Lingerie Manufacturers: A Rare Breed, Indeed

How to start Your Own Intimates Brand

Starting a new lingerie brand is no small feat. It's a challenging segment of the fashion industry with stiff competition. But with the help of Prototype, we can help guide you carefully through all the challenges.

The first challenge is the development of a unique and appealing design for the product. Lingerie is a very personal product and buyers want something that reflects their individual style, taste, and body shape. A successful lingerie brand must take into account current trends while also offering options that stand out from the competition. You should consider the fit and select materials that are comfortable, supportive, and flattering. 

The next challenge when starting a lingerie business is marketing it successfully. It takes more than just a good product to get noticed in this industry. Your customers must be convinced that the brand offers something worth buying. This starts with creating meaningful connections with customers by understanding their needs, desires, and expectations from lingerie products. A strong social media presence is essential for any lingerie business today; it can help build trust and familiarity while showcasing the best of what the brand has to offer its customers through visuals, stories, conversations and more. Your advertising campaigns should focus on delivering messages that resonate with your target custom and help you defend your position against competitors. 

Finally, an important, but often overlooked piece of the puzzle. Your brand's financial stability is key in launching a successful lingerie business. Your brand will require significant capital investment upfront plus ongoing investments to keep it running smoothly over time. In order to achieve long-term success there must be careful budgeting and planning of resources throughout the entire process—from manufacturing costs to sales and marketing.

Prototype can assist you during your growth process. We offer all the tools and services needed to build and launch your own lingerie brand. Click here to inquire about how we can help.

finding a Lingerie Manufacturer

Lingerie factories offering low MOQ for intimates are rare indeed. Many of our clients have reported that they have not been able to find a single factory willing to produce quality lingerie in small quantities. Small MOQs are difficult for a manufacturer for any type of garment. But lingerie is even tougher. The details are fine, quality expectations are high. The fabric is typically delicate, such as with lace. They often involve stretch, as well as structural elements, like underwires, etc. All considered, lingerie is about the most difficult item to produce in garment production lines. The high retail prices for intimate apparel makes a bit more sense when you consider all the angles.

That’s why Prototype is a rare bird! We got our start in lingerie, so we’re good at it and we’re used to it. It’s not something that we’re afraid to do. To make it worthwhile for us to do lingerie manufacturing, we have to keep our prices up, but we strive to be as reasonable as possible. Our pricing varies depending on your needs. We can accommodate orders ranging from low-cost, mass-market underwear, all the way up to high-end luxury pieces. We customize each offer according to your specific requirements.

To learn about our latest MOQ requirements for lingerie and other products, visit our MOQ info page here.

Choosing Materials and Fabrics for lingerie

It can be difficult to source lingerie materials. Lace fabrics are fairly easy to find in many parts of the world, but stretch lace for example... another thing entirely. To design a lingerie line, you need access to a wide variety of trims, laces, and structural elements. Then the manufacturer needs to be able to work with the same or similar materials.

Many designers don’t realize about the wide difference between what is available where they are doing the designing and what is available where the items will be manufactured. This means that the materials will either need to be sourced where the production is, or the materials will need to be supplied to the lingerie manufacturers. When sourcing fabrics and components, it’s vitally important that the designers and developers carefully consider the location where the lingerie will be manufactured.

For lingerie labels using unique laces, this can be a real challenge. We typically recommend to our clients that they design with a bit of flexibility. Then, we can source similar materials from our end that will hopefully work. If they don’t work, then we can always import another option. But that adds time and inefficiency to the process, so we try to avoid it when we can.

To learn more about fabrics and materials, take a look a look at our guide to choosing the best fabrics for lingerie.

colors, dyes & Prints in the lingerie manufacture process

One of the more difficult challenges with lingerie is dealing with colors. Intimates often contain a mixture of fabrics and materials, such as elastics, laces, etc. Each of these is made from a slightly different material. Some will be polyester, some elastane, some plastics, metals, and so on. 

Fabric dye works by transferring color to fabric fibers. It does this by bonding with the molecules of the fabric to form a strong, permanent bond. The dyes impart color by either reacting chemically with the molecules in the fabric or by staining the fibers with pigment particles. Depending on the type of dye used and the specific fabric, you may need to use a fixative after dyeing your fabric to ensure that it keeps its color for longer periods of time.

If the design is meant to be all one color, that means that each of those items needs to match. Unfortunately, that’s impossible. At least not without a huge amount of cost and effort. The dyes simply don’t work the same way on each type of material. So we have to be a bit flexible.

We typically tell our clients to design with this challenge in mind. Allow some interplay between the colors in the design. Make sure that the differences in color are a feature, not an error. If something is really super important, we can usually find a solution.

Plan for Success

Here’s some practical advice for designers from a lingerie manufacturers perspective:

Be practical in your process. 

Be realistic about your goals for your label and your financial constraints.

If you go in to the business thinking, "NO compromises!", then you may be in for a difficult experience.

Don’t let compromises become a sore spot. Plan them from the beginning. Be in control of your compromises. If something isn’t working, find another solution. Manufacturers want to do the best they can for you, but you also have an obligation to help find a satisfactory outcome for both parties. Always keep in mind that once you’ve found a manufacturer you like, try to develop a trusting relationship with them. Realize that you’re both on the same team.

A successful outcome will be best for both of you!