Roughly every 20 years, a fabric staple in agriculture gets a bumper crop and fashion gets a win the next year. If you’re VERY lucky, more than one. We have various beautiful European aristocratic collections that have come down the centuries to us today. Especially Italian wool. 2025, it’s cotton as trading 15-30% below normal. YES. If you wanted to design something period over the top, 2026 is your year to swing for the fences.
A LOT of styles are made with cotton, including American. You can almost feel the trim machines switching on to spool up yards of Mexican and Indian trims for American-British fantasy and reenactment for 2026. Fancy embroidery? Check please. The Texas Cotton Exchange Market is rubbing it’s hands in glee as most American cotton and fabric runs there. Anyone else think we’re going to get some Texas tv shows and movies cashing in on the cheaper prices? Summer resort stuff? Been getting some requests for 2026 fashion shows which is another good sign. Which brings us to the two successful asks for shows that stores and brands get.
One: store buyers. Think any New York show you’ve seen with rich people and personal shoppers. A non-profit charity organization or company contacts a local store in their area (Belks is a classic favorite here) and asks about hosting a fashion show at their venue. It’s not unknown for smart companies to add a commercial and do a special shoot while they have the fancy clothing. They put down their credit card and hang out with a personal shopper, the entire amount of the clothing is checked out, say $10,000-20,000/night and then returned after the shoot or charity event minus 10-15% or roughly $1,000-3,000/swag. Often people keep more and you are responsible for paying for everything, but you can write it off on your taxes later. Everyone is happy.
Two: brands and shops. Think the Dark Knight Batman movie with the scenes between Christian Bale and Morgan Freeman designing the new batsuits. The second version requires slightly more work, but allows the non-profit or company organization to get a custom beautiful fashion show for free if you order regular products annually. Plus potentially write off their in-house design team work for a tax write-off. Great way to save money for people who have an artistic partner, assistant, niece or nephew who went to art school looking for a job, etc. even if they’re not Morgan Freeman. Realistically, back of the napkin sketches are changing into LLM script in ChatGPT, but the concept remains. You are leveraging your buying power to get free products for YOU that you designed.
Make a list of any clothing companies you work with and order your t-shirts, bags, koozies, jackets, jewelry, etc. Even 5-10 piece orders are fine if you’re say a small bar or restaurant though this works MUCH better with orders over 100+. Say you have a big wedding coming up, tournament, or a corporate venue. Add anything you might be able to put in event swag bags. Look at your list. Pair like with like. An accessory vendor who makes bracelets and bags can probably do a free hat or two. Shirt or top manufacturers can often flex and make the occasional dinner jacket or dress. Embroidery shops that embroider hats may be able to put your logo on a bag too. But keep your ask to one item or look as single requests are more likely to get a yes. You’re aiming for a Baker’s Dozen in fashion.
Once you get your list, sit down with your assistant/family member and sketch out some ideas. Eight to ten is ideal on the lower end. Vendors know their capacity and are much more likely to make you something for free if they have some idea of WHAT the theme is. If they say no about one item, but can see your sketches, they may say yes about another item you designed. Combine your ask with a great charity auction concept like raising money for the local soup kitchen, sustainable fashion for Earth day in May, major holidays, local events, etc. Even if it’s a passion project, ask. Assistants can get 25-30% success rates asking this way so you have a 1 in 3 or 1 in 4 shot of getting yes doing this. Pretty cool. If you strike out with one event, wait til your next show and try again. Your success rate WILL improve with time.
Pick up the phone, call your vendor or save time by writing emails on a Tuesday morning when you are most likely to get experienced staff in the office and it’s the reset day for the factory so the odds are most in your favor. “Hi Bob (person’s name), I’m with x _______ company and we have a big event coming up. Our theme is x____. (Insert some basic one sentence detail on theme, color, and idea). We love you as a vendor and would like to place an order for 100+ pieces.”
Compliment the vendor for their craftsmanship, especially if classically trained as they can probably surprise you with skills you aren’t expecting. Pivot to the pitch for free stuff. “So we’re having an AI fashion show (or whatever theme you want) around sustainability and my assistant/wife/in-house designer has come up with some concept sketches in LLM ChaptGPT at our last staff meeting. Obviously, you’re super busy, but would you like to donate a piece or outfit to the event for charity?” If this is email, you can include 8-10 concept sketches of outfits you would like to get for the show. That’s it.
Obviously, there’s thousands of ways to pitch for free stuff for fashion shows, but these two work the best from experience. The second one can be A LOT of fun and a great way to give back to your local community and make your own life better. Maybe you have a friend whose a really talented singer and needs a new set of clothing for her tour? Or a band? Looking to promote someone in your office? Have an anniversary or vacation planned and want to surprise your wife?
Hope that helps someone else enjoy the cotton gold rush. Happy fashion for 2026. Next, we’ll talk about dealing with special requests like this as a factory from the other side.