Fashion for Profit
From Sustainable Design Concept to Apparel Manufacturing & Retailing: A Professional's Complete Guide: 11th Edition
The depth of detail put into each chapter of the comprehensive guide Fashion for Profit will prove invaluable to new business owners at every step of their processes.
The eleventh edition of fashion educator and entrepreneur Frances Harder’s Fashion for Profit is a complete guide to starting and maintaining successful fashion lines.
Meticulously broken down into stages, the book serves as a handbook for those looking to run an independent clothing business. The depth of detail put into each chapter will prove invaluable to new business owners as the book progresses logically from the basics of producing a garment and topics to consider before starting a business all the way through to shipping, branding, and global distribution. Each section breaks down the minute choices that a prospective business owner will need to make, from the ethical decisions involved with sourcing fabric to the pros and cons of woven labels. Employing others is also discussed at length, including information on hiring independent contractors early on and the needs and responsibilities that a business owner must take into account when hiring full-time workers.
The scope of the text is broad and its language is succinct, making the book useful for all types of fashion business leaders, though those interested in keeping their businesses small stand to make less use of the book’s later chapters. For example, some may not be interested in selling online or selling globally. But the clear table of contents makes it easy to skip chapters that do not apply to a particular situation. The book’s numerous edifying charts, graphs, and tables are useful for clarifying some of the more complex concepts, including those related to business theory and accounting.
Harder’s expertise, coupled with the numerous contributions from other industry professionals, strengthens the claims within the guide. Contributors are cited at the beginning of each chapter, alongside specifications related to their expertise. A fashion business educator, Harder’s personal references lend gravitas to the text and contribute to the clarity of the writing. The text imparts a sense that most possible problems and roadblocks have been considered and experienced, though some sections rely on the word “usually” without providing outlier examples. However, its use of too-casual fonts and the presence of grammatical errors, including instances of missing punctuation, undermine the book’s delivery.
A reference text with useful step-by-step guidance, Fashion for Profit is an invaluable resource for creating a fashion brand from start to finish.
Reviewed by
Ahliah Bratzler
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
