If you haven’t worked with a factory before it can be hard to know what to expect. This blog gives you questions to think through before you start reaching out. The relationship you build with your factories will be essential to your success. Go into these first conversations confident about your brand’s needs.

Bringing your fashion vision to life requires careful planning and execution. It can be an overwhelming process that sometimes leaves you with more questions than answers. We developed our PLAN program because we know how difficult it is to navigate these early stages. In our program, we take you through four planning stages: Prepare, Create, Manufacture, and Market. In this blog, we will just discuss the ‘Prepare’ stage.

As a child, Nancy Gordon’s great grandmother gave her candies wrapped in a white handkerchief as a gift. The candies were placed quietly by her pillow given to her with a wink. Recalling the joy that came from the gift, Nancy came up with the idea for Pillowinks. Pillowinks is a pillowcase with a secret pocket to store mementos.

Learn more about local organizations we support in our ‘Community Collaboration’ series. This blog features Common Threads of Maine in Westbrook.

Twin brothers Whitt and Sawyer Merritt co-founded Twin Birch after learning about the environmental impacts of “fast fashion” They jumped into action creating a brand to address the problem.

Learn more about the brand and how Guided Makers helped them bring their products to life.

“Our Merier label pieces are made using organic fabrics and we strive to be kind to the environment by selecting natural materials and local manufacturers as much as possible.”