How much cash do you need to start a small clothing line?

By Kathleen Fasanella on Feb 2, 2012 at 5:56 pm

On Quora, someone asked me how much cash do you need to start a small menswear label? I haven’t responded over there yet, it was too long so I thought to post it here first. I frequently get variations of this question, a previous entry I wrote was how much does it cost to start a handbag line. My stock response is, how much does a house cost? Is it a dump in a crappy neighborhood or is it a restored pristine cottage on Martha’s Vineyard? The questioner asked me how much cash I would need and I wouldn’t be so boorish as to drill that down because why would he or she care? He or she would want to know what they can expect to pay, not what I would.

But then I thought, maybe I should answer the question literally in terms of how much cash I would need to start a menswear clothing line. That is a better question because most startups (nearly all) waste way too much money. Okay, so let’s unpack this. By the way, I suggest you hang around for this even if you don’t care one whit for menswear.

My first thought was “menswear label” is too broad, I’d have to determine my customer within the parameters of what I’m interested in producing. You need to do that too. Is your market young urban males, marathoners, bikers, C-level executives or your average IT guy? Each market has its own dictates for everything from styling and fitting in, to disposable income, signaling requirements and need. Since I have tons of menswear experience, I’d do casual western styled sportcoats at a mid range price point for men aged 35+. Forced to put a point to it, my ideal customer’s wife subscribes to Cowboys & Indians while he reads Western Horseman. I’d do that for a few reasons:

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