The Fashion Designer Survival Guide, Revised and Expanded Edition: Start and Run Your Own Fashion Business

Great book for beginners in the Fashion industry such as myself. Being a very practical and easy to read book it aims at highlighting some of the most important elements to keep in mind both at an operational and psychological level when you are staring to build your fashion brand name. From the perspective of a business man/entrepreneur, I particularly appreciate the fact that it is written in a clear and readable manner to those who don't have a fashion industry background/education and want to learn the insider tricks/tips to enter the market.Finally, a last chapter filled with invaluable resources such as business models, financial support, sourcing, associations, etc, makes this book a must-have to early fashion entrepreneurs.p.s. It is important however to alert that this book is already from the 2000's and lacks a more "internet oriented" approach, focusing mostly on the offline aspects of the industry and ignoring the benefits that can be reaped from e-shops as well as how internet and social media can be used to leverage a designer brand value.

If your aim is just to be a fashion designer who makes pretty clothes that have no commercial value, and you have no intention of making a business of your creativity. Then this book is not for you.However if your objectives is make money from your designs and generate a healthy net profit, then this book is for you. The book is written in plain simple English. You do not have to be a rocket science to understand what the book is all about. The book is wealth of valuable information for the budding fashion designer who wants to set up a business and make money.The book suggests that you first set up a Ltd company and then licence your fashion label name to your company. This way you are protected if your fashion company goes bankrupt. So many fashion designers have lost the use of their name due to lack of business acumen.If you are going to sign a distribution/licensing deal with anyone make sure that you do your due diligence on the company you are signing with, and make sure that you fully understand the agreement.Copyright. Most fashion designers are not clued about what can actually be copy righted. You cannot copy right a style of dress that you have designed. You can only copyright a print design or logo.After reading this book I would highly recommend this book and give it a five star rating.

Nice book, wife found it quite useful so happy with the purchase. Good information inside for a newbies.

i read this book overnight, could not put it down, brilliant, i wish i had this book before i start it. every step is well descibe, at some point it feels a bit overwhelming but this is what we all need, real information, what to expect, what to look for, where to go etc. This book reffers a lot to american fashion designers but you can learn a lot from it, so yes i highly recommend this book!!!

Bought this for my girlfriend as a present. She has a very young company where she designs professional dance dresses and luxury women's clothing.Since she received this she reads it all the time and says that it's probably one of the best gifts she's ever received from anyone. The insight that the book provides into the fashion industry and survival of your own business in this context is incredibly helpful and sometimes overwhelming and capable of bringing you down.It's definitely a reality check that every young fashion entrepreneur NEEDS!N.B she's a read a lot of the books regarding this theme.

ARRIVED BUT IT ONLY HAD 27 PAGES IN THE REST ARE MISSING. THE BOOK SO FAR IS GREAT

This book is surely the best in the subject. It's not about fashion design, but it covers all aspects of starting a business as a fashion designer, including budgeting and all. It is definitely a good starting point and helps you make the decision whether it is for you or not.

Nice book. Bought for my daughter for Christmas. See has enjoyed reading the book.

手取り足取りファッションビジネス界で独立していこうとしている方へのアドバイスをしている。ファッション系の学校で夢見ている人にはぜひ読むことを薦めます。素材の手配や、販売店、ショールーム、ＰＲ、アトリエの運営等人的、金銭的問題と対処法を書いてます。また役立つホームページ一覧もあります。ただ、最近は著しく景気が悪化しているので、金銭的スポンサーの状況が違っていきそうなのと、アメリカでのビジネスなので、大枠では日本でも通じても細かいところは多少違う部分もあります。

Only a reader who knows how can criticize a How-To book. Therefore, nobody who reads a book to learn How-To is qualified to review it.My reason for buying this title is to acquire an overview of the small fashion designer industry so that I might set my scene with verisimilitude in a novel I am writing about three young women who form a company. Leslie has access to unlimited funds and a degree in corporate law, Fei Di has a family with global mercantile distribution, and young Hedy is a small town artistic genius who will design everyday apparel and make the patterns. For my purpose, Mary Gellhar's compendium explaining the operations of the rag trade answers all my questions, after several other purchases proved inapplicable.Ms. Gehlhar's book is not intended to teach wannabee's How-To do anything, but to tell what a small entrepreneur needs to do well to survive in a business competitive as a dinner party for piranhas. Giving a line to each topic in her check list will extend 5% of the book's length. What a wannabee cannot do for one's self must be outsourced to trustworthy hirelings. The Fashion Designer Survival Guide is worth reading by everybody who dreams of building socio-economic independence in one's own business. Anybody who survives the gauntlet has an education superior to multiple doctorates in the industrial arts, business administration, and cut-throat politix --- and much more practical.The 8" x 10" soft cover is well bound, well printed, well organized, well edited for its conversational voice, well illustrated with drawings and photographs, many in colour, and well laid out to fill its 275 pp with all the information that can be packed without compromising ease of reading. Never mind aspiring couturiers, anybody with a How-To manuscript to publish can benefit by submitting to KAPLAN in New York; consider their editorial judgment a standard to achieve.

Nice one

This book was a great bird's-eye view of the fashion world. It was extremely detailed and gave me insights into a variety of issues in the fashion world that my friends and I had never thought about before we started planning to begin our own business. It has excellent resources and some really hard-hitting advice for anyone who thinks that the fashion world is all about talent and creativity. They help, but a good business sense helps even more if you want to succeed, especially in today's economy. Highly recommended.

If you want to start your own fashion buisness and don't know everything about it, you should definitely buy this book. It helps a lot!