12 Tips for Creating Inspirational Mood Boards Part 2

 7. Give it a name

Give your mood board a creative name, one that summarizes your mood board in one or two words maximum. Not only will it succinctly describe your mood board’s vibe, but it’s also nice to reference once you’ve built a portfolio of many mood boards, and are using them to pitch… For example, I named this mood board “Linear” because the crisp patterns, bagginess, illustrative outlines, and overall angsty-sulky way it made me feel seemed to fit with the name. I can just use this name (instead of a looooooong, unnecessary description) when referring to a specific mood board for simplicity when dealing with investors or other contributors to the project – nice and easy!

 

8. Colour Tip

Colour evokes mood and emotion, and really tells you what the tone of a fashion piece is. You can give yourself a headstart on how your line will affect a room’s atmosphere by colour forecasting using the Pantone Reference Book (click here see our exciting blog post about why every fashion professional needs one of these!). Add in the colour reference number and try to limit colour variations in a style to 1 or 2 – this will make your design and production process later much easier!

 

9. Start with Why

Beyond personal or financial fulfillment, you must have a reason behind the creation of a fashion line in order to succeed in the business. Is your product solving a problem? Can you visually illustrate how your product is solving this problem? Do you have a niche market? Can you bring something to that table that is so unique, it can’t be easily duplicated and mass-produced by competitors?What sets you apart of the rest? No matter where you are in the process of creating a mood board, you must be able to answer the one-word question of: “why?”

 

10. One size does not fit all

This isn’t a one-and-done type of deal – you can have as many mood boards as your heart desires… in fact, the more the better! Some fashion designers choose to make a mood board for each individual design piece to work through product development, while others choose to put all of their season’s styles onto one mood board. There is no “wrong” way of doing this – choose whichever best suits your tastes and needs, and let your creativity flow!

 

11. Make Every Detail Count

Make sure there is a reason behind every image, a portion of text, or fabric swatch. Don’t add it in simply because you like it – that’s what image dumping is for! If you can fine tune and add details such as the trims or embellishments, even better! Actually curating your mood board is for fine-tuning the idea and picking which elements represent it best. You should be able to fully describe why you’ve included each and every portion in the particular mood board.

And finally… perhaps the most important one….

 

12. The Time Is Now

Don’t wait for inspiration to hit… go out and find it! I myself sometimes have ideas that float through my head, and I think, “it’s too random, too incomplete to do anything with; I’ll wait until it’s a bit more developed.” No!!!! This is exactly what a mood board is for – if you already had the end result, you wouldn’t need a mood board. Creating a mood board helps to propel the idea and begin it get it into a tangible form, even if you don’t know what the end product or design will be. No matter what stage your project is in, it will benefit from creating a mood board!

What sorts of unique elements have you used in your mood boards? Do you have any inspiring stories or experiences with creating or pitching using a mood board? We’d love to hear!

12 Tips for Creating Inspirational Mood Boards Part 1

A mood board is a tool to help hash out all your research ideas and to put a solid direction to guide you through product development all the way through sales. It will help keep you on track with the overall feeling that inspired your fashion line while helping to communicate those “hard to put into words” details to others working with you!

Does this sound appealing so far? Well, rather than leave you hanging with this great tool to evolve your fashion inspo and ideas, we’ve gathered 12 Pro Tips that you can use to get your creative juices flowing and your bright ideas out in the open by creating a mood board!

 

1. See who’s #slaying the moodboard game

 

They say the hardest step is the first one… and that’s true of mood board creation too! Whether you’re creating a mood board for professional or personal use, starting out can be daunting, especially if you have never done it before. Ask creatives around you if they can show you their mood boards to get you on the right track, or scour examples on the internet like this page on TinkerLab – you can simply Google “moodboards” to find thousands of examples to get you started!

 

2. “Image Dump”

 

It’s not as gross as it sounds, I promise. An image dump is simply a giant spree of pinning, saving, and capturing images into one lace for use later. The great thing about an image dump is that you don’t have to concentrate on specific aesthetics or themes just yet – just spend some time collecting images that inspire you. I like Pinterest for my image dumping – as an intelligent platform, it’s like a rabbit hole, always recommending images for me based on previous pins!

