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How does a small workshop sell its collection?

Pre-orders, made-to-order production and small batches: the models small brands use, what they cost, and the examples we could find from Turkey.

WyvOne Editör · 06.11.2026

Paynter in London was founded in 2019 by Becky Okell and Huw Thomas and releases only three products a year. Each product is offered in a batch of 300, and production starts after the orders are in. According to a 2020 FashionUnited article, a 197-piece jacket sold out in 86 seconds on 30 May; the brand had a waiting list of more than 3,000 people, and about 10 of every 300 items sold were returned. These are the brand's own figures, six years old, and do not show the situation today.

Still, the model is clear: see the demand first, then make. The ways a small workshop can sell a collection largely revolve around this idea.

Demand first, then production

The basic problem in fashion is that brands have to guess months ahead how much a product will sell. The same FashionUnited article argues that overproduction comes out of this chain of forecasting. Three approaches stand out as solutions.

Pre-sale campaign. The Canadian denim brand Duer runs a three-week pre-sale and produces only if an order threshold is passed. The brand expected at least a 35 percent reduction in stock.
Pre-order window. In 2020, Telfar ran a month-long, direct-to-consumer-only pre-order with payment taken up front. According to Glossy, there were no cancellations, and delivery of the first bag collection took almost six months from order to arrival.
Made to order. The brand Marta Scarampi makes its products on order; delivery takes 10 to 15 days, shipping included.

A Glossy article from April 2021 reports that Prabal Gurung and Antonio Berardi earned 20 to 25 percent of their revenue the previous year from pre-orders and made-to-order production. The same article says more than 100 billion garments are made worldwide each year and about 20 percent of them go unsold; the article attributes this figure to the Wall Street Journal, and we did not reach the original source directly.

The cost: waiting and slower growth

The model has its difficulties too. Lucia Scarampi, co-founder of Marta Scarampi, says the biggest challenge is convincing customers that the product is worth waiting for. The same article notes that investors are generally not very interested in this model, because the expectation of fast growth does not fit with slow production.

Wholesale is another difficulty. Asha Kai, head of Ultracor, describes how retailers, once involved in the process, start asking for styling on the brand's behalf, which can get out of hand. Telfar, for its part, opens pre-orders only to direct customers. There is also a limited outcome: a product made through pre-orders can still end up in the bin; the chance of that is just much smaller.

What do we see from Turkey?

We could not find tidy, current data on pre-order practice among small brands in Turkey, so we make no firm claim. We do have a few scattered but reliable signs.

According to a Daily Sabah article dated 16 June 2025, Closh, founded by Serli Keçoğlu, turned its workshop into a space for both working and selling during the pandemic, and today works from a showroom on Abdi İpekçi Caddesi. The brand says every piece begins with a hand-drawn sketch and that it chose personalised service over fashion week. The article does not say whether Closh produces to order.

In the same paper's article dated 24 June 2025, Mehmet Korkmaz says he has a team of more than 40 people, takes custom orders and also shows his collections in Dubai. Korkmaz says a design brand needs a separate export and ready-to-wear arm to survive. These are large teams, not an example of a one-person workshop.

For the conditions facing small designers, there is an older but explanatory source. In a Hypebeast article from October 2021, the designers of KARMA by IMA say Istanbul has many designers and textile workers, that the fashion audience does not stick to a single brand, and that making room for themselves is hard. In other words, when there are many options, the sales model is part of the competition.

What to look at

Pre-orders and made-to-order production are useful for collecting cash up front and cutting stock; in return, the customer has to wait and growth slows. All of the pre-order examples are from abroad and a few years old. To understand how this model works in Turkey, you would need to collect data directly from small brands that run pre-orders.

When adapting these models to its own scale, a workshop has to weigh three things: how long the customer will wait, when the money will reach the till, and how much of the product will be left in stock. Which one weighs most differs from brand to brand.