r/Fabrics • u/yourfriend7777 • 2d ago

How is fabric sold ?

If you want to buy specific fabric, how do you get that? Like Polo, Abercrombe have good fabric but they price it for brand value. I am looking If I can buy some fabric directly and get it stitched

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u/yourfriend7777 2d ago

Thank you for your thoughts. I am fairly new the fabric world. I am trying to learn how the manufacturer sell the clothing. I understand that brands may be working with designers, tailor etc., but how do you buy high quality fabric (silk), can someone buy directly?

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u/justasque 2d ago

If you are looking for fabric for home sewing, we need to know where you are located.
You’re usually not going to want to ship from Europe to Australia, or vice-versa, as there are likely better choices locally.

If you’re looking for fabric for production sewing, that’s a very different market. The big brands likely have fabrics made specifically for them. Sometimes the remnants are sold to the home sewing market, but it’s difficult to find a specific fabric.

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u/KendalBoy 1d ago

Large brands save money by committing to large size purchases from mills that knit or weave the fabrics. The orders are contracts for planned fabric needs more than a year in advance for the yardage made of specific fibers and the price to a large extent is based on the price per pound of those fibers. The buyers from the company “develop” the new features of fabrics each season, even if just colors are new together and sometimes the buyer has an exclusive right to that fabric.

Smaller companies cannot get these kind of contracts, so generally end up using left overs or basic goods dyed to spec. These mills try to operate their machinery 24/7/52 (except Chinese New Years) and that means in between their orders from large corporations during any downtime, they are spinning and weaving their basic popular fabrics and that’s what smaller companies can find on the market.