Who to turn to when creating a brand? It is the question that paralyses the 90% of aspiring designers, students or fashion enthusiasts who finally decide to create something of their own. You have it there, that idea swirling in your head for months, maybe years. You see it clearly: the garments, the colours, the type of person who would wear them. Maybe you've already filled notebooks with sketches, you have a folder on your phone full of inspirations saved from Instagram, you've even thought of a name.
And then you freeze.
Why between the idea and the real brand there is a gulf made of things you don't know how to do, people you don't know, processes no one has ever explained to you. Modelling, sourcing, production, e-commerce, marketing... words you hear about but you don't know where to start tackling.
I know because I see it every day. For fourteen years my job has been exactly that: to take people like you, with a dream in your drawer and a thousand doubts in your head, and accompany them until the moment they hold the first garment of their collection in their hands.
In our style department, we have overseen over 50 fashion brand launches. I have seen people literally starting from scratch - without technical skills, without contacts in the industry, often without even knowing how to design - and build brands that today sell online and in shops. I have also seen the other side of the coin: beautiful projects sunk by wrong choices, money thrown away with unreliable suppliers, years lost behind solutions that seemed cheap and turned out to be very expensive.
At the end of this article the answer to your question: “who to turn to when creating a brand?” will no longer be a secret. I will show you the three possible paths, with the real pros and cons of each - not the ones you read about in glossy guides, but the ones I see happening in reality. So you can make an informed choice, without wasting time and money on blind attempts.
What are the 3 ways to create a brand?
When you ask yourself who to turn to when creating a brand, you are actually choosing between three radically different paths. There is no absolute right answer - it depends on who you are, what you have, what you are willing to risk. But you have to know all three to make an informed choice.
Let me tell you how I see them, after fourteen years of observing who makes it and who does not.
What goes around comes around?
The first temptation of almost everyone is: “I do it myself, so I save money“. It is understandable, even human. You have already invested so much of yourself in this idea that spending more money on something you could theoretically do yourself seems like a waste.
And indeed, the “solo” route has its undeniable advantages. The initial costs are very low: apart from some software, some books, some online courses, you don't have to pay anyone. You have total control over every single decision, nobody telling you what to do or how to do it. And if you survive the process, you will have learnt skills that will serve you throughout your entrepreneurial life.
The problem is that “if you survive”.
Because reality is much less romantic than it appears. Creating a fashion brand requires skills in at least a dozen different disciplinesdesign, technical illustration, pattern making, fabric knowledge, material sourcing, production management, quality control, photography, graphics, web design, copywriting, social media marketing, accounting, logistics.
Each of these is a craft in itself, with years of experience required to truly master it.
When you do everything yourself, you have to learn them all. Or at least, you have to learn enough not to make a mess. And as you learn, you make mistakes. Mistakes that cost money - the wrong fabric that you have to buy back, the sample that comes out badly and has to be redone, the e-commerce site that doesn't work and has to be rebuilt. Mistakes that cost time - what a professional does in a week, you do in two months because you have to understand how to do it first.
There is another aspect that nobody tells you: loneliness. When you do everything yourself, you have no one to compare yourself with, no one to tell you “this works” or “this is a mistake I have seen done a hundred times before”. You are sailing in the dark, and every decision becomes a leap into the void.
This does not mean that wanting to do it yourself is always wrong. It can work if you have a lot of time and very little budget, if you are willing to accept that your first attempt will probably fail and be a “paid school”, if you already have solid skills in at least two or three of the necessary areas. But you have to go in with your eyes open, knowing that you are choosing the most difficult path.
Who to turn to when creating a fashion brand: freelancers and individual suppliers
The second way is the one that seems the perfect compromiseYou don't do everything yourself, but neither do you rely completely on someone else. You build your “virtual team” by bringing together different professionals - a graphic designer for the logo and visual identity, a pattern maker for the patterns, a workshop for production, a photographer for the shoot, a web developer for e-commerce, a social media manager for marketing.
On paper it looks like the best idea: you only pay what you need, when you need it. You have total flexibility. Each professional specialises in his or her field, so in theory you should have the best of each world. And the costs are scalable - you can start small and add services as you grow.
In practice, it is an organisational nightmare.
The fundamental problem is that you have to coordinate everything. And coordination means more than just sending a few emails. It means understanding what every professional needs to work, translate your ideas into understandable briefs for each of them, make sure that the work of one is compatible with the work of the other, manage timelines that inevitably never match, solve problems when something goes wrong.
Let me give you a concrete example. Your graphic designer has created a beautiful logo. Too bad that when you send it to the lab for the labels, you discover that it does not work in that size. The pattern maker has made the patterns, but the production lab works with a different system and they need to be readjusted. The photographer did the shoot, but the photos don't fit the website template that the web developer built. Each step becomes an opportunity for misunderstandings, rework, extra costs.
But who thinks about how all this holds together? Who makes sure the brand has a consistent identity from the first sketch to the last photo on Instagram? That responsibility falls on you. And if you have no experience in the field, it is very easy for the end result to be fragmented, inconsistent, unprofessional.
