Rack or Ruin?

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For many young, inexperienced fashion designers, a purchase order from a major retailer can be a blessing. Or a curse.

It’s a rare opportunity to get a foot in the door in the competitive fashion market, but the cost of filling even a single large order can be great enough to sink a fledgling business.

However, with enough resourcefulness – and a little luck – it can be done.

Leylie Aghili, founder of Santa Monica specialty fashion boutique Tribute on Montana Avenue, said filling her first large order for a major retailer was easily one of the most challenging things she’s ever done.

After putting together her first collection this winter, Aghili, 27, landed an order from Anthropologie, one of five retail brands owned by Urban Outfitters Inc. The Philadelphia company ordered a couple of hundred units of each of five styles from her debut line. The items – mostly women’s button-down tops – will begin selling on the national retailer’s website this month.

“It was trial by fire,” she said. “You don’t even think about how much goes into a garment, from the pattern to the sample to where you source the buttons and make the labels.”

Frances Harder, founder and president of downtown L.A. non-profit Fashion Business Inc., said major retailers have highly specific requirements for order fulfillment that can bring down designers who aren’t up to the task.

“My experience with big stores is that they can be absolutely lethal,” she said. “If you don’t know the business side, and you don’t understand the shipping requirements and the things that go into producing a garment, you’re going to sink your own boat in a very short time.”

Before the orders came in from Anthropologie and a handful of smaller boutiques, Aghili manufactured only 15 to 25 units of each of her designs to be sold at Tribute. Fortunately for Aghili, who manufactures her clothing in Los Angeles, Anthropologie doesn’t tend to demand break-the-bank orders from new designers. Instead, the retailer tests designers by asking for smaller batches, which are sold online. If a designer successfully handles the production and shipping process – and if the items sell well online – Anthropologie buyers are more likely to place bigger orders for sale in its 182 stores.

Aghili, who is funding her Anthropologie order in part with support from her boyfriend, Valon Xharra, said the relatively small order made the whole process more manageable.

Unlike other designers eager to get in the door, Aghili said she was unwilling to accept an order that would force her to produce and ship her clothing at a loss. She declined to disclose sales figures for her store and fashion line, but said both are profitable.

“In a way, these smaller orders make it easier for me as a small designer because it doesn’t take as much money to fund the production,” she said. “Luckily, I didn’t have to go get a formal loan from a bank for this.”

Fashion basics

Aghili started designing clothes shortly after opening Tribute in April 2011. She started small, designing a button-up shirt here, a casual T-shirt there.

Though she had no technical design background, she made it work by bringing in samples of things she liked from her closet and describing to a pattern maker how she wanted to alter a garment to make it her own.

From the start, the line was fairly high end. Her T-shirts start at $128, while button-up shirts cost more, between $190 and $216.

Aghili’s first opportunity to show her line to other retailers came while she was shopping for her store last fall at a showroom in downtown L.A.’s Fashion District. Lisa Rosas, owner of the showroom eM Productions, asked Aghili what was working in her store. When Aghili told her about her line, Rosas insisted on seeing it.

“She came down to the store, she met with me and she basically said, ‘There’s a reason this does so well for you. There’s a void in the market for this sort of thing. Have you ever thought about going into wholesale?’ ”

Aghili hurriedly pulled her small line of women’s tops together and began showing the clothes in Rosas’ showroom earlier this year. It didn’t take long for Anthropologie to take notice.

Anthropologie’s order came five weeks ahead of its desired delivery, and Aghili realized she didn’t have the time to wade through a thick manual to guide her through the chain’s specific production and shipping requirements.

To help smooth the process of meeting Anthropologie’s specifications, Aghili hired two consultants to help her connect with manufacturers, put together a production schedule and meet Anthropologie’s stringent shipping requirements.

Even the smallest overlooked detail can come back to haunt a designer inexperienced in dealing with national retailers: a wrong-colored hanger or a box with a sticker in the wrong corner can be cause enough for a retailer to charge the manufacturer a fee. Multiply each little mistake by the number of items shipped and the cost can become astronomical.

Now, Aghili’s waiting to find out how well her line is received by the public. In the meantime, she’s planning ahead for spring.

“I think it’s important to keep the momentum going,” she said. “Hopefully, this will lead to more and more orders.”

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