The Successful Fashion Designer

Learn new strategies for finding freelance fashion design clients, and charging a retainer for consistent income! Sophia is a full-time fashion freelancer who moved from NYC to Texas and grew her freelance business--during Covid! If you’ve been struggling to find clients for your freelance fashion business, this episode is a must listen. For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Canadian designer Alexandra Suhner Isenberg studied fashion in Toronto, London, and Paris. She’s worked for brands including Burberry, freelanced, and taught fashion. But when an antique men’s chemise became her favorite thing to sleep in, Alexandra was inspired to start her brand, The Sleep Shirt. Listen for her fascinating story and how she built a successful luxury brand based around a single garment designed to perfection.  For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Karen LePage is a freelance patternmaker and grader who specializes in size inclusivity and sustainability. She’s also a fit consultant, a sewing and fit teacher, an author, and a mom. Karen broke into the industry without going to fashion school, and she has built a thriving freelance business doing meaningful projects for clients she loves. In this episode of the Successful Fashion Designer Podcast, Karen shares how she did it, and how she’s found happiness in an industry where she never felt she belonged.   For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Atlas Menswear founder Aaron Woolf has been athletic his whole life. Although this father of 4 has been an entrepreneur in other industries since 2014, he never thought he’d get into fashion. But he was fed up with dress shirts that didn’t fit his muscular build. And when he started talking to other men at the gym about the issue, Aaron discovered that he wasn’t the only one who wanted a muscular men’s clothing line. In this episode of the Successful Fashion Designer Podcast, Aaron and designer Jessica Dixon share the steps they took to get from that first idea to a product they’re proud to produce for other athletic and muscular men.  For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Shilo Byrd has been in the industry for a decade and a half, and she knows her stuff. She’s a freelance luxury pattern maker, product developer, supply chain & production consultant, and a contributor at Vogue Business. In this episode of the SFD Podcast, Shilo chats about everything from understanding fit and the best way to learn new skills, to networking in fashion and her advice for starting your own brand. Whether you’re a freelancer, starting your own brand, or even just curious about the fashion industry, this episode has something for you! For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Alex is a self-taught freelance technical designer living in Ottawa, Ontario. He didn’t go to fashion school, and he never held a job in the industry. Yet he’s working with small fashion brands, helping them get their ideas into production alongside his full-time job. In this episode, he shares how he managed to carve a spot for himself as a fashion freelancer, and what he’s learned in the process.    For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

To celebrate the new year, I'm sharing one of our most popular episodes EVER. Whether you caught this one the first time or it's new to you, listen for tons of practical advice from two 6+ figure fashion freelancers!

Since it's a holiday week here in the US, I'm sharing one of my favorite podcast episodes! Judy Karp worked in the NYC Fashion Industry since the 60's. This is her story.

Have you ever found yourself sitting at your day job, feeling like something is missing? Have you always been full of ideas, daydreaming about a more creative life? My guest on this episode, Tara, pursued an accounting career for stability. But she could never shake the creative ideas that came to her, tempting her to explore something new. When one of those ideas led her to sew a purse, the result inspired an entire line of handbags and a successful brand Tara is proud to call her own.  For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Since it's Thanksgiving week here in the US, I'm sharing one of my favorite episodes from this past year. It's my interview with Erika Neumayer of Rare Dirndl. She's build a successful brand with a tiny niche, and she shares tons of actionable tips on how she did it. For the full show notes and links, head over to Successful Fashion Designer. 

