When you set out to discover what makes luxury brands the success they are, you are often blasted with keywords such as exclusive, state-of-the-art, and bespoke. These speak about the incredible efforts that these brands put into creating something that is more of an experience than a product. In the clothing industry, being exclusive is an obvious ask. What isn’t, is the other ‘elements’ that define your periphery as a luxury brand. These are the elements that keep those gilded cogs rolling and enhancing your brand as it chases its ever-moving target. We have defined the steps one needs to take that will help one with a direction on how to start a clothing line in the cluttered world of luxury fashion.
Pick something to stand for
You may not have expected this to be your first step, but today, it is. Leading luxury apparel makers are defining their vision and setting it in stone. The luxury consumer is discerning and wears their belief more than mere rags. When you pick something that you stand for, it should emanate from within you. It should resonate from your heart and echo in every brick of your store and every weave of the fabrics you create. Even legacy brands, the ones that set off with weight behind their name and leaned completely on the quality of their product, have taken up missions and causes to support. This adds more value to not their shelves, but their equity too. Consumers today aren’t troubled to spend a few extra thousands if what they’re doing is good for their conscience. Having said this, the quality and professionalism shouldn’t be discounted one bit either. After all, it’s your product that is your brand at the end of the day.
Build your identity
What do you want to be known as? What do you want to be recognized by? What’s the language you want to speak to your customers with? How different does your logo look in a field with twenty competing ones? All of this is essential for a luxury brand. Clothing isn’t like automobiles. Unless you have an exclusive store, you aren’t going to find your brand sitting on its own highest pedestal. It has to share real estate with some of the giants of the industry. So, when it does, what will make it stand out? Keep your brand logo clean and minimal and your brand’s name, as close as you can, to what you believe in. Build a brand that has a story to tell. The story can be what inspired it or how it impacts the world of fashion, each time it is worn. Would you like a famous face behind your brand? Why not? Go for it. Low on budgets? Pick an Internet influencer instead.
Carve your niche
Imagine your customer holding a shoe from your brand’s house in one hand and a competitor’s product in their other hand. What’s that one thing egging them on to pick your product? It has to be one thing. Your unique selling point is what they will know you by. You may have fifty amazing things to say about your brand, but you can’t master all of them. They’re mostly already claimed by your predecessors. What sets your fashion brand apart can lean heavily on your aesthetic principles. It could even be the way you source your materials.
Create perceptions
Now that you know how your brand looks and what it has to offer, you need to let the world know about it. But you also want them to know about the brand the way you desire them to remember it. Creating a positive perception about your brand is a function of marketing and truth. Scratch that. It’s about truth. If you want to really make people believe something about your brand, tell them the truth.
Backup sales with service
Since you aren’t a thrift store, and you charge a higher price for your products, you are automatically more accountable to your consumers. They may not expect it but reaching out to your previous customers every now and then gives them the feeling of warm, fuzzy love for your brand that no amount of marketing can ever achieve. Work with a loyalty expert and build this system. Your customers may outgrow your clothing but will be too used to your pampering to pick another brand.
This chronology of prioritizing your next steps will help you not just prepare for the day of the launch, but for the part that follows it. It is here where you need to sustain the interest in your brand and have people remember it from time to time. One way you can reinforce your brand message is by planning a well-spaced communications calendar for your social media and direct outreach to customers.
