How to Start a Clothing Brand in the UK

Most guides to starting a clothing brand are written for nobody in particular. They tell you to find your niche and build a moodboard, and they skip the four things that will actually stop a UK brand shipping: company registration, VAT, an EORI number, and the labelling law. This one covers those, in the order you will meet them.

We manufacture knitwear in Bangladesh for UK brands, so the sourcing section is us talking about our own trade. The regulatory parts are sourced to GOV.UK and the legislation, and none of it is advice specific to your circumstances — a one-hour conversation with an accountant before your first order is money well spent.

1. Register the business

You have two realistic options. Sole trader is free, immediate, and means you and the business are the same legal person — if the business owes money, you owe money. Limited company costs a small fee at Companies House, takes a day, and separates your personal finances from the business.

For a clothing brand that intends to import, the limited company is usually the right answer sooner than founders expect. You are about to place orders worth thousands with a factory on another continent, and suppliers, freight forwarders and eventually stockists all deal more comfortably with a registered company. It also makes the VAT and EORI steps below cleaner.

2. VAT — and why registering early can pay

You must register for VAT once your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling twelve-month period. That threshold has been unchanged since April 2024 and is currently held until at least April 2027. Below it, registration is voluntary.

Here is the part that catches importers out, and it runs the opposite way to most people's instinct. When your goods arrive in the UK you pay import VAT at 20% on their value. If you are VAT-registered, that is recoverable — you reclaim it on your return like any other business input. If you are not registered, you cannot reclaim it, and 20% of your landed cost is simply gone.

So a brand importing £10,000 of stock while unregistered loses £2,000 it would otherwise get back. Whether voluntary registration is right depends on who you sell to: if your customers are consumers, registering means charging them 20% more or absorbing it, which may cost more than the reclaim is worth. If you sell wholesale to other VAT-registered businesses, that objection largely disappears. This is exactly the question to put to an accountant before you place a first order, not after.

Ask also about postponed VAT accounting, which lets you account for import VAT on your return rather than paying it at the border and waiting to reclaim. For a small brand, that cash-flow difference on a first shipment is not trivial.

3. Get an EORI number. You cannot import without one.

An EORI number — Economic Operators Registration and Identification — identifies your business on every UK customs declaration. Goods arriving from outside the UK cannot clear without one attached to the entry.

It is free, you apply through GOV.UK, and it usually arrives quickly. A GB EORI is the one you need for importing into Great Britain. This is a ten-minute administrative task that becomes a crisis if you leave it until your goods are on a ship, so do it the week you decide to import, not the week you order.

4. The labelling law nobody mentions

This is the requirement that surprises first-time founders most, usually late. Under The Textile Products (Labelling and Fibre Composition) Regulations 2012, any textile product placed on the UK market must carry a label stating its fibre composition. Products containing at least 80% textile fibres by weight are in scope, which covers essentially all clothing.

• The composition must be accurate and given by percentage — "100% cotton", or "60% cotton, 40% polyester".
• Where a garment has components with different compositions, each must be shown.
• The UK regulations still work to the fibre names in the retained EU Regulation 1007/2011, so the permitted terminology is not a free choice.
• Care instructions are not legally required in the UK, unlike some markets — but retailers will expect them and customers judge you on them.

Practically, this is a conversation with your manufacturer at tech-pack stage, not a problem to solve after delivery. Composition, care symbols, country of origin and your brand mark all sit on the same woven or printed label, and it costs nothing extra to get right first time. Ask your factory to send label artwork for approval before bulk. Any factory that exports to the UK regularly will do this without being asked; one that looks blank at the question has not shipped here.

5. Where to make it

The honest version: making in the UK is faster, easier to visit, and carries a label claim some customers genuinely pay for. It also costs considerably more per unit, and UK minimums are not always lower than overseas ones. Making overseas costs less per unit at any real volume and takes longer.

For a UK brand specifically, the duty position is worth understanding because it is unusually favourable at the moment. Clothing made in Bangladesh enters the UK duty-free under the Developing Countries Trading Scheme, covering the overwhelming majority of Bangladeshi exports. Two recent developments matter:

• July 2025: the UK simplified DCTS rules of origin, and garments continue with no double-transformation requirement. Cutting and making qualifies; fabric knitted elsewhere does not disqualify your order. This is the change that removed the main origin obstacle for apparel.
• LDC graduation: Bangladesh is scheduled to graduate on 24 November 2026. The UK has confirmed a three-year transition, after which Bangladesh moves to Enhanced Preferences — and market access for knitwear and woven garments is set to remain unchanged.

Trade positions move, so confirm the live rate for your goods rather than relying on any page including this one. But as it stands, a UK brand sourcing from Bangladesh pays no duty, and the origin rules are more permissive than they have been.

6. Cost it properly

The single most common costing error is comparing a factory quote against a landed cost. Your real number per garment includes the unit price, freight, insurance, customs clearance, import VAT if you cannot reclaim it, and delivery to wherever you store stock.

Ask every supplier for a DDP quote — delivered duty paid — which folds all of that into one figure to your door. An FOB quote covers only goods loaded at their port and will always look cheaper for the same garments. Comparing an FOB against a DDP is comparing half a price against a whole one, and new brands do it constantly.

What you need before your first order

7. Your first production run

Minimums are where enthusiasm meets arithmetic. Genuine cut-and-sew manufacturing — your pattern, your fabric, your fit — generally starts around 100 pieces per style and per colour. Read that unit carefully: a tee in black and white is two minimums, not one, because each colour is a separate fabric batch.

Very low minimums advertised elsewhere are usually printing onto ready-made blanks, which is a legitimate service and often the right first step, but you are choosing artwork rather than a garment. Our guide on print-on-demand versus manufacturing works through when switching pays for itself, and starting with 100 pieces covers the run itself.

On timing, plan roughly 40 to 50 days from an approved sample to dispatch, plus shipping. Work backwards from your on-sale date and add a buffer. If you want the commercial detail for the UK specifically — minimums, DDP pricing, what we make — that is on our page for UK brands.

The order to do this in

• Register the company and open a business bank account.
• Apply for your EORI number. Free, and nothing imports without it.
• Talk to an accountant about voluntary VAT registration and postponed VAT accounting, before you order.
• Build a tech pack, or a sketch and a reference garment if you have not got that far.
• Get quotes on a DDP basis from three suppliers, and ask each about UK composition labelling.
• Sample first. Always. No exceptions.