HOW SHE BECAME FOUNDER OF A MILLION DOLLAR FASHION COMPANY

FIFTH ALLIANCE is a fashion business and design consulting firm helping product-based brands scale their Sustainable textile businesses. The firm is founded by Rehnuma Chowdhury, and this is the story of how it came to be.

She studied at cutting and tailoring and after her graduation and receiving diploma in Fashion Design, worked for years, designed and developed award-winning technical products for international brands like Ashcity, Northend, Peak Performance, C&A, Next, Lundhags, and many more.

In her professional journey she worked for Europe’s one of the biggest retail company for long 8 years, being responsible for implementing and rolling out multi-million online & offline sustainable projects for subsidiary clothing brands across Europe.

Design consultant & agency

6 years ago, she took on here first freelance consulting assignment, leading to the start of the FIFTH ALLIANCE GLOBAL Agency. Through the design agency, she helped numerous clothing brands create outstanding collections and grow their businesses.

Entering the fashion business world

5 years ago, She prepared her first collection along with the team .She created a 26 piece retail collection, kid’s and women’s, very technical products, all layers from base layer, mid layers, waterproof shell jackets and some sustainable pants, and fully insulated parkas. This technical urban apparel concept was first sold retail in Paris EXPO ,receiving small moq orders from countries all over the world.

In 2018 she came up with second collection when they had the need for really durable sustainable daily wear collection for children. That time Fifth Alliance could not find enough supplier handling with organic baby padsheet, swadle, bedsheets, fittedsheets ,sleepbags and rompers.

-----"As an working mom ,We lived in one of the most the crowded city of South East Asia, and the kids played outside every day, which of course, affected their clothing. Often we couldn’t find properly durable products, so we have created a collection ourselves and soon it turned into CASHCOW." stated Rehnuma.

Fashion business management and education

Even though she and her partner had experiences from working in the apparel industry, it was a challenge getting a good grip on starting up a business. Just the administration around registering the business, arranging a bank account, creating a business plan, making a budget, and getting the finances in order were all new tasks then.

Then the big question: how did they do this?

They had to find factories and suppliers that suited their needs. According to Rehnuma initially there were questions like - How should we go about this? How much can the garments cost to produce? How do we work with minimum quantities? How can we make sure our finances will cover the launch? How can we protect our designs and feel safe when communicating with other parties?

---The questions were many, the challenges plenty, and mistakes not so few.

They needed to find Suitable Quality Team that combined traditional education with real life experience from the apparel industry. They needed tools and strategies for fast implementation and results; they needed to educate their supply chain on terms and time. That's the push which allowed FIFTH ALLIANCE to start working in vast community level and begin it's own bulk productions for recycle, organic & sustainable eco wear to supply to Brands. Now Fifth Alliance Team educates and empowers apparel factories around the world to start & run profitable factory , Launch meaningful and successful clothing brands through workshops and hands on trainings.

Becoming a Million Dollar Fashion Firm

After 30 years of combined experience, helping small, to mid-sized, to large factories to grow through doing diversified product range with the help of their design agency for last 5 years, and coaching hundreds of factory workers, from India, to Bangladesh, Myanmar, Dubai, and to Vietnam, they have now accumulated an extensive international network of experts in various fields in the fashion industry. Observing increased interest in their design and catalogue services for organic & sustainable wear, they have been scaling their design agency to become a full-fledged fashion business and textile solution firm. Fifth Alliance now not only exports organic children's textile but also has become traditional textile solution hub for the Brands. Fifth alliance has now successfully created a milestone in the Industry with brand-building, business & digital strategy, sustainability implementation, design & product development, and optimizing their business operations. The projects are tailored to suit each client’s needs, and the talent and tools needed are brought in to reach desired impactful results for fashion brands that want to leave a mark today and be well prepared for the future.

To connect with Rehnuma, email - [email protected].