Guide to Quality Assurance and Quality Control for Fashion Brands
- Daphné Vulliez
- Dec 3, 2024
- 10 min read
Updated: Feb 4
If you want your brand to thrive (we know you do), you need to make sure that you are selling products that meet your customer’s expectations. And a huge part of this resides in creating high quality products.
How do you make sure that you have a high quality product?
Is it the tech pack? Is it the fabric that you choose? Is it the factory that produces it for you?
Well, it’s including all this, among other things, but this is efficient only if you have a plan in place and make sure that it is being properly followed during production.
This is what we call a Quality Assurance plan. It starts during the product development stage where your brand will build standards and guidelines to prevent defects before production even begins.
Once you have your Quality Assurance (QA) plan in place and that your order is in production, the final step is to verify that your products meet the quality standards that you have set before they reach your customers.
This is the Quality Control (QC) phase where you check and test the finished products to catch and correct defects that may have occurred despite the QA efforts.
Combined, QA and QC are crucial, this is your guarantee for consistent quality, customer satisfaction, and your brand’ reputation.
In this blog, I will walk you through a short step by step guide for each one of them.
Quality Assurance (QA) Guide
Create Detailed Tech Packs (TP)
Make sure that your TP include all details about your product such as design features, materials, measurements, construction details, labelling, packaging, etc… And any additional info that is relevant to your specific product.
Tip: Keep it as visual as possible. Your TP will go through many hands and if you are producing globally, the language barrier is a real thing which is why using images and sketches instead of long text is so helpful.
Believe me when I say this, skipping TP can be a costly mistake! The same way that creating incomplete TP can lead to issues because if the factory has to interpret, chances are you won’t get the product that you imagined.
So if you are not a trained designer, we highly recommend outsourcing them to professionals like Modaminds 😉
Choose High-Quality Materials
When sourcing fabrics and trims, make sure that they meet your brand’s standards.
For example, if you are a fashion brand that specialises in organic cotton clothing and you want to market your products as environmentally friendly and free of harmful chemicals, you should get fabrics that are GOTS certified.
On top of that, you also should get your fabrics tested to understand how they will react in different situations (i.e. assess their quality). Most suppliers already have fabric test reports available so you can use that as reference, but you will have to check that these reports include the specific tests that you need for your product. If not, you can send the fabrics to be tested by a third
party lab like Bureau Veritas or Intertek.
Click here to discover the most common fabric tests out there:
And you know what? All the tests that are being done during development stage will have to be tested again during production to make sure that what was agreed on is actually being delivered.
Note: Imported products are subject to different regulations depending on each country; for example there are different types of chemicals that are banned or strongly regulated like Azo dyes, heavy metal, formaldehydes, PH, phthalate, etc… which means that your fabrics will have to be tested to ensure compliance with these countries’ regulations. This is not to assess the quality of your fabrics but to make sure that your whole bulk does not get stopped at customs during random checks.
Approve Samples
Once your raw materials have been tested and they all pass, the next step is to develop samples.
The sampling process is your chance to verify that your designs translate well into a physical product and to catch potential issues early. The goal here is to get the perfect sample that will be used as reference throughout the whole production process - this is what we call a 'Gold sample'.
How do you get that perfect sample? by doing a series of checks and tests of course!
There are checks that can be done by you and tests that have to be done by a third party lab - the same way that you tested your fabrics, there are specific tests for garments.
3.1 Garments TESTS done by a third part lab
There is a huge amount of tests that can be done and the good news is that you don’t need to do all of them because, as you can guess, they are expensive. The trick is to choose tests that are relevant to your specific product.
For example, if you are selling baby wear clothes that have buttons, you will need to do a button attachment strength test to make sure that they don’t fall easily as this can be extremely dangerous for babies.
The most common garment tests are:
Seam performance tests such as seam slippage and seam strength.
Garment accessories pull tests to find out how much strength is needed before they get ripped off the garment.
3.2 Garments CHECKS that can be done by you (or by ModaMinds to make your life easier 😇)
Once all your samples pass the quality check and that you get that perfect pre-production sample (aka Gold sample), only then you can go into production.
Tip: While checking your samples, create a file with all the details: the type of defect found with picture, location on the garment and what should be done to fix it. Send this file to the factory so they can correct the mistakes and use it as reference during production inspections (QC)
Set Clear Standards with the Factory
Factories work with several clients at the same time and each have their own processes and expectations. They cannot guess what your specific requirements are so, to get a smooth production you need to communicate clearly with them from the start.
Comprehensive tech packs are a must:
Your tech packs content will help the factory understand your expected level of quality. You need to share clear instructions and make sure that you are not missing any important info.
Define your quality expectations: These are broader expectations that guide the production process.
