Industry
Fashion & Apparel
Clothing is the category where the material decides the cost and the fit decides the returns. Sourcing it well means specifying the cloth before choosing a factory, and holding a sealed sample as the standard every later judgement is measured against.
Fabric decides the cost, and fit decides the returns
In most garments the fabric is the largest single line on the cost sheet, which is why the material decision outranks the factory decision. A factory price you cannot trace back to a named fabric — a composition, a weight, a finish, a mill — is not a price, it is an intention. Change the yarn, the gauge or the finish and the same style becomes a different product at a different cost, which is how a quote that looked competitive turns into a bill that does not.
Minimums stack, and not where buyers expect. Fabric minimums are usually set per colour by the mill, so a factory willing to sew a modest run can still be blocked by the quantity of cloth that has to be knitted or woven to dye one shade — which is why a multi-colour range can carry a higher effective minimum than the factory's own. Trims behave the same way: a custom zipper, a woven label, a branded puller each carry their own minimum and their own lead time, and the slowest of them sets the day the cutting table can start.
Then there is fit, which arrives months later disguised as a return rate. A size run is not a scaled photocopy of the sample; grading decides how the garment behaves on bodies the sample never met, and every graded size needs its own points of measure and its own tolerance. Colour and dimension both drift between sample and bulk, because a dye lot is a range rather than a value and because knitted fabric relaxes and shrinks differently after washing than it did on the sample table. The controls that hold this are unglamorous and they work: an approved golden sample, a measurement spec with tolerances, shade continuity standards, and wash testing on production fabric rather than on the sample cut.
Built for brands that own their patterns, not just their prints
Situations we see here often, not an exhaustive list.
- Established brands adding a first knitwear, denim or outerwear line outside their current factory's skill set
- Importers who want to keep their supplier relationships and replace the agent in the middle
- Ecommerce and DTC clothing brands moving from printed blanks to their own patterns and fits
- Retailers developing private label ranges alongside the brands they buy
- Activewear and athleisure brands where the fabric itself is the product
What Library of Trade helps with
The points this category asks for most often, not everything we do.
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Fabric before factory
We source at mill level and specify the cloth — composition, weight, finish, colour standard — before matching a garment factory to it. Because material sets so much of the cost, this is where collective and material purchasing power does most of its work.
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Factories matched to the garment
A jersey plant, a shirt plant and an outerwear plant are different businesses with different machinery and different tolerances. We match on the construction you actually need, on free capacity in your window, and on audit status — not on a general claim of competence.
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Tech packs and grading
If you have patterns we work to them. If you do not, product development turns the brief into a technical specification, points of measure and a graded size set that a factory can be held to.
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Quality measured against a standard
Inspections compare workmanship, measurements against tolerance and shade against the approved sample — not against an impression of the garment. The mechanics are in our note on quality control checks.
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Landed cost, not unit price
Origin, duty treatment, freight mode and consolidation are modelled alongside the factory price, because in apparel those lines move landed cost enough to change which quote was actually the cheaper one.
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Your suppliers stay yours
You contract directly with the mills and factories, and we can work with suppliers you already use rather than replacing them. There is no sourcing service fee charged to you as the buyer.
How Library of Trade sources this category
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01
Brief
We pin down the product type and construction, the quantity per style and colour, the fit and sizing intent, a target cost per unit and the launch date the range has to hit.
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02
Product Development
Measurement specifications, pattern making or pattern review, grading across the size run, and a technical specification that says how each point of measure is taken rather than only what it should be.
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03
Materials
Fabric quality, weight and finish first, then linings, interlinings, zippers, threads, elastics, woven labels and hangtags — each with its own minimum, lead time and colour approval.
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04
Factory Matching
Matching on garment specialization and sewing machinery, the factory minimum against the minimum the fabric imposes, capacity inside your window, and audit and certification status.
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05
Sampling
A proto to prove the pattern, fit samples until the fit is right, a size set to prove the grading, and a sealed sample that becomes the reference for everything after it.
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06
Production
Fabric and trim booking, knitting or weaving and dyeing, then cutting, sewing, finishing, pressing and packing — with the longest-lead trim usually deciding the start date.
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07
Quality
Measurement against tolerance across sizes, workmanship and seam quality, shade variation within and between lots, and wash and shrinkage results on production fabric, inspected to an agreed AQL.
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Logistics
Origin and duty treatment, freight mode against the launch date, consolidation across styles and colours, and the documentation the shipment needs to clear customs and be delivered.
Materials, processes and supplier types
A selection of what comes up in this category, not a complete list. If your material, process or supplier type is not here, name it in your brief.
