Part 2: Shawls, Wraps, Blankets, and Outfits
Welcome to the second part of my clothing booth designs! If you missed Part 1: Scarves, Cowls, Mittens, Gloves, and Socks go check it out.
I remember when I first started vending. I was excited and scared and had no idea what I was doing. It was an adventure. The journey has helped me figure out some of dos and don’ts of booth set up. For example, tents are very important.
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Tents
When I started, I had a super cheap 10×10 tent with no walls and the legs were at an angle. Bad plan. Your tent is your first impression to potential buyers and if they see a cheap looking tent, they’re going to probably walk away without stepping inside. There goes your sales.
You also have the worry that your tent could buckle in the rain or blow away in the wind and what if they show is more than one day? How are your supposed to ‘close’ for the night without any walls?
You don’t need a super expensive tent to impress the crowds. But you do need a sturdy, WHITE tent. Why white? Some shows have regulations saying you have to have a white canopy. Plus, white is better lit in the sun, doesn’t distort your product colors, and looks professional on top of everything else. So why not white?
I purchased my first professional tent a little over a year ago and I love it. It looks great at events, holds up to the weather, and is easy to put up and break down by myself if I need to.
Here’s the tent I went with after a lot of research:
I’ve also heard good things about these tents here:
*Mind you, I do not personally own any of the below tents, I’ve asked fellow vendors at events if they like their tents and have gotten back good feedback.
Shawls and Wraps
I make A LOT of shawls and wraps and never know what to do to display them. I started out with a clothing rack, which works. It’s not very interesting and let’s face it, plastic clothing racks break easy and the wind catches them sending them and your product flying to the ground. Not good.
I wanted to find a different way to display my shawls.
I thought about just hanging them on my grid walls, but since I make one of kind, I feel like I might lose a sale if I’m not display a majority of my shawls. Dilemma.
So the hunt was on. Here’s a few pinterest displays that caught my eye and I drew inspiration from:
I love the different levels and that customers can approach from any side to take a look. That means you can have several people comfortably looking at once, which is great in my opinion.
Levels. Levels are HUGE! You want to make your display interesting, so if everything is at the same level it’s going to appear flat. You need to make it more appealing to the eye by creating levels.
Here’s what my shawl display looks like now and I love it!
Since adding the waterfall hooks, which have room to hang several shawls, I’ve noticed a lot more interest in my shawls! People literally change direction and walk directly up to the shawls and start shuffling through them.
Before, when they were just handing on a clothing rack or on the same level, most customers gave a passing look and that was it. I love, love, love my waterfall hooks and plan on getting more in the near future as my product out grows my 10×10 space into a 10×20 space.
Here’s what I used to make my display:
Blankets
I used to sell a lot of blankets. Back when I wasn’t focused on weaving I sewed baby blankets. Once again, I had to figure out how to display them. I had so many ideas.
Why not fold them and display them in a basket? Or better yet, roll them and place them in the basket! Wouldn’t that be cute?
Or I could get more hangers and hang them on my clothing racks for everyone to look through. That’d work and that way the customers can see how big/little the blankets are.
Yeah, these were cute ideas, but I didn’t have any luck with them in a basket on the ground. Customers don’t really look down. Anything below knee height is not there! I go a step farther and try to make sure everything is waist height or taller. Eye level is even better in my opinion.
This is how I displayed the baby blankets, and for awhile it worked. It’s made out of PVC pipe. It allowed me to have a lot of room to display all my blankets, but it was heavy and a pain to put together at each show. In the end it took up a lot of space and I decided to move onto something else.
There was a year I vended with my aunt and she had these absolutely stunning alpaca blankets that she hung around the sides of the tent… They disappeared. Everyone thought they were part of our decorations, they didn’t realize they were actual product! Crazy, right? We moved them to a clothing rack and bam! They started selling like hot cakes.
Moral of story; keep your product within reach and eye level where it will be seen if you want to sell it.
Here’s some great ideas I found on Pinterest:
I currently only have a few woven blankets, with plans to weave more. I display them with my shawls and wraps. Once I have a larger number in my inventory I may dedicate a waterfall hook just to them, but for now I have them hanging with my wraps and shawls until I can come up with a better solution.
Outfits
Having a complete outfit is awesome! Go you go! I have started to weave skirts so now I have an almost complete outfit.
What is the best way to show off your cute complete outfits? A mannequin of course!
I love dressing up my lady. I’ve even named her Lily. I’m starting to think she needs a buddy to play dress up with and maybe I will because she gets A LOT of attention! I can’t tell you how many people see Lily, love her outfit and immediately come in my space to check out what I have. She’s better than a billboard.
If you sell clothing, I highly recommend you find a full mannequin, though I’ve seen some really neat hanging half mannequin’s too. Here’s some great mannequin ideas for all your merchandise!
It’s your turn!
Now it’s your turn to build your own heart stopping booth! I hope you’ve enjoyed both articles about clothing booths and you have some great ideas to get started! I know I still have a lot to learn about building an amazing booth, but that’s part of the fun!
I never build the same booth. There are elements that are similar because I learned they work, but I’m always tweaking and always learning. May you keep learning too!
Take care!
~Ashli