 

3. Get out there

You don’t have to be at your desk to collect ideas for your mood board – there’s a whole world out there beyond your computer screen! Grab your camera when you head to museums, galleries, especially while shopping the market. You can take pics of garment features such as construction details, seams, and trims – all of which will also help with adding value to your garment tech pack. See any products that are innovative or niche as well? Snap photos of anything that captures your interest, you never know what you’ll find!

 

4. Always be “on”

The world moves quickly – if you see a photo you like, save it for later. Follow Instagram accounts that you find aesthetically pleasing and use the save feature whenever something pops up. Scroll through Tumblr or Pinterest before you go to sleep and save anything that inspires you, or that you find innovative or unique. If you see someone wearing something cool, ask if you can take a pic. You can also take scan photos in magazines that capture your attention, or simply tear out the page!

 

5. Experiment with platforms

 

 

While I generally like to go digital, a mood board can also be created using a physical platform, like a poster, a bulletin board, or a wall. Regardless of platform, the best mood boards use both physical items and sketches, so if you’re working on a computer, you can photograph physical items such as fabrics, trims, and other garment details. Don’t forget to take photographs of your own fashion illustrations! The benefit of working digitally means you can email the board easily as needed, but taking a photo of your physical mood board also works!

 

6. Don’t limit yourself to fashion!

It may seem logical to use images of clothing, patterns, and fabric swatches in your mood boards, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use other inspirational photos! Remember – this isn’t the final product, it’s a collection of ideas used to represent the vibe of your venture. I like to use typography, illustrations, makeup designs, quotes, architecture, food, and even photos of random objects such as telephones or public figures that fit the theme to convey the overall feeling. This will help with sales and merchandising – for example, if your mood board reflects that the line was inspired by your travels, a catalog display can reflect this theme as well when promoting your product!

How to Source Materials Like A Boss *Hot Tips*

 

Sew, you’re in the sweet spot between completing your garment design and sending it off to the factory to be manufactured. We know how incredibly exciting this stage is, but don’t jump too far ahead of yourself – by the first time you reach out to the factory, you need to have everything from fabrics and labels to hang tags and trims ready to go. Also, factories who don’t do product development will need you to have additional materials like samples and a tech pack before production can begin!

If you’re suddenly feeling overwhelmed and underprepared, fear not – Silaye is here to help you start! Let’s take a look at the key points that require your undivided attention to achieve material sourcing success.

 

Availability of fabric

 

This is step one. Of course, identifying whether a style will be timeless, if it’s about to hit the runway, or if it’s near retirement in the closets of fashionistas will help you decide whether or not it’s worth creating and the materials are worth ordering. But that isn’t the only point to pay attention to; especially when it comes to printed fabrics, certain fabrics are more difficult to come by or costly to produce. Prints with continuity will be cheaper to purchase than to have custom-printed, but they are much harder to find. Sit down with a fabric supplier to see what they have in stock to help you make the best decision for you, your brand, and your wallet.

 

Keep quality in check

 

The quality of your garments speak volumes about your brand, so avoid cutting corners and always utilize the best materials available in your market and at your price point. It may seem like the cheaper option will save you money, but if they end up costing you in loss of customers and added expenses to fix your garments, you won’t be saving money after all!

 

Get to know your fabric options

The types of fabrics are endless… so if you have an idea between knits and woven pieces, fabric construction types, and weights, you’ll be much better off when you begin! Confused? Hit up our fabric classification blog post to build your knowledge.

 

Find your unique edge

The only way to stay competitive in the fashion industry is to define your individuality and sell it. The more unique your apparel is, the less competition there will be in your sector. Define what sets you apart and what you want to achieve with it by creating mood boards and vision boards – they will help you define and realize your ideas and your voice as a designer entrepreneur.

 

Never stop learning

The fashion industry is ever-evolving, so ensure you’re keeping up with the trends, the methods, and always invest in your knowledge by keeping up to date with blog posts by Source My Garment! #ShamelessPlug… right?

What are the key pieces of info, advice, or ideas that helped you get on the ground running when fabric sourcing?

What Type Of Fabric Supplier Is Best For Your Fashion Business?

Selecting a fabric supplier can be, in a word, overwhelming. Most new designer-entrepreneurs are unsure of how to navigate their options. Every fabric supplier offers different benefits, from high-speed shipping to different minimum orders. So how do you know which assets are the best fit for your apparel startup? It all depends on the way you manufacture your products.
It’s crucial to understand that there are many different types of suppliers; while some suppliers custom-make orders and may take time to get the product into your hands, others offer ready-to-ship stock that will arrive sooner, but with fewer customization options. Let’s explore some of the fabric supplier types to get an idea of what’s the best fit for your fashion brand!