Oni Auer is a design director and fashion career mentor in NYC. She got started in fashion by scoring a position with BCBG when she was a mere 18 years old. She had an associates degree, but no industry connections or advantages to help her get ahead. Since then she has worked with a huge variety of companies including Bebe and UnderArmour. In the interview, she shares the skills and strategies she used to launch her career, keep working through the recession, and advance herself to design director, in the category she wanted most, at a company she loves to work for.  For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Juan Pablo Martínez is a Colombian designer who has worked in sustainability for more than ten years, and in the fashion industry for more than two decades. One of the first sustainable designers in Latin America, he has also designed for Christian Lacroix, owned a successful boutique, shown his designs at a New York fashion show, and now he works to help educate brands on sustainable fashion. He has consistently found ways to succeed in all of his endeavors, and in this interview he shares all of the valuable lessons he’s learned over his prolific career.  For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

*Note: This episode has a slight tic on the guest’s audio that we were unable to repair. But the interview is way too good not to share, so thank you for understanding!*    Freelancing is a hot topic in the fashion industry right now. With almost everyone working from home, more and more companies have realized that remote work and flexible schedules can actually work for their business. And more employees are starting to realize that there are possibilities beyond that 9 to 5 grind! In this episode of the Successful Fashion Designer Podcast, I talk to Kristen Anderson. She’s a successful full-time freelancer, and she shares all the details of how she got here, what she’s learned, and what you can do to launch your freelancing career, and ditch your day job for good!   For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Anna Triantafellou designs fantasy couture dresses for girls, and her business is now so successful that she supports her family of 3 on only her income. If you’re thinking this kind of success is only possible for lucky people with trust funds, you’ll definitely want to hear Anna’s story. Coming from a traumatic childhood in her native Russia, Anna has worked hard for everything she’s created. You may not think you can start a clothing line on Etsy, but from dog clothes to tutus to high-end couture, she made it happen. Anna creatively adapted to every change and weathered every setback. Listen to the story of how she found her passion, fought for it, and forged her own path to success.  For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

When you think about starting your own clothing line, you probably imagine garments you designed completely from scratch gracing a magazine page or floating down a runway. But starting a fashion brand takes years and a major investment of cash. If what you really want is to get something of your own design out into the world, there are ways to get a taste of having your own line without the huge risk. In this episode of the SFD podcast, you’ll hear from Etsy success guru Jenni Waldrop of Fuzzy & Birch on how you can use the marketplace to start a clothing line with (almost) no money.  For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Understanding trends and the direction the market is going to go is vital for anyone working in fashion. Print and textile designers need to understand what consumers are going to be looking for next. Thea Perez founded Polychrome.Design to provide prints as true digital working tools for fashion designers. Along the way, she has honed a process for print and color trend research that gives Polychrome an edge in the fashion industry. In this episode of the Successful Fashion Designer Podcast, Thea shares how she started her business, how they bring beautiful new prints to the market, and the market research process they use to deliver beautiful, on-trend prints to their clients.  For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Mat Booth started his fashion career with a product design degree, some knowledge of sports, and a lot of passion. More than 15 years later, he’s a successful freelancer and has his own brand of men’s luggage and accessories. And he does it without living in a fashion hub. Hear Mat’s story of how he got into the industry, his shift into freelancing, and how he funded launching his fashion brand with his freelancing work.  For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Not all successful fashion designers go to fashion school. Lila Stewart used to do marketing in the music industry, and her husband Jeremy was a political consultant. But when they decided they wanted to start a business with philanthropy at its heart, they found themselves entering the fashion industry with zero experience. In this episode of the SFD podcast, Lila tells the story of how they built HariMari shoes from the ground up. From completely unknown to being carried in every Nordstrom’s in the US, Lila and Jeremy have learned so much about what it takes to launch a fashion brand when you have no experience in the industry.  For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Like many people working in the industry, Emilee Goff always knew she wanted to go into fashion. But when she managed to score an internship with Scott Sports right after she finished high school, Emilee’s career trajectory changed in ways she never imagined. In this episode of the SFD podcast, she shares what she’s learned along the way.   For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!

Selena Leong has worked her way up from production associate, to product development, to technical design, to apparel design. Along the way she’s worked with brands on both coasts including Aeropostale, Forever 21, and even Ralph Lauren. And she did it all without ever going to fashion school.  For the complete show notes, including links to the resources mentioned, head over to Successful Fashion Designer!