What is a clothing catalog, and what is it for?
A clothing catalog is an ordered set of garments presented with enough information for someone to decide what to buy without speaking to you first. That last clause is the whole point. Every question a catalog fails to answer becomes a message you have to reply to, and every reply is a chance for the buyer to lose interest.
A good catalog answers four things per design: what does it look like, what is it made of, what does it cost, and how do I order it. A catalog that answers all four converts browsing into enquiries. One that answers two generates conversation.
Photography
How many photographs per design
Coverage should match the channel, not a rule of thumb. Over-shooting a wholesale range wastes effort; under-shooting a retail listing loses sales.
| Aspect | Wholesale catalog | Retail listing |
|---|---|---|
| Frames per design | One or two — front, plus back where the back differs | Four to five angles |
| Detail shot | Only where the finish is the selling point | Always — fabric and finish drive returns |
| Colourways | Show every colour you can supply; buyers order across shades | One per listing, with variants as separate entries |
| On the image | Design number, colour, rate, MOQ | Nothing — clean, unbranded frames |
| Consistency priority | Same model and background across the whole range | Same framing and distance across every product page |
The five-angle set — front, both sides, back and a detail — is the conventional retail standard. For wholesale, depth of range beats depth of coverage.
Information
What to put next to each garment
Not everything applies to every trade. Include what a buyer in your trade would otherwise have to ask for.
- Design number
- The single most important field in wholesale. It's what a buyer quotes back to you, and an enquiry without one costs a round trip to resolve.
- Fabric and construction
- What it's made of and how it's made up. In ethnic wear this is often the purchase decision — a buyer choosing between two similar kurtis is choosing between cottons.
- Colour
- Named, not just shown. Screens differ; a name is unambiguous, and it's what appears on the order.
- Sizes available
- A size run the buyer can plan an order around. “All sizes” is not a size run.
- Rate
- In wholesale, include it. A rate-less catalog turns every interested buyer into a price enquiry before it can become an order.
- Minimum order quantity
- Stating it filters out buyers who were never going to order at your scale, which saves both sides time.
- How to order
- One instruction and one contact. If a buyer has to work out how to place an order, some of them won't.
Structure
Ordering the catalog
Sequence is a design decision, and most catalogs don't make it at all.
- Open with your strongest design, not your cheapest. The first page sets the buyer’s expectation for the rest. A weak opener makes strong designs later look like exceptions.
- Group by something the buyer thinks in. Fabric, price band, occasion, or colour family — not by the order you happened to photograph them in.
- Keep colourways of one design together. Splitting them across the catalog makes a buyer think they’ve already seen it and skip.
- Don’t hide the terms. Payment, dispatch and minimum order belong on a clearly marked page, not buried in a footer. Buyers look for them and get frustrated when they can’t find them.
- End with how to order. The last page a buyer sees should tell them what to do next.
Process
Building one, start to finish
- 1
Decide the selection
Pick the organising idea first — a season, a fabric, a price band — then choose designs that fit it. A catalog with a reason to exist outperforms a complete one.
- 2
Photograph consistently
Same model, same background, same distance across every design. Consistency across the set matters more than the quality of any single frame.
- 3
Attach the details
Design number, fabric, colour, sizes, rate and minimum order — entered once per design so they travel with every image of it.
- 4
Choose the format
A PDF for buyers who want a record, a live link for buyers you want a reply from. Both are built from the same set.
If you're building one in Vastram Studio
Product details are stored against each fabric and propagate to every image generated from it, so step three happens once rather than per photograph. The catalog maker handles the PDF export and the shortlisting link; branding puts the design number and rate onto the frames themselves.
Questions
Catalog questions
How many designs should a catalog have?
PDF or a link?
Should I show prices in the catalog?
How often should a catalog be updated?
Do I need different catalogs for different buyers?
Build the catalog and the photography in one place.
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Keep reading
Catalog & PDF lookbook
Group designs into a catalog, export a PDF, share a private link.
OpenFor manufacturers & wholesalers
Design numbers, MOQ, rate cards and buyer lookbooks at catalog scale.
OpenFive-angle product shots
Front, both sides, back and a detail shot of the same garment.
OpenFashion image sizes
Which aspect ratio belongs on a feed, a story and a listing.
Open