Fabric suppliers

Mill: A company that manufactures textiles and other fabric products using raw materials. They do so by spinning, weaving, knitting, and other methods. Some mills have made-to-order fabric options, and typically have high minimums of at least 1000 – 5000 yards.

 

Converter: A person or firm that purchases unprocessed goods directly from a fabric mill, and then dyes, finishes, prints and/or washes it them to create finished fabrics. They generally offer current fashion colors, prints, unique finishes and specialty effects for fabrics. Their minimums are lower than dealing directly with a mill, too!

 

Jobber: A person or firm that purchases excess finished fabrics from mills and converters (called overruns), leftover goods from manufacturers, and seconds (fabrics with manufacturing flaws). They flip and sell wholesale fabric with lower minimums to new designer-entrepreneurs and smaller fashion firms, as well as retail fabric stores. However, keep in mind that most of their fabrics cannot be reordered, so this solution is better for one-offs or for limited edition garment pieces.

 

Sales rep: An agent that shows and sells fabrics for companies and works directly with manufacturers and other textile customers. If you plan to work with mills overseas, or if you plan to work with several different companies for souring your materials, working with a sales rep may make the process faster and more efficient.

 

Wholesalers: An umbrella term that relates to any secondary fabric sources (meaning anyone who purchases from mills, converters, manufacturers, or jobbers and sells fabrics to smaller manufacturers). Their prices tend to be cheaper than if you go to the stores they sell to, as they up the price to make a profit.

 

Retailer Stores: Sell directly to consumers. This is an obvious choice – you get instant access and be able to touch, drape and hand of the fabric. Typically designers need to buy for sampling purposes. But this is never purchased for bulk or to fill large orders – it is not cost efficient, and definitely not your best choice!

Always be on the lookout
Even when you think you’ve found the perfect recipe for you and your fashion business, never stop looking for alternatives! Keep up your research on suppliers so you don’t miss out on great deals or new products in the market – you never know what you may find!

Do you have a favorite supplier? Spread some love and give them a shout out! 

Top 4 Fabric Trade Shows for Fashion Entrepreneurs Part-2

 

5. Texworld USA

Texworld USA is North America’s largest sourcing event for designers, fabric buyers, and merchandisers consisting of products ranging across the entire spectrum of fabrics.

6. Sourcing at Magic

Sourcing at Magic is a fashion-sourcing event where attendees have access to global resources, and receive insight into trends and information regarding inventive technology and the industry. It takes place twice a year February and August.

7. Kingpins

Kingpins offers a tightly selected list of vendors that including denim and sportswear fabric from all over the world. The show happens at a selection of vibrant and exciting cities, including Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and New York. For all you fashionista-travel bugs out there, Kingpins is a win-win!

8. Apparel Textile Sourcing

With shows in both Canada and the USA, Apparel Textile Sourcing offers a well-rounded experience for designer-entrepreneurs. With several exhibitions and speakers, this show offers more than just a fabric-sourcing opportunity for its attendees.

Don’t limit yourself – one of the most important ways to be successful in the fashion industry is to get out there and see all there is to offer. You never know what you may find!

What are your favorite fashion fabric trade shows? Did we miss anything?

Top 4 Fabric Trade Shows for Fashion Entrepreneurs part 1

 When it’s time to start thinking about fabric sourcing, most new fashion entrepreneurs and apparel designers limit themselves to looking online or heading into fabric stores… but they are missing out on some of the best fabrics available! Attending fabric trade shows allows not only for an extensive opportunity for fashion designers to shop the market, but also lets them extend their variety of options and even make connections with other fashion professionals in the industry! We’ve sourced some of the top fabric trade shows worldwide just for you, so have a read and see which shows might be happening near you.

1.  DG Expo
DG Expo is a fabric and trim trade show that takes place across several major US cities, like New York, Chicago, Miami, and Dallas. The 2-day event allows for fashion entrepreneurs to shop everything from zippers and buttons to leathers and eco-fabrics… And because DG’s vendors are wholesale suppliers, you can place orders with them right then and there!

