Clothes began as a necessity for us. But today, what you wear isn’t solely meant to protect you from the harsh conditions of the wild. The types of clothes you wear in this day and age, are instead meant to define who you are.
Naturally, that makes you want to look your best regardless of the occasion. So, you either get tailor-made clothes or buy ready-made ones. Within the ready-made market, you generally have the option to choose from among hundreds of designers. Said designers have to produce the best designs to get your attention. Many fail to gain the audience, attention, and glamour they’d hoped for. Others gain a significant market that helps them go by. Few are ever able to make it to the top.
But it’s not as simple as coming up with something and posting it online. Every designer has a long process that they go through to come up with unique ideas that appeal to you. Today, we’ll look at how products like men’s designer coats go from concept to launch. Let’s begin.
The Process Behind Making Men’s Coats
But before we actually begin, I’d like to re-emphasize that there’s a lot that goes on in between for many fashion designers out there. But you can get a good idea of what happens through the following 7 steps that wrap up most of the process for your convenience.
- Brainstorming
The first step towards the creation of any masterpiece is due diligence. You can’t come up with great products like magic. Not all the time. You often need to research the trends, come up with alternate ideas, discuss various concepts with colleagues, and extract unique elements from different cultures and sub-cultures. This gives you the fuel to come up with your own twist on tried and tested concepts for originality.
- Initial Sketches
Now that you have a rough idea of what you’re going for, it’s time to pick up the pencil… or a digital sketch pad. You can now begin drawing your product vision on paper or screens. There’d be a lot of drawing, erasing, re-drawing, dumping, and starting back from scratch. But in the end, you’ll finally come up with innovative men’s coat drafts that match your brand’s style and are capable of fulfilling consumer expectations.
- Material Selection
Next up, you’ve got the material. As with any other kind of outerwear, men’s designer coats require a balance of fashion and functionality. Some fabrics and material blends are better suited for aesthetics, others are more suitable for comfort. The final selection depends on your promise to your customers. The higher market expects the best of both worlds, while middle-class buyers are more open to compromising one aspect or the other. So, you have to choose where you stand in the market to meet the material expectations of your niche.
- Patterning
You now have to apply your design to a digital blueprint. You can use a 3D model of your ideal customer, and integrate your concept onto it to see how it may look. This part of the process is necessary to negate any immediate issues that may come up before you go to printing. The prototype itself is a test phase, but we must ensure that we’ve made the design as glamorous or classy as possible before we get to that.
- Prototypes
Now, we get to production. You can’t expect to see your vision for men’s coats translate as-is onto the real thing. One major reason for that is we design coats on screens that work on RGB (red, green, blue) combinations while printing works with CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key). So, there will be very visible differences in what comes out compared to what you’d imagined. This step helps you see what those differences might be.
- Concept Finalization
This point continues along with the last. Once you’ve got a prototype, you keep testing for colors and aesthetics to get it all right. Plus, you want to test it for quality, comfort, and user experience. The better in each category, the more customers are likely to invest. So, you keep improving upon those aspects through trial and error until you’re sure you’ve reached where you need be.
- Production
And there you have it… once you’ve tested and finalized your concept, your coats are ready to hit the market. So, now you can bulk order the materials you need and begin large-scale production. You can also begin the marketing of your new collection of men’s designer coats to attract consumer attention before your products are released.
The 5 Significant Challenges In Fashion Design
We’ve summarized the process into what seems like 7 easy steps. But let’s not kid ourselves. It’s a challenging market, and there’s a lot more that goes into it. Designers don’t have it as easy as some high-end ones might make it seem. Whether it’s men’s designer coats, women’s dresses, kids’ shoes, or any other clothing item, the following are 5 major challenges every fashion designer has to go through:
Retaining Originality
Some people steal ideas. But most designers actually put in time and effort to produce original concepts. So, they have to work extra hard to ensure they haven’t accidentally copied someone else’s work.
Balancing Costs
It’s not just about whether something looks good or feels right. You also have to consider how much it’ll cost and how much your niche is willing to pay. So, every concept requires a precise cost calculation.
Size Considerations
You can’t make the right amount of sales if you mess up the size considerations of your audience. So, whether it’s a small batch or a large one, you have to ensure the sizes meet consumer demands.
Jumping On Trends
Trends come and go, but they’re often a major factor in defining sales. That’s why you need to jump onto trends and bring out relatable outfits while the trend’s here to get a good boost in your sales.
Making Ideas Work
Even the biggest designers have to accept that not everything will produce results the same. From the first drafts to prototyping, production, marketing, and even after sales, anything can go wrong. So, you have to put in 110% through every phase to ensure your market position stays and clients keep trusting your brand.
Why Tailored Coats Are The Best
So, as you’ve learned, there’s a lot that goes into creating men’s designer coats, and the like.
And yet… we’d still recommend that you invest in a personalized coat collection rather than chasing designer brands. Of course, you should buy something every now and then to please your soul, but even billionaires avoid doing it continuously. It’s mostly due to the cost. Those things are generally significantly more expensive. So, it’s ultimately not worth the price.
But of course, there are more reasons to invest in customized men’s coats instead of ready-made designer options, such as:
- Custom coats are made for your exact size. So, they fit right every single time.
- The quality is always just right since you decide the material you want.
- Since each item is made per your needs, they last longer than ready-made ones.
Plus, if you were looking for designer coats in New York or surrounding areas anyway, you’re at the right place. At Christopher Allen Clothiers, we provide all kinds of personalized business and casual coats at the most reasonable rates. So, if you’d like to get your wardrobe sorted, get in touch with us today!