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Examples of Clothing Business Ideas If you're a good seamstress, enjoy fixing clothing or have an eye for fabric, you could start a clothing business idea. Here are ten examples to help you launch your clothing business.

By Nicole Crampton

You're reading Entrepreneur South Africa, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

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There is always a demand within the clothing industry, whether you're helping someone to improve their look or repairing their fabric-covered furniture. If you have the talent and the experience you can start a clothing business.

Before you get started here are 10 examples of clothing business ideas you can learn from:

1. Alteration Service

If you have enough sewing experience you can capitalise on your sewing skills by providing garment and fabric alterations services from your home. Before you launch your clothing business here is an example of an alteration service you can learn from:

Business Name: Stitch It

Website: https://www.stitchit.com/

Established Date: 1990

About the business:

Stitch It offers formal alterations so their clients can feel great on their special day, body measurements to help people know exactly what size they're looking to buy online, dry cleaning services and top clothing alterations.

Innovative business offering

Related: 25 Of The Most Successful Business Ideas In South Africa

Besides the numerous clothing alterations Stitch It also offers curtain alterations as well as leather and suede work, and ironing services. This allows them to reach a larger target audience.

2. Image Consultant

If you have a good sense of style, you could offer your services to both men and women looking to improve their looks. You can coach them on the right wardrobe style for their image, weed out closets and go on shopping expeditions.

Before you launch your service, you'll first want to see what others in this industry are doing to ensure your business remains competitive, here is an example of a clothing business you can learn from:

Business Name: Your Style By Jessica

Website: http://www.yourstylebyjessica.com/

About the business:

Your Style By Jessica offers personal style consulting services. Through various analysis techniques she can determine the colours, shapes and styles that suit her clients best. She also offers wardrobe planning, where she will help you work through the clothing you have and how you should be wearing it.

Innovative business offering

Your Style By Jessica also offers personal shopping services to assist her clients in practically using their new-found guidelines and tricks. She hopes to empower her clients through her consultation services and help them to make the right personalised style choices.

3. Patternmaker

Are you a sewing enthusiast? Do you love designing and making your own clothing? This could be the clothing business idea for you. Here is an example of a patternmaker you can learn tips and tricks from:

Business Name: The Pattern Makers

Website: http://www.thepatternmakers.com/

Established Date: 2006

Related: A Free Business Plan Example to Launch Your South African Business

About the business:

The Pattern Makers assist their clients with every step of clothing design from the initial concepts to sourcing fabric. They work with brands to help them launch their new clothing, as well as individuals who are looking for customised designs.

Innovative business offering

The Pattern Makers also take their services a step further by offering small batch to large scale production of the clothing they've helped their clients create.

4. Fabric Restoration

Fabric covers just about everything in a home or office and someone needs to restore and repair that fabric. If this sounds like something you could be interested in doing you could repair and restore torn, cracked, faded, stained and burned fabrics.

Before you get started here is an example of a clothing business you can learn some strategies from:

Business Name: Fabric Renewal

Website: http://fabricrenewal.com/

Established Date: 1979

About the business:

Fabric Renewal are highly specialised dry-cleaning services that can save almost any fabric item that has been damaged by almost any contaminant.

Innovative business offering

They partner with insurance companies to assist families and businesses recover from incidents. Fabric Renewal are renowned for their insurance restoration and are known to provide fair pricing, exceptional service and unsurpassed results.

5. Handbag Design and Manufacturing

Do you enjoy designing and creating handbags? You can create and manufacture handbags from the comfort of your own home. You can start this on a part-time basis until you have enough orders to support you.

Related: 7 Steps-to-Success for Clothing Industry Start-ups

Before you get going, here is an example of a clothing business that can help your new business remain competitive:

Business Name: Clutch Made Factory

Website: https://www.clutchmade.com/

About the business:

Clutch Made Factory offers its clients design consultations, technical drawing of their client's design, fabric sourcing, sample and patternmaking, and production of the design.

Innovative business offering

Once the item is designed, Clutch Made Factory also offers branding and merchandising, website and social media, platforms as well as photography and video services.

