1. Colorfastness. This measures how long the color will stay vivid after being exposed to things like sunlight, chlorine, and salt.
2. Elasticity. Stretch is the most important thing for comfort. A good design will include stretch engineered into both the fabric and the garment.
3. Sustainability is a must. There are far too many affordable recycled fabric options available to not use one.
DESIGN WHAT YOU LIKE
It’s hard to sell and be enthusiastic about something that you yourself don’t fully believe in.
BE COHESIVE
When designing, think about how the entire collection will look together. For example, if you are creating modest swimwear, a terrible idea would be to “test” a micro bikini.
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STAY AHEAD OF TRENDS
If it’s on Instagram or TikTok, you are already too late. Use industry tradeshows to help you forecast what is going to be cool 6 months to a year from now.
TRUST YOUR GUT
If you think something is going to do well, but other people don’t, go for it. Just make sure that you really know and understand what your niche customer wants and that your product will be serving them.
WHAT IF?
During the design process, to boost creativity, play the what if game? Where you ask yourself, what if we did this instead of that? Sometimes the result is a mess, but sometimes it will create a product much better than your competitors.
PAY ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS
Specifically the quality of the elastic being used. Nothing is worse than a garment that digs into you. Remember, all elastic is not equal, and this is one place you definitely want to splurge when designing a swimsuit.
SAMPLE, SAMPLE, SAMPLE
Make sure to leave room in your budget for multiple rounds of sampling. The reality of swimsuit design is that the first sample is never perfect, so to create a high quality product you will need to do multiple rounds of revisions.
If you want my recommendations for the best swimsuit suppliers, you'll have to read the full article!
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