The fusion of brand identity and fashion is getting stronger by the day. In this blog, we explain why we feel it’s important to consider both worlds to succeed, plus, find out exactly how we do it...
At Streamline, when our team of experts are curating a range of new garments for a brand, we’re looking at three things:
What is the brand doing?
What is the brand's audience doing?
... and most importantly, what is fashion doing?
Having a keen eye on the fashion world when you’re in the world of branding is something we feel is essential. Yes, the fashion world and the branding world are two totally different worlds but when you fuse them together, aligning your products with the aspirational fashion image your audience is trying to replicate, will only drive you more revenue and generate more demand.
Think about things such as...
Season. Is it Spring / Summer/ Autumn or Winter time?
Style. Is it casual or is it formal?
Colour. Is it colour coordinated or does it clash?
Design. Is it subtle step-repeat branding or is it a monogram style? Or is it big bold American varsity style branding that the client will love?
All of this matters and all of this will help you curate something your clients' audiences will relate to, and want to wear!
From the very beginning, we look at fabrics. We look at the origin of the fabric and the composition of the cotton or polycotton mix. There's advantages and disadvantages to both and we dive into the differences between organic cotton and mixed cottons in one of our previous blogs which you can read here. Organic cotton is more environmentally friendly and softer to wear, whereas polycotton is more durable and less likely to crease. Other materials that we consider include wool blends, wicking, fabrics and leather.
Once the composition of the fabric has been decided on, we try to keep this consistent across all product phases from design concepting stage into the look and feel and from there into production. When we're procuring the fabric, the larger the meterage, the better the price and consistency we get across the range so that’s important to keep in mind.
The next stage is to create the cut size patterns that give us the style that we then work into the garment sizes. This is synonymous across our different ranges and makes it easy from a production and a consistency point of view for our customers.
We then look at the colours and colour matching printing is a method we use. However, we're always very cautious not to include any harmful dyes that can pollute the ecosystems where our cotton is grown, harvested and manufactured.
Garment, makeup and finishing is a crucial element of the finished product. Consider whether the product needs to be heavily stitched, what colour the stitching needs to be, if we need to consider zip pockets, buttons and lining etc. Here's a list of all the elements that can be specified and customised on our garments:
- Zips
- Pockets
- Buttons
- Neck tape
- Woven labels
- Stitching
- Collars
- Cuffs
- Elasticated fabric
- Oversized sizing
We have a fabulous team at Streamline who can design and curate your ideal range, one that not only represents your brand in the highest possible regards, but one that also speaks to your audience and aligns with what they’re keen to see from the fashion world.
Contact us today to find out more.
