FASHION LAUNCH INSIDER EDITION 2 - 31ST MARCH 2025

By Your Launch Architect, Jane McMillan

DESIGNING JUST ONE PRODUCT CAN ACHIEVE MORE CLARITY THAN A LARGE COLLECTION IF YOU'RE JUST STARTING YOUR FASHION BUSINESS

For years THE FASHION INDUSTRY GATEKEEPERS (buyers, editors and agents) said that more choice was better.... 

But does more choice equate to more sales?

Have you ever tried to buy a pair of blue denim jeans, only to be bamboozled by choice and left the shop empty handed— hot, sweaty and  mentally exhausted because you didn’t have the energy to try them all on!    

Sometimes choice is too much for our brains so we end up choosing nothing!  By offering less choice your customers don’t need to think, so actually buy more.

Look at cup cakes.  They were just another cake in the cake shop.    But when bakers started selling ONLY cupcakes demand went through the roof.  One baker in Dubai even sold golden cupcakes for $1,000!

This strategy isn't ...

Investing in samples or prototypes can be a huge financial commitment for a small fashion company, sometimes reaching upwards of $5,000. 

Before diving in, it’s crucial to validate your designs and ensure they resonate with your target audience. 

Here are 6 effective strategies to test and validate your designs without breaking the bank.

1.Social Media Feed: Share images of your designs on Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest to showcase your products in various contexts.   

2.   Instagram Stories:  Use polls and questions in your stories to gather direct feedback, gauge interest and build anticipation among your audience.

3. Engage Your Audience: Ask open-ended questions to encourage your followers to share their thoughts on your designs and spark conversation so you can gauge what what might need tweaking.

4. Pre-Sell Limited Pieces: Once you’ve gathered feedback from your images the next step is to start pre-selling a limited number of pieces. This approach a...

If you are sitting at the same desk surrounded by the same people, doing the same boring job 8 hours a day 5 days a week and basically feeling soooo creatively repressed ….  

...but you’ve always dreamt of becoming a fashion designer….  Then isn’t it time you took charge of your life before it’s too late?

Most of us are indoctrinated to believe that getting a well paid secure professional 9 to 5 job with a big pay check is the right thing to do if you want happiness, self fulfilment and stability ….. and sometimes it’s just to please your family!

But is it worth denying what you really want?

When you are young you just do what you are told so it is natural to follow the path that your family want for you….   

...and when you are young you don’t yet have the life experience to realise that a big pay check can never make you happy.   So it is normal for us to unwittingly follow that path.

But if a 9 to 5 with a big pay check was enough to make you happy then the...

A once-in-a-lifetime RADICAL shift in the fashion landscape is leading the way to create exciting possibilities for Fashion Designers to build successful brands from their OWN HOMES.

Consumers now actually WANT to buy authentic products from small artisanal designers and social media is providing low cost or free ways for designers to promote their designs on a much more even playing field.

This will result in a NEW AGE for designers to work in a more ethical, sustainable way around their lifestyles and many designers have already adapted to this SHIFT building successful brands from their KITCHEN TABLE or spare BEDROOM.

Over the last 3 decades big fast fashion companies made it impossible for independent designers to compete with their large marketing budgets and exploitative low manufacturing costs. 

So, while these big companies were polluting the planet, overproducing and undervaluing staff ambitious designers had to give up dreams of running their own fashion busin...

If you’re a fashion designer who’s been burning yourself out working 14 hour days, falling asleep on the sewing machine to produce your fashion collection but you’re now wondering why nothing is selling.

If you’re feeling a bit defeated, wondering why no-one is buying and losing your motivation to continue with your dream business…

… then I bet you are doing one or more of these three things:

1️⃣You are designing a large collection that offers too much choice so you burn out your health and finances in the process and your customers are confused by the choice so end up choosing nothing.

2️⃣You didn’t edit your collection strategically in such a way that would increase sales yet reduce resources.

3️⃣You didn’t consider what your audience actually want and will be willing to pay for when editing your collection……. Or didn’t edit at all!

