way to get your brand out there.

Paris Fashion Week, London Fashion Week and the other international fashion weeks: big name fashion shows such as these will give you the exposure that will take your career places without a doubt. However, in developing countries when you show your range the most you get are likes on Facebook and Instagram. Clients will suggest to wear your garments and in return give you shout outs on social media! REALLY. Hold up . . . because you don’t have an investor you solely finance your entire project, from fabrics, trims (thread and other), the time you take to put together your garments using your own electricity or the tailors you paid to execute the garments better from your own pocket. And all you get is a mention! It’s sad but I’ve seen this happen a whole lot of times.

As a freelancer a lot of forces are working against you, such as:

The economy — The economy is not doing too well, people have other issues to worry about. Fashion becomes an unnecessary expense. Why should they fork out money when the flea markets offer very low prices? Inflation isn’t helping things at all and since there are tonnes of brands in the market, the customers move on to the cheaper brands when your stuff get too expensive.

Fabrication — Getting good fabric locally is a hustle; even if you do can you afford it? Demand forecasting is another challenge you would also face. Since you are just beginning, you might not have existing records of demands, therefore, knowing what quantity to produce, which sizes and what colours would sell better might be a problem.

Marketing and advertising — Which means of communication are you using to get your product out there? How well is the market receiving the message? Did they get the message? You would also have to spend a lot of money on publicity and promotion especially as a new comer in the business. You would have to host launching parties, give out free samples, and pay for advertisements and a whole lot of other expenses related to promotion and advertisements.

Exposure — Do you know what people want and how to cater to their fashion needs? You need to be exposed to different cultures in order to know who exactly you are working with, do your research.

Competition — Don’t think the tailors will stop doing their thing to accommodate you. In developing countries as a fashion designer you need to have strong tailoring skills to survive. If their prices are better than yours then it’s a challenge for you. Nonetheless, there is still hope if you are smart enough to study your competitors closely and strategise how to break into the market.

Capital— I cannot over emphasise how capital is one of the most challenging factors. Without capital you might as well find something else you are good at. To get your work out there you need to pay to participate in most if not all huge fashion shows, huge meaning recognised across Africa and globally. You will also need capital to hire people to sew the range unless you have good tailoring skills. Costs of production in the clothing industry increase every day. Don’t be surprised if the costs you have in your business plan are different from what obtains in the market even though you wrote your business plan just three months ago. As more people get into the business, the prices of materials needed for production continues to increase.

If you already have a brand which is doing well, to keep your clothing company running; you have to keep on coming up with new designs all the time and sometimes, you might run into some kind of “designer’s block” where you would find it difficult to come up with unique new designs of your own.

Be careful of copycats, some designers are just lazy, instead of taking the time to think and design unique clothes; they would rather let other designers do the job and then copy the work of other designers. This is another problem you might face because after spending a lot of money paying designers to ensure that you give your customers the best, it would really hurt to see another person steal your designs and present it to their customers at very cheap rates because they didn’t spend too much money on designing.

You should also try to keep some funds aside for unplanned expenses so that if any expenses come up that you weren’t informed about or prepared for, it wouldn’t have to mean the end of your business.

This article is not to discourage anyone or to offend those trying to break into the industry. It’s more of an eye opener and food for thought. As I have outlined the difficulties, on the contrary there many positives and so many ways to kill a cat and make it into the fashion industry.

Email: [email protected]