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When Megan Prange started her career in the fashion industry as a freelance pattern and sample maker for independent designers, she quickly discovered some unaddressed challenges she couldn’t ignore.
With massive order minimums being an industry norm, Prange realized just how hard it was for up-and-coming designers to break into a business dominated by big corporations. She set out to create a new business model that would make apparel manufacturing more ethical, sustainable, and accessible, and with that dream (and a whole lot of drive), Prange Apparel was born. Operating out of its recently expanded Nashville locale, the full product development cut and sew manufacturing facility is helping emerging and established designers bring their creations to life.
Although she went to college for fashion design, Prange realized early on that working behind the scenes was a perfect fit for her. She fell in love with pattern making and clothing construction and, upon graduation, began doing freelance product development for local design companies. With every project, the same problem arose: a need for small batch production that was not accessible in Nashville or the South. Manufacturing was predominantly limited to Los Angeles or overseas, with huge minimums that small independent designers just couldn’t afford. So, Prange decided to be the change she wanted to see and started Prange Apparel in 2013, offering small batch minimums to work with independent designers.
“Most manufacturers’ minimums are 1,000 or 2,000 when you go overseas, and if you are an independent designer you’re selling to boutiques that are not looking for thousands. You have to have a place to store it all; you have to have such a big budget that it’s really hard for independent designers to get a foothold in the design community at all,” explains Prange. “By offering small batch, it allows designers to start selling, to start their business with much less capital; it reduces waste, and then as businesses grow, designers can increase their numbers, but it gives them a place to start from.”
From new designers to seasoned vets, Prange Apparel offers a full range of product development and manufacturing services to accommodate every stage of the design process. A product development team works closely with designers offering garment design consultations; tech flat and tech pack creation (the details, measurements, and information needed for manufacturing); pattern creation and sample making; pattern digitizing; grading and size runs; and cut and sew manufacturing as the final step. All garments are cut and sewn here in Nashville, with both small and large batch production available based on the designer’s needs. With so many offerings, Prange Apparel quickly outgrew its previous facility and expanded early this year to a new 6,000 square foot facility, allowing plenty of space for all stages of the production process to operate under one roof.
“We never knew how fast the business would grow and we were just running out of space,” Prange says. “We did a really big renovation on the space to get it ready for manufacturing and I absolutely love that it’s going to allow us to grow over the next couple of years.”
Prange developed her business model to best serve employees and designers alike. Instead of a paid-per-piece model where employees work grueling hours hammering out identical pieces, Prange Apparel is relationship-centric and designed around what people can comfortably produce in a day. Here, sewers know the designers, feel invested in what they create, and continuously learn new skills. Fair wages, benefits, and a schedule that prioritizes a healthy work-life balance were also imperative to Prange.
“I wanted it to be a place that I would also like to work,” says Prange. “We do a lot of high-end. I wanted people to put a lot of quality and passion into the clothing they are sewing. Sewers know who the designers are, they’re able to feel pride in what they’re sewing, have a nice, relaxed work environment, but still produce good quality garments.”
That passion for developing strong business relationships is evident to the designers who work with Prange Apparel as well. “We don’t want to be considered just contractors where you get something made and never visit again. We like to work with [designers], grow with them, and develop relationships with our clients. Once somebody comes and works with us, we like them to stay with us,” Prange says. “We are still working with some of the designers that we’ve worked with for seven or eight years.”
Prange Apparel’s growth and success represent a study in the power of breaking industry barriers, and Prange has proved that it pays to persevere. From employees, to designers, to the fashion industry at large, Prange looks forward to continuing to inspire change in Nashville and far beyond.
“One of my favorite things is showing people that there is a different way to do this. It can be done better: it can be done ethically; it can be done with low waste; it can be done with employees in mind; we can create clothing without having to sacrifice ethics and sustainability. I have a mission to prove to everybody that that’s possible and encourage more people to continue on with that,” Prange says.
(2543 B Lebanon Pike, 629-246-0885; prangeapparel.com)