The Importance of Fabric Swatch Books in the Swim Industry
The variety of fabrics in the swim industry is never-ending – there are multiple fabric production processes, structures and materials with thousands of colors and patterns that go with them. If you’ve been in the swimwear industry long enough, you’ll know that there are different kinds of fabrics, including poly, nylon, textured and many more. These fabrics have different feel, drape and hold. Manufacturers usually have different colors ready in stock. Fabric swatch allows customers to see the fabric’s color and print options from the manufacturers. This makes it easier for them to identify the color scheme that they want to work with. If you’re sourcing fabrics, remember to feel the texture and drape and look at their live colors, as the lighting on an image may also be misleading. Hence, this is where swatches come to play.
What is a fabric swatch?
Fabric swatch book is the essential details of every fabric available listed for future reference. This includes fabric name, composition, color options, and prints when available. With each fabric swatch that comes in the book, you should be able to see and feel the fabric in person to have an idea of how your swimwear collection will come to life. Also, swatches offer the advantage of showcasing how colors and prints appear on the fabric that may not have the same effect on paper or a computer screen.
Why do you need fabric swatches and why are they important?
The law of fabric: the more material you feel, the better your understanding of fabric and how you work with it. There are many reasons why you need a fabric swatch book. For example, a fabric swatch can help you see how different fabrics look together if you’re focusing on your product’s design. This can help you choose the perfect material when working on a new design. If you’re sewing up your new product, you may need a fabric swatch book to test different fabrics before using them in your next project. This can be helpful if you’re unsure of how a specific material will feel or look.
Essentially, the most common reasons why you should have a fabric swatch are:
- For testing out different fabric combinations and pairings
- To find out how a fabric will look like in person
- To touch and feel the fabric and determine if its the right quality
- To find the best match for your future project
- To have a fabric swatch library for reference with ordering fabric
What information can you get?
Here is some information you can get from a fabric swatch book:
- Exact fabric composition
- Texture
- Colors and and vibrancy (for printed fabric)
- Feels
Conclusion
Fabric swatches books are essential to developing your swim line because now you can play around with color combinations, print inspiration, and texture fabric. At Bali Swim, all of our ready-stock fabrics are available in various swatch books, including our house prints in our Print Swatch Book. Browse through our wide range of fabrics and add them to your cart.
Always,
Your Bali Swim Team