 

2. The London Textile Fair
Located in one of the fashion capitals of the world, attending The London Textile Fair is an exceptional opportunity for fashion designers and entrepreneurs to shop the market, get inspired, and network with some of the big names in the industry. This is the UK’s largest fashion fabric event, and it isn’t one to be missed!

 

3. Première Vision
Ou, la la! Every fashion professional and designer-entrepreneur needs to hit up the biggies: New York, Milan, Paris… and this is your chance to begin checking off your list, two at a time! Première Vision is Paris’ biannual fabric and material fair, with so many events and exciting opportunities within it! And the best part? It’s also held in New York, meaning you can choose which location is best for you (or better yet, head to both!). Bon voyage!

 

4. Future Fabrics Expo
If you’re interested in designing and producing sustainable and ethical fashion, the Future Fabrics Expo is the place for you. Not only do vendors of sustainable fabrics and materials set up shop – the expo also hosts a variety of events including keynote speakers to weigh in and educate on environmental sustainability in fashion!

Inside A Designer’s Toolbox: The Must Have Tool for Every Fashion Entrepreneur

We’re ready to reveal the #1 must-have in any fashion professional’s toolbox, and it’s not fabric, scissors, or even a sketchbook. No matter what part of the fashion industry you work in you will need a Pantone Reference Book.

 

The Pantone Matching System Color uses a unique coding scheme, a standardized color matching system utilizing a numbering system for identifying colors. By standardizing the colors, different manufacturers in any location can reference a Pantone numbered color, matching them perfectly without direct contact with one another.

 

The Pantone system is used for hang tags, packaging, trims, and prints – pretty much any part of the design process that requires color. All artwork for these elements are submitted to a supplier or garment factory, and colors are specifically matched up to meet the requirements set by the designer. The Pantone system can also be used to dye fabrics, but be careful as it very difficult to match the paper to an actual fabric, as there are many variables can cause shade variations!

 

 

Pantone Material Formats (Chip books & fan guides):

 

1. Coated For Paper – This fan guide provides a side-by-side visual comparison of Pantone Spot Colors to their closest CMYK process printing match. The color code ends with a suffix PMS. PMS colors marked with a C means that the color is printed on coated paper for a glossy finish, as you would see in a magazine. U indicates uncoated paper, which has a more porous finish, common on letterhead. Uncoated paper is generally more absorbent of ink than coated, reducing sharpness.

 

 

2. Uncoated For Textile Paper – The swatch book is called the “PANTONE FASHION + HOME guide”. The color code ends in suffix TP/TPX for fabrics (stands for Textile Paper) The latest updated color code system suffix is TPG.

 

3. Fabric Chips – The cotton planner comes in a three-ring binder containing 65 0.6” x 0.6” cotton chips. Suffix is TC/TCX which stands for textile cotton. It is also available in nylon.

 

The Pantone website has a reference to all the colors as well if you’re in a pinch but beware: on-screen digital color simulations do not match the physical Pantone Colour Standards. It’s advisable to refer to Pantone Colour publications to ensure physical accuracy.

 

Did you know?: The Pantone Colour of the year is announced every December of the preceding year. Can you guess 2019’s color?! We’ll put it at the end of this article for all you trivia buffs out there…

 

Working With Fabric Mills

 

Although Pantone is the most widely used system for mills to dye fabric, keep in mind that variations occur for numerous reasons, such as light, humidity and the reality that every material takes color differently. If you’re not too fussy about minor color variations, Pantone is the best way to to go. If exact matches are a must, send a fabric swatch in the same construction and fiber. In many cases, it may be easier for the mill to match to a fabric. In either case, a selection of lab dips should always be provided for you to select before the bulk fabric is dyed.

 

Lab Dips:

 

A lab dip is a swatch of fabric test-dyed to hit or match a color standard. Lab dips are done in a laboratory environment with the purpose of providing a visual aid of how a color will look when it is dyed.  When the goods are dyed in a real production run, the conditions are different from the laboratory, so the final production fabric may vary from the approved lab dip. No two dye lots are exactly the same!

If you’re going to take away anything from this, it is that you can think of Pantone as a universal language – the codes are created so they can be understood by everyone, but in practice, sometimes there are minor differences in communication. Don’t be afraid of these minor variations – embrace them, as they are a unique part of the process, and will not take away from the quality of your incredible designs!