This allows them to position themselves as a one-stop-shop for all their client's handbag design and manufacturing needs.

6. Homebased Tailor

Formal and business wear retailers tend to subcontract to outside tailors.This creates an opportunity for those with sewing experience to capitalise by starting a homebased tailoring service.

Here is an example of a tailoring services business that took it one step further and increased their competitive advantage:

Business Name: Tailor Me

Website: http://www.tailorme.co.za/

About the business:

Tailor Me offers consultations to determine their clients needs and offer their advice, they'll guide their customers through the initial fitting providing expert advice on fabric textures and complimentary colours.

Innovative business offering

Once this process is complete Tailor Me will handcraft the entire outfit from the ground up including all the specifications discussed during the initial fittings.

Related: How One Entrepreneur Is Bringing Vintage Clothes to Your Doorstep

They will also arrange for an interim fitting to make minor adjustments while stitching the garment to life.

7. Maternity Clothing

There are numerous brands and a wide ranges of maternity clothing available across the globe. If this type of clothing business is something, you're passionate about, you can make it your entrepreneurial opportunity. Before you launch your new business idea, here is a maternity clothing business you can learn from:

Business Name: Bellyssimo

Website: https://www.bellyssimo.co.za/

About the business:

Bellyssimo is a maternity brand and online store offering stylish, functional and affordable outfits for every trimester. Their clothing was inspired by their founder's wife, who struggled to find flattering pregnancy garments that made her feel comfortable and glamorous.

Innovative business offering

Bellyssimo focuses on designing pregnancy clothing that is high-quality, made from exceptional fabrics with clever pregnancy designs for every occasion. They offer long-lasting maternity clothing for each trimester.

8. Fabric Shop

If you want to supply the fabrics to all those sewing enthusiasts and fashion clothing designers, this could be the clothing business idea for you. You can sell numerous styles and types of fabrics in a fixed storefront location. Before you launch your business here is an example of a fabric shop you can gain insights from:

Business Name: Habby and Lace

Website: https://habbyandlace.com/

About the business:

Habby and Lace offers online shopping for customers looking for their favourite fabric, dressmaking and home products.They offer nationwide delivery, with a support team willing to assist throughout the entire ordering process.

Innovative business offering

Besides numerous types of fabrics Habby and Lace also offer homeware, plasticware and haberdashery to ensure their clients find everything they need in one place.

Related: #8 Things to Keep in Mind Before Starting Your Own Apparel Line

9. Embroidery Service

The technology advancements within the lucrative embroidery industry have made it easy for even a beginner to start an embroidery business. This could be the clothing business idea for you. Before your get started, here is an example of a clothing business you can learn from:

Business Name: Embroidery Junxion

Website: https://junxiongroup.co.za/

About the business:

Embroidery Junxion offers embroidery branding and embroidery digitisation services to their clients. They also offer top quality promotion items such as uniforms, gifts and clothing.

Innovative business offering

Besides embroidery, Embroidery Junxion also offers screen printing, laser engravings and full branding services to ensure they're a one-stop-shop for their clients branding needs.

10. Sewing Classes

Do you love to sew? If you can sew at a professional level, you can offer lessons to others. Before you launch your sewing classes, you should first research what others are doing in this market. Here is an example of a sewing training business you can learn from:

Business Name: Sew Easy

Website: http://seweasymidrand.co.za/

About the business:

Sew Easy offers classes for all levels of students of any age from beginners to advanced. They also offer tailored courses to support their clients needs depending on what they want to learn and their level of expertise.

Innovative business offering

In addition, Sew Easy offers various courses for people interested in specific sewing techniques, such as curtains, overlocker and corset sewing.

Related: The Ultimate 101 List Of SA Business Ideas To Get You Started

Nicole Crampton

Entrepreneur Staff

Sales Enablement - Content Developer

Nicole Crampton is an SEO specialist who contributes to Entrepreneur.com/za. She has studied a BA Journalism at Monash South Africa and has continued her studies with a Creative Writing degree from UNISA. Nicole has completed several courses in writing and online marketing, and continues to hone her skills and expertise in digital media, digital marketing and content creation.

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