If you have a job, a family, a life... managing all that becomes practically a second full-time job. And not a job you know how to do - a job you have to learn while doing it, making costly mistakes along the way.
The style office, had you already thought of that?
The third way is the one that probably led you to read this article: rely on people who do this for a living. A style office that manages the entire process, from the initial idea to market launch, through all the intermediate stages.
I understand the initial resistance. “But then I spend more,” you think. “And then I lose control over my project”. These are legitimate objections, and I will address them in a moment. But first let me explain what it really means to work with a serious style office.
The fundamental difference to the other roads is that you have a single point of contact with an overall view. When you work with a style office, you don't have to explain your idea to ten different people hoping that each one understands and that the pieces then fit together. You talk to one person, or a small team, who understands your project in its entirety and coordinates everything else.
Why style offices for emerging brands are born
To understand the value of a style office, you need to understand how the fashion world traditionally works. The big fashion houses have in-house departments for each function: a style department that designs the collections, a pattern department that develops the patterns, a purchasing department that selects the fabrics, a production department that coordinates the workshops, a marketing team that manages communication. Dozens of professionals working together, each specialised in his or her field, all coordinated by a common vision.
If you are an up-and-coming brand - maybe just one person with an idea and a limited budget - how can you access this kind of expertise? How can you have the quality and consistency of a big brand without having the resources of a big brand?
It is exactly from this need that style offices dedicated to emerging brands are born. The idea is simple but powerful: provide starters with the same skills, the same processes, the same network as the big brands have - but in a modular, accessible form, calibrated to smaller budgets and quantities.
It is not a new idea in the fashion world, but for years it was reserved for those who already had a structured business or large budgets. The innovation of recent years has been to bring this model also to those who really start from scratch - to those who only have an idea and the desire to realise it
The 6 Areas of a Complete Style Office
What it really takes to create a fashion brand
Brand Design and Strategy
Identity, values, positioning, target audience, tone of voice
Product Development
Moodboard, sketches, garment selection, colour and fabric variants
Technical Part
Pattern making, paper patterns, data sheets, size development
Sourcing
Fabrics, materials, accessories, suppliers, minimum quantities
Production
Laboratories, sampling, quality control, problem solving
Image and Communication
Shooting, content, e-commerce, launch strategy
Who to turn to when creating a fashion brand
The fundamental difference compared to doing it yourself or coordinating freelancers is that you have a single point of contact with an overall view. When you work with a style office, you don't have to explain your idea to ten different people hoping that each one understands and that the pieces then fit together. You talk to one person, or a small team, who understands your project in its entirety and coordinates everything else.
This means that every decision is made with the impact on the whole project in mind. The logo is designed knowing already how it will work on labels, on the website, on social media. Fabrics are chosen with the production budget and final price positioning in mind. Photos are taken with the website template and communication strategy in mind. Each piece fits in with the others because someone is looking at the complete jigsaw puzzle.
Then there is the value of the’accumulated experience. A serious style office has already done what you have to do - dozens, hundreds of times. It knows the pitfalls, it knows what mistakes you make most often, it has already solved the problems that you don't even know exist. When he tells you “this won't work” or “this is a road we have already tried and it leads to a dead end”, he doesn't say it to impose his opinion - he says it because he has seen it happen with his own eyes.
And then there is the network. A style office already has established relationships with fabric suppliers, production labs, photographers, printers, e-commerce platforms. He does not have to search for them from scratch every time, does not have to test them at your expense, does not have to negotiate from a position of weakness. This results in shorter lead times, more predictable costs, more controlled quality.
The disadvantages? There are, needless to deny. The initial investment is higher than DIY. But if you have a strong vision and do not have the time or technical skills to realise it yourself, if you would rather invest well once than waste money on failed attempts, if you want to launch your brand within a reasonable timeframe while maintaining professional standards... then this is probably the path for you.
Be A Designer: the office where you are the designer
Let me tell you how it came about Be A Designer, because our history explains well the kind of problem we solve.
I worked for years in fashion, in production departments where creativity collides with reality. I have seen extraordinary projects stalled because there was no strategic vision. And I have seen - too many times - people with beautiful ideas get lost in the labyrinth of the Italian supply chain, without knowing where to turn, without understanding how things work, without anyone to guide them.
Be A Designer was born from this awareness: a guide was needed for those who dream big but start from scratch. A style office that does not just execute orders, but builds your positioning, your identity, your market potential together with you. The first style office in Italy specialising exclusively in complete coaching for those wishing to create a fashion brand from scratch.
Why are we the only ones? Because making fashion small in Italy is very difficult, especially for beginners.
Labs have high minimums, suppliers don't respond if you don't already have a name, professionals cost money and don't always understand the needs of those who are just starting out. We we have built over the years a structure and a network designed specifically to overcome these obstacles.