If you are doing one or more of these three things then you don’t want to miss my free workshop when I’ll show you the essential strategies every fashion desig...

This is only the start of a major shift that will bring exciting opportunities for fashion designers to work independently on their passion and create a work/life balance doing what they love!    

Society has been set up in such a way that prevented people going after their dreams.  The large retail chains dominated the market for so long and most graduates gave up their dreams of having their own fashion brand to work for these companies instead.    I was one of them….. When I left college I initially worked as an employee, working all hours, underpaid and I felt as if I was stagnating in “designer jail” …. Yet I did it for five years before finding the courage to be my own boss. 

Working really long hours, as an employee, in an understaffed, pressurised environment actually gave me a chronic health condition, so it has been my mission ever since to prevent young designers experiencing the same.

Yes, I found the courage to take the leap of faith ….  But most people who ...

For generations we’ve been told a degree is necessary to start the fashion business of our dreams.

However countless numbers of big name designers including Cristobal Balenciaga, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons became INSANELY SUCCESSFUL without a degree!

Every year thousands of fashion graduates get a degree from the outdated education system and clearly most won’t be successful.

So, is it REALLY worth spending 4 to 5 years getting a degree if you have nothing but debt to show for it and no understanding of how the fast changing fashion business is working NOW?

No-one comes out of the womb with all the skills and knowledge you need to be successful so of course you DO NEED education….  If you can afford the time and money to get a degree then yes do get it!!....    But if not then isn’t it more important to focus your VALUABLE time & energy on gaining the SPECIFIC up-to-date skills and education about what you are most passionate about… 

..  And if running your own...

Most fashion designers, and this probably includes you, want their designs to be sold and in their customers wardrobes...

... They have lots of fabulous ideas and want to get noticed.   They want their talents to be recognised, to be in-demand and not have to worry about how they’ll finance the next collection.   They want lots of loyal customers who value their designs and will pay a fair price for them.

The problem is that most designers work flat out depriving themselves of sleep to produce their collections and when they attempt to launch get no sales so they waste time and money switching from design idea to design idea hoping that eventually they’ll land on a winning design that will make them “famous”!  

But that never happens.  They loose sight of the fact that it’s not just about any one particular product.   There is a lot more going on.    It's about the SYNERGY of designing and producing an original product and communicating its value to the right people at t...

If you’ve been THINKING about starting your fashion business for three months or more without taking any action it could be because you don’t want to waste time or money producing the wrong products.  

Perhaps you’re worried that all of your ideas, so far, might not be original enough to sell…..  and you want to create a really ORIGINAL brand that goes VIRAL!

Well I’m about to give you a method that’s going to help you find the best concept and most original product for your fashion business so that you can stop procrastinating and FINALLY get started!!!

You see the biggest mistake I see most designers making is that they think they have to create a huge range of designs and they don’t focus enough on any SPECIFIC original product that would best suit the personality, lifestyle, finances and resources of themselves and their customers.  Its a bit like throwing all your darts at a dart board blind-folded and just hoping that one will hit the bulls-eye!

Unless you have a ...

I’ve had lots of requests to repeat the three day training event “Manifestation of the New-Age Fashion Entrepreneur”, so I have edited about 4 hours of content into this teeny micro training:

In “Manifestation of the New Age Fashion Entrepreneur” I talked about how a Fashion Launch Formula is the most effective way to start a fashion brand in the 2020’s and here I’m going to show you how:

The 3X Fashion Launch Formula consists of three key areas:   

STEP 1 MANIFEST

The first step to becoming a successful New-Age Fashion Entrepreneur that’s making a very good living doing what you love and living the best life for you and the planet, is MANIFEST: 

1. Before you dive into making all those ground-breaking ideas that are jumping around in your brain you firstly need to develop the MIND of a fashion entrepreneur.    I have a unique methodology to help you do this which I'll talk more about at my next free event...  so for now just believe that you CAN do this!    
2. Get cle...