How to Create a Fashion Line Sheet for Your Collection

So your designs are ready to produce, complete with a variety of sizes, colors, and styles set to thrill. Now all you have to do is get these designs in front of customers, ready to purchase them. If you’ve imagined your clothes being sold in stores, you may be wondering how to pitch these designs to retailers? The answer: with a fashion line sheet. 

Fashion line sheets are a must-have for any designer looking to sell their clothes to a retailer. These handy sheets are used in the fashion industry to give retailers a rundown of all your designs. In addition, line sheets provide the product details of the garment, including its colors, fabric, size range, and price.

Juggling the creative and business sides of a budding fashion brand is tough for new fashion designers. When you’re entering the retail market for the first time, you may be confused about how to create line sheets to present to retailers. Fortunately, when you know how to create a line sheet, you’ll be on your way to successfully pitch your new collection to retailers.

What Is a Fashion Line Sheet?

Above all else, a fashion line sheet is a method of communicating to retailers that you are a fashion business that sells marketable designs. Namely, for advantageous prices, providing an organized, accountable service for on-time deliveries. Fashion line sheets show retailers exactly what your designs will look like, how much they will cost, how to order them, and why investing in them is a good idea.

At first glance, your fashion line sheet should provide the following product information:

• Style number and name: The number and name associated with an individual piece. 
• Product description: A brief explanation of each style. 
• Product Images: Either a flat fashion sketch or an actual image of the garment being worn.
• Season and delivery dates: The intended fashion season and time window when the garments will arrive.
• Wholesale price: The price per unit you’ll be offering to retailers. 
• Fabric content: The fiber or fabric type your garment is made of.
• Colorways: The colors that your garments come in.

Your line sheet should, of course, include contact information like your business name, phone number, and email. But, beyond this, it should include technical information that’ll help each retailer decide whether they want to partner with you or not. This information includes order cut-offs, lead times, order minimums, and overall pricing.

Order Cut-Offs and Lead Times

Keep in mind that the production quantities you request for each individual style are dependent on how many retailers order it. Because of this, most fashion designers don’t submit official quantities to their production house until all their orders are in place. 

You need to provide retailers with an order cut-off date, which is the last day they can place their orders. This allows you adequate time to establish quantities with your production house. Based on these quantities, your production house will provide you with a lead time, which is the amount of time between placing an order and the subsequent product arriving in stores.

Order Minimums

You also need to provide retailers with your order minimums. This is the smallest amount of products or units you’ll allow them to order. Your company needs to establish order minimums because they incentivize retailers to order more of each product and make it more cost-efficient for you to produce. 

Your minimums usually vary for each individual style. For example, if you’re selling a hand-embroidered velvet pant for a $200 wholesale price, you can justify having a low order minimum. But if you’re selling a versatile black knit button-up for $40, you’ll want to increase your order minimums to turn a higher profit. 

Overall Costs

Aside from the wholesale price of each garment, your line sheet should include information about various costs each retailer should be aware of when ordering. For example, they should know whether they or you will be covering the shipping costs for delivering the clothes from the factory to the store. 

They should also know the MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price) for each garment in your product line. This allows them to compare your wholesale price with the amount they’ll be selling your products for, helping them decide whether investing in your designs will be worth the profit earned. 

Assembling Your Fashion Line Sheets

Now that you know what needs to be included on a fashion line sheet, how do you actually assemble it? Computer savvy designers can create fashion line sheets in Photoshop, InDesign, and Excel. However, designers who need a little more guidance can download premade line sheet templates. In addition, websites like Creative Market provide access to a wide assortment of templates for affordable prices. 

If you’d rather focus on the creative aspects of design and want to leave line sheets to the professionals, TEG is just the place for you. TEG is a full-service fashion development and production house where you can source your fabrics, production needs, and line sheets all in one place. In addition, we offer a variety of creative services. For example, TEG includes a design package that allows you to work directly with a professional designer. The clothing designer helps turn your inspiration and ideas into a tangible clothing collection.

Design Services – $1100/style*

•  Design intake sessions
•  Mood boards
•  Line sheets
•  Prints and color rendering
•  Fabric color palettes
•  1–2 rounds of revisions*
•  Optional fashion illustrations*

*A surcharge applies to complex styles for all services. Hourly fees applied for additional hours of all services at $165 per hour

Sourcing A Fashion Line Sheet and Multiple Designs in One Place

Having an outstanding collection of fashion line sheets is almost as important as having an outstanding fashion collection. Line sheets communicate everything a retailer needs to know about your designs and sales terms. They convey the look, fabric, and colorways of the design and necessary information like wholesale prices, lead times, order minimums, order cut-offs, and additional costs for delivering your designs. Having a clear-cut and professional-looking line sheet shows a retailer that you conduct your business just as thoughtfully as you create your designs. 

If you want a production house that’s just as professional as your line sheets, look no further than TEG. TEG’s dedicated team of design professionals are here to help you with development strategies, merchandise planning, competitive analysis, mood boards, flat drawings, and sourcing the perfect fabric swatches and trim styles. 

TEG takes care of all the responsibilities of launching a clothing line, with all of the benefits. Our expertise provides high-quality creative services like fabric and trim sourcing that you won’t find elsewhere. Our top-of-the-line sourcing managers skillfully guide you through sampling fabric swatches, negotiating minimums and prices, tracking orders, and more.

Whether you’re an emerging or established fashion brand, we’ve helped over 2,000 designers during the last 15+ years bring their visions to life. We’d love to help you, too!

Please call or fill out the below form for all inquiries and questions. We will respond within 1-2 business days. Thank you!

Los Angeles: 800-916-0910 | San Francisco: 415-324-8779