Our portfolio: over 50 brands launched
In over fourteen years of activity we worked with people who came from completely different worlds than fashionlawyers, engineers, teachers, entrepreneurs from other sectors who had a dream. And we worked with tailors, pattern makers, craftsmen who had the technical skills but did not know how to turn them into a business.
Some of the brands we have launched have grown into structured realities with employees and significant turnovers. Others have remained smaller but profitable projects, allowing their founders to live off their passion. Still others, honestly, have not worked - because in business there are no guarantees, and fashion is a particularly competitive industry.
THE BE A DESIGNER PORTFOLIO OF OUR LATEST PROJECTS FASHION
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What I can tell you is that every project has taught us something. Every mistake - ours and those of our customers - has become part of the method we use today. Every problem solved has become a procedure that we automatically apply to new projects.
What working with us actually means
When you start a journey with Be A Designer, you are not buying a service - you are entering an ecosystem. You have access to a multidisciplinary team that includes brand designers, stylists, pattern makers, production managers, marketing experts. You have access to our network of fabric suppliers, production laboratories, fashion photographers. You have access to our method - the Fashion Business Designer Canvas™ - which guides you step by step in building your brand.
You are never alone. You don't have to figure things out for yourself. You don't have to Google suppliers hoping not to get scammed. You don't have to make costly mistakes to learn lessons that we have already learned.
And above all, we will not abandon you after the launch. One of the most common problems with consultancy services is that they follow you as long as you pay, then they disappear. We see it differently: our success is your success. If your brand grows, we grow with you. That is why we remain available even after the project is over - for reorders, for new collections, for the problems that inevitably arise when you run a business.
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Can I create a brand without experience in the fashion industry?
Absolutely, and indeed most of the people we follow come from completely different sectors. I have worked with lawyers, engineers, teachers, entrepreneurs from completely different industries - people who had a vision but no specific technical expertise in fashion. What you need is a clear vision of the project, genuine passion for what you want to create, and a willingness to trust those who have the technical expertise that you lack. We bring the industry experience - you bring the creativity, the vision, the entrepreneurial energy.
How much minimum budget do you need to start seriously?
For a project with a real chance of success - I mean a real brand, with quality products, a coherent identity, and a credible market presence - consider at least fifteen thousand euros for a capsule collection of six to eight garments with full professional service. You can start with less, but under ten thousand euros you have to make significant compromises: either on the quality of materials and production, or on the level of support you receive, or on the breadth of the collection. My advice is always: if the budget is not there yet, better to wait a few months and get off to a good start than to start now and waste money on an attempt destined to fail.
Better to start with a capsule or a complete collection?
Capsule, always and without fail. A capsule collection of six to eight garments allows you to test the market with a low investment, learn the production and sales process, understand what works and what doesn't before investing more. If the capsule works - if the garments sell, if the customer feedback is positive, if the positioning proves right - you reinvest the profits in the second capsule or a larger collection. If it doesn't work, you have lost fifteen thousand euros instead of forty thousand, and you have learned valuable lessons that will make the second attempt much more likely to succeed. The full collection makes sense when you have already validated the market, built an audience, understood what your customers want.
Do I already have a precise idea or does the style office help me develop it?
The ideal is somewhere in between. On the one hand, you don't have to arrive with everything already defined - indeed, if you arrive with too rigid ideas you risk not being open to suggestions from those who have more experience than you. On the other, you have to have at least one direction: I know that I want to make streetwear, I know that I want to dress professional women, I know that I want to create handmade leather accessories. The first phase of our work is precisely to help you structure and develop this initial direction - to define the target with precision, to position the brand in the market, to translate your vision into a concrete strategy. But the foundations must be there: a genuine passion for a certain type of product, even a vague idea of who you want to dress, a strong motivation that will get you through the tough times.
How can I tell if a style office is reliable?
There are some checks you should always make. First: ask for a verifiable portfolio, with real brand names that you can look up online and check that they really exist. Second: ask for references from past clients and, if possible, contact them directly for honest feedback. Third: check how long they have been operating - a serious style office has years of history, it was not born yesterday. Fourth: look for reviews online, on Google, on Trustpilot, on social media. Fifth: during the first meeting, assess how they answer your questions - are they transparent about costs? Do they give you realistic timeframes? Do they admit the limits of what they can do? A serious style office is not afraid of difficult questions because they have the answers. If they are vague, evasive, or put pressure on you to sign quickly, consider what they are telling you by their behaviour: that they are not reliable.
The question that remains is: what is the right path for you?
I cannot answer for you, because it depends on variables that only you know. Your available budget. The time you can devote to the project. The skills you already have. Your risk tolerance. Your urgency to launch. There is no universal answer, and anyone who tells you otherwise is oversimplifying.
What I can tell you is this: if you feel that this idea is more than a hobby, if the vision keeps you awake at night, if you want to do things well and not just do them... then it is worth taking the time to choose the right path. Rushing to save a few months almost always costs more in the long run - in money, in time, in emotional energy.
And if you think a style office might be the right answer for you, but you don't know where to start... well, you know where to find me.
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Good luck!
Corrado Manenti
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