Ebay and Children’s Fashion pt 2
Designing children’s fashion is fun! There are many cute and adorable fabrics and trims that you can combine! And there are many cute and adorable children that can model your creations. In this article you will find some basic design principles that help to sell your creation. Plus you will find basic legal requirements and quality issues. Finally, you will find a list of trends on Ebay and how to price your creations accordingly. Some of these points are pretty hefty topics, so we will only cover the basics.
Principles of design
In any attempt to create art, there are certain principles that help lead to success. These principles of art and design include shape, color, texture, perspective, balance, composition, proportion & scale, unity, rhythm, and pattern. Understanding how each element influences a design can take a lifetime to learn. As you create, ask yourself many questions like:
“Do the colors coordinate or contrast?”
“Does this outfit make the child look taller, shorter, fat, thin?”
“Does anything stand out, grab your attention first?”
Some people naturally have the talent to put a design together, yet they can’t explain why. Others have to learn by trial and error. Whichever designer you are, you can grow in your abilities and vision. By studying and learning the design principles, you can determine which rules can be broken or modified to suit your style.
Government Laws
Just as a disclaimer, I am not a lawyer and I cannot advise on specific situations. However, it is very important to know government regulations in regard to children’s clothing. Most of these rules can be found in two places:
http://www.ftc.gov – look at the sections about textile, wool, fur matters, and other business sections. This includes rules about labeling requirements.
http://www.cpsc.gov – governs safety concerns, especially in children’s products (clothing, beds, bedding, toys, and more).
In a nutshell, apparel products must be labeled correctly and be safe. It is very important to read these government sites thoroughly. If you do not follow these laws and something happens, you will be held responsible. There are also many industry expected rules about manufacturing that affect the safety and function of sewn apparel. If this is a serious business venture, do your homework!
Make sure your designs have:
1. Care/content tag
2. Secured trimmings (buttons, for example). Items that are loose may be considered a choking hazard.
As a final word of caution in this section – be very careful about using commercially available patterns. Patterns from the big four pattern companies (Vogue, Butterick, McCalls, and Simplicity) copyright their patterns. Their copyright states you can only use their patterns for home and personal use. Creating items to sell from their patterns is a violation of copyright and you could get into trouble. This means you will need to draft or create your own patterns.
Ebay trends
There are many custom-made items being sold on Ebay. Here are the current trends:
1. Sell complete sets. This means you create more than one piece that coordinates. For example create a dress, underdress/skirt, apron, pants, hat, jewelry that all can coordinate. The pieces should fit and look attractive worn alone or together.
2. Use lots of pictures. Nothing sells your item better than having an adorable child model.
3. Print fabrics. Most custom made items have adorable twin prints that coordinate. Stripes and flowers, polka-dot and checks. Whatever you choose, make sure you keep in mind the principles of design.
4. Brand name. Peruse this ebay category and look at the fun brands people have created.
Ebay strategies
Pricing. This is the one area that most ebay sellers do not get right. In order to sell their item, they start their auction to low. If you set a reserve price, buyers are reluctant to bid. Finding the happy medium takes time and experience. Generally speaking items do not sell because the reserve or buy-it-now prices are too high. You loose money if you do not set your price high enough. Your selling price should include your costs for materials, time/labor, ebay fees, and some profit.
OOAK or dutch auctions. Some sellers make one outfit to sell. Others will make an outfit in a certain size. If you do the latter, you will have to communicate with the buyer about measurements and coordinate deadlines. If you make a commitment to make an outfit in a certain size, by a certain time, and you run out of fabric, you can set yourself up for negative feedback. Be prepared.
Children’s fashion design and retail is a fun business. With these guidelines, you will be headed down the road to success. Good luck!
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Esther Melander
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