How to build a fashion business

Post-graduate – whats comes next? Designer dream of their own fashion brand after graduating. But what do you need to do to to accomplish this? We have answers!

When it comes to founding you own fashion brand, plenty of information can be found on the internet. Wikihow even adds an illustrated guide split into quarters, about how to get your own brand market-ready.
If it was just that simple!

Sadly, Google, market leader and online manuals can’t promise success within the fashion industry.

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It also takes more than enthusiasm to survive in the highly competitive fashion industry. For the start-up project to become profitable, we interviewed different experts from some of Berlins most established educational institutions. 

How do I found my own fashion business?

Topically divided into four different focus points – financing, retail, marketing and business creation – the graduate fashion designer Silke Geib of ABOUT:FASHION, academic dean for fashion and retail management at the AMD Elisabeth Busse, course leader of fashion marketing at the Business School Berlin Claudine Brignot and the author of “Entrepreneuship Education/Gründungsdidaktik” Prof. Dr. Herbert Grüner from the art academy Berlin-Weißensee, give advise and tipps on how to build your own fashion business.

The experts agree on that, who wants to build their own fashion brand as a startup, shouldn’t just know the market but also has to have a solid knowledge of the field, past the drawing and sewing. Part of this knowledge isn’t just apparel expertise but also entrepreneurial competence.

Where in Berlin can I study fashion design? 

Especially Berlin, as a young fashion metropolis, has a unusually high frequency of fashion schools with fashion specific courses in Europe and growing number of design talents:

In Berlin, the trends of tomorrow arise. Berlin is known for the highest frequency of fashion businesses within Germany. More than 2.700 companies work within the fashion industry. The sales of the industry raised about 11,6 percent from 2014 to 2015, making a total raise of around 4,8 billion euros. At the same time the numbers of employees raised around 4,2 percent, to around 24.900 (2015) employees.

The fashion spectrum in Berlin ranges from more expensive couture, eco fashion to streetwear and from unique pieces to collections. Alongside womenswear brands, many menswear focused labels were founded in recent years. The accessories and footwear field gained in importance.

Further information about Berlin, the fashion metropolis here.
Further informationen about funding in the field of fashion here.