For example:
criteria for in-line and final inspections that the factory should look out for, such as no puckering, consistent hems, etc.. here you can also use the same checklist that you that created while inspecting your samples (see point 3)
defect level: some defects are critical which make the product unsellable and some are minor which are small flaws that don’t impact the product usage. All these defects need to be determined by you.
Establish a clear communication process with the factory.
Having an official way of communicating whether it is for updates or concerns will make the production process so much smoother because things can go out of control very quickly.
For example: updates shared through weekly reports or videos.
Outline deadlines for each phase - sample delivery, production, shipment, etc.. Your tech packs should include the main deadlines but the best way to do this is to create a calendar that is shared between all parties.
Tip: Have all expectations documented in a written agreement or contract. It makes things a bit more formal and serves as a reference in case of issues.
Plan the Production Timeline
In manufacturing, it is extremely rare when things go accordingly to plan. Delays are kind of inevitable whether it’s coming from fabric sourcing issues, unexpected rework, shipping troubles or else. So the best thing to do is add buffer time to be on the safe side.
I generally add 1 to 2 weeks to each stage:
Sampling and approvals (fit samples, pre-production samples, etc…).
Material sourcing and delivery to the factory.
Bulk production start and completion.
Final inspections and packaging.
Shipping and delivery.
Work backwards from your launch date so you know how soon you need to get started on your collection.
Tip: As recommended in point 4, create a shared calendar with all parties to keep track of the timeline and add updates as you go.
Quality Control (QC) Guide
Once your order is placed and the bulk production fabrics are ready, you will need to send cuts to a third party testing lab to perform the exact same tests done during product development. If the reports come back with satisfying results, the factory can start cutting the fabrics for sewing.
Inspect During Production
Catching errors early prevents them from being repeated throughout the batch which saves time and reduces waste.
This is why you need to make sure the factory does regular checks at key production stages:
after cutting
after stitching
after finishing
During this time the factory quality control team will check things like stitching, measurements, colour consistency between trims, lining and garment parts and everything that is on your file (see point 3.2).
They will then communicate the issues found to the production team for corrections.
Make sure they send you a report with photos and notes so you are not left in the dark and you can use it as reference for futures productions.
Check Final Products
This final check happens after production is completed and before being packaged.
Its purpose is to ensure the entire batch matches the approved sample - your gold sample - and is free of defects.
The factory quality control team will check things like fit, appearance and construction details (seams, hem, etc..) while comparing with your gold sample to make sure it is all exactly the same. They will also test the functionality of zippers, buttons and other functional details.
To do that, the QC team will pull random pieces from the batch following your sampling plan - only a select amount of pieces - and AQL standard (acceptable quality limit).
Here is an example to illustrate this process:
Imagine you’re producing 200 T-shirts:
Based on your sampling plan, you inspect 100 items.
Your AQL levels are set at 2% for major defects and 3% for minor defects.
Major Defects: You allow up to 2 items with major defects (2% of 100).
Minor Defects: You allow up to 3 items with minor defects (3% of 100).
If the inspection finds 1 major defects and 2 minor defects, the batch passes.
If the defects exceed these limits, the batch fails.
Inspect before shipment
This inspection happens after the products are packaged and ready for shipping, but before they leave the factory.
This is generally performed by a third party quality control - like QIMA or Intertek - and the aim is to double check that everything is in order before you pay for shipping. Because believe me, you don’t want to be paying for shipping and later finding out that your products are wrong.
They will verify packaging and labels:
Checking that garments are folded properly, placed in protective packaging (polybags for example), and follow your brand-specific instructions.
Checking size tags, care labels, branding tags, and barcodes (when available).
They will also do a final sampling of the packaged items to verify that they meet the quality standards and match the approved sample. This is literally the same as the final inspection but it is being done by a third party for extra safety. It’s not that you shouldn’t trust the factory you are working with but human mistakes happen so it is better to be safe than sorry.
Tip: If you really don’t have the budget to hire a third party quality control, ask the factory to send you samples randomly pulled from the bulk production - they are called shipment samples - so you can check them against your approved sample. This is your last chance to verify that everything is ok before the bulk gets shipped.
CONCLUSION: Why It Matters ?
While QA guarantees a smooth process and prevents costly mistakes, QC ensures the final product is perfect before it reaches your customers. This is why you need both to create high quality products.
But that’s not all, QA and QC are not just about meeting standards—they’re about building a structure for constant improvement.
Each production run gives insights that can improve processes and prevent recurring issues - this is why all QC findings should be documented.
At the same time, brands like yours should gather feedback from customers to improve their quality standards.
Most importantly, you should work hand in hand with the factory towards your quality standards. For this partnership to thrive, there needs to be open communication and mutual goals. The downside is that it may take some time to build that understanding and trust but as long as there is consistent communication, the upside will be consistent high quality results.
Incorporating these practices into your QC and QA strategies isn’t just about solving problems—it’s about preventing them, improving efficiency, and strengthening your brand’s reputation for quality and reliability.