Materials
- Combed cotton jersey
- French terry and brushed fleece
- Organic cotton (GOTS-certified options)
- Recycled polyester (GRS-certified options)
- Nylon and elastane performance knits
- Viscose and lyocell cellulosics
- Cotton twill, poplin and canvas
- Linings, interlinings and wadding
Processes
- Pattern making and grading
- Circular and flat knitting
- Weaving and finishing
- Piece and garment dyeing
- Cut-and-sew assembly
- Screen, transfer and digital printing
- Embroidery and appliqué
- Garment washing and pressing
Supplier types
- Knit fabric mill
- Woven fabric mill
- Cut-and-sew garment factory
- Full-package (FOB) manufacturer
- Knitwear factory
- Trim, label and packaging supplier
- Print and embroidery house
- Third-party inspection partner
Quality, compliance and risk
The checks that apply here most often. What your product needs is decided per project.
Apparel quality is a documentation problem wearing an inspection problem's clothes. An inspector can only compare the garment to a standard, so the real work is making the standard exist before the run starts: an approved sample, a measurement spec with a tolerance per point of measure, an agreed shade standard, and named tests on production fabric. Where a specification is vague — "soft handfeel", "true black" — the factory resolves it in its own favour, and it is not wrong to.
On compliance, keep two categories apart. Fibre composition and care labelling are legal obligations for textiles sold in the EU, restricted-substance rules under REACH apply to chemicals in consumer goods, and a general product-safety framework sits over the category. OEKO-TEX, GOTS, GRS and amfori/BSCI are voluntary schemes — chosen by a buyer or a supplier, often required commercially by a retailer, never the law. What applies to a specific garment depends on the product, and children's clothing is a stricter case handled separately under Baby & Kids.
- An approved sealed sample, held by both sides, before bulk cutting begins
- A measurement spec with tolerances for every point of measure, graded per size
- Shade standards and continuity checks, because a dye lot is a range and not a value
- Wash, shrinkage and colourfastness testing on production fabric, not on the sample cut
- Inline inspection while there is still a run to correct, plus a final inspection to an agreed AQL
- Fibre composition and care labelling verified before packing rather than after arrival
- Restricted-substance expectations agreed with the mill, since the chemistry arrives with the cloth
Sourcing regions
Regions that often come into play for this category. Not a ranking and not a complete list.
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China
The deepest fabric, trim and machinery ecosystem in one place, which matters most when a style needs an unusual cloth or a complicated construction. It is often the only route where fabric, trims and assembly can all be moved without restarting development, and it is usually the most flexible on minimums for a range with many colours.
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Vietnam
Strong on technical outerwear, activewear and structured garments, with a compliance culture many European buyers find easy to work with. Much of the technical fabric is imported rather than made locally, so material lead time and origin both need checking before a cost is treated as settled.
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Bangladesh
Built for volume in cotton basics and simple constructions, where labour content is high and the run is long. The trade-off is scale: minimums and lead times tend to be larger, and it suits a repeat programme far better than a first small drop.
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Turkey
Vertical knitwear and denim with mills and garment plants close together, plus proximity to Europe that shortens transit and makes mid-season repeats realistic. Unit cost sits above Asia and below Western Europe, which is often the honest middle for a brand that reorders.
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Portugal
The route for small runs and high-quality jersey and knitwear with short transit into Europe. Expect a higher unit price and, in return, fewer units at risk per decision — which can be the cheaper way to launch a style that has not proven itself yet.
Questions about this category
What minimum order quantity should we expect for a clothing line?
There are usually two minimums, not one. The factory has a per-style minimum driven by how long it takes to set up a line, and the mill has a fabric minimum that is normally set per colour. The higher of the two is what you actually face, which is why adding colours raises a minimum faster than adding sizes does.
Can you work with the factory we already use?
Yes. If you have a supplier that performs, keeping it is usually the better commercial answer, and we can work alongside it — for example sourcing fabric or managing quality while your existing factory sews.
How many sample rounds does a garment normally take?
It depends on how far the design is from something the factory already makes and on how complete the technical specification is. A proto, one or more fit samples, a size set and a sealed sample is the usual sequence; a vague spec adds rounds, and each round costs calendar time rather than much money.
We do not have patterns. Can you still start?
Yes. Product development can work from sketches, reference garments or a written brief and produce the measurement specification, pattern and graded size set. That work is what makes the factory quote comparable to any other quote.
Why does the bulk look different from the sample we approved?
Most often because the sample was made from a different fabric lot, or because a shade was never fixed as a standard. Dye lots vary within a shade band, and finishing affects handfeel and shrinkage. Approving a sealed sample and a shade standard, then testing production fabric, is what closes that gap.
Which certifications do we need to sell apparel in the EU?
Fibre composition and care labelling are legal requirements, and restricted-substance rules apply to chemicals in consumer textiles. OEKO-TEX, GOTS and GRS are voluntary schemes: useful, often commercially expected by retailers, but not a legal condition of sale. What a specific garment needs should be assessed for that product.
Can we start with a small first run and scale later?
Often yes, but the constraint is usually fabric rather than sewing. Using a mill's stock-supported quality, limiting the colour count, or producing closer to Europe are the three levers that make a small first run possible without a minimum that swallows the launch.
Related reading
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Bring us the brief. We'll build the chain.
Send the styles, the quantities per colour and the launch date, and we will come back with the fabric route, the factory options and what the garment costs delivered.