How Joyye helps fashion brands expand into ceramic products
Today, fashion labels are not satisfied with the clothes stands any longer. From candles to cutlery, apparel-based brands are branching into new avenues for home decor, with ceramic tableware being one of the most organic. This is where a manufacturing partner like JOYYE tableware comes in handy. A brand’s logo can literally go from a clothing tag to a dinner plate, as Joyye can work with fashion houses to develop the product and then produce it for them in the kitchen and dining room.
Why fashion brands are moving into ceramics
Not a willy-nilly pivot. Fashion brands spend years developing a visual identity, color palette, a mood, a “feel” that customers are familiar with. One of the most intuitive methods to carry that identity into a person’s house is via ceramic tableware. A plate or mug will be on a table every day, and will be used twice a week by a jacket, so it ends up seeing a lot more use on a daily basis. That kind of ubiquity is beneficial for brands that are looking to compete in lifestyle positioning, not just for clothing sales.
There’s a practical reason for this too. Home and lifestyle products typically have lower churn and higher margins compared to apparel. A dinner set will never get out of style like the clothes after a season. So brands have a product family with sustained sales in addition to their traditional seasonal sales declines.
The problem: Fashion brands don’t know ceramics
Here’s the catch. Making a t-shirt and making a ceramic bowl are entirely different fields and design. Clay is not like fabric. Unlike ink, glazes are subject to the effects of heat. A design that is perfect when printed on cotton may crack, fade, or even crack completely after firing on stoneware. Most fashion teams don’t have this know-how integrated into their team, not to mention the time and number of failed batches needed to develop it.
This is where a specialist manufacturer steps in. Rather than rushing to become a ceramics company overnight, the fashion brand brings its design sensibility to the table, and lets the ceramics company do what they know how to do best: make beautiful ceramics.
How Joyye fits into that process
Joyye is the production and development partner for brands going that extra mile. Instead of fashion clients being a one-time thank-you present, the emphasis lies on certain elements that are considered most important for brands with brand loyalty:
Translating design language onto ceramic surfaces. The ceramic manufacturing process must not damage the brand’s ‘print’ or ‘logo’ or the story of the colour. This involves close collaboration with a brand’s design team to modify artwork that can then be used on molds for the glazing and firing processes, rather than simply printing it onto a mold and hoping for the best.
Managing the technical side of production. Fashion brands don’t want to make guesses about things like glaze durability, food safety compliance, chip resistance, and dishwasher-safe finishes. The manufacturing partner does the testing and quality checks and ensures that the product is built to last throughout the day – not just a photo shoot.
Offering flexibility on order size. Fashion brands testing a new category don’t want to put a lot of money into mass production immediately. The advantages of being able to work in small quantities, experience how a collection is going to perform, and then ramp up production are much less risky when working in ceramics.
Keeping timelines realistic. Fashion is very fast-moving, and collections can be scheduled for particular periods or marketing campaigns. Planning for ceramic production, from moulding, glazing, firing to quality control around those deadlines is a challenge in itself and is one of the things that a partner in ceramic production brings.
What this looks like for a brand
Imagine a brand that is known for a particular print or pattern – it may be a bold, colorful one, or it could be a pattern with a name that is recognizable throughout their fashion collection. Expanding it into a ceramic mug or set of plates isn’t simply about replicating the pattern over. Typically begins with sampling, observing colour changes after firing, testing to see how a pattern would look on a curved surface, and making changes before committing to a full production.
After the samples have been approved, the brand will not only be given a product, it will have an extension of itself. For a brand already with a loyal customer base, this purchase of a brand-new item allows the customer to take their favorite aesthetic into their kitchen, and that can go a long way in fostering brand loyalty that’s easier to replicate than with apparel.
Beyond just manufacturing
Another less obvious advantage to doing business with an established ceramics manufacturer is knowledge transfer. Once a fashion brand has made it through this process, they will have a lot more information about materials, tolerances, and what works in mass ceramic production. The more you know, the more quickly and easily the following collection, and the following one, will develop.
When it comes to deciding whether ceramics is worth the investment for brands, the choice is typically based on this: It’s a category where people not only wear them, but use them every single day, at breakfast, at dinner, when they’re hosting guests. Such constant, close contact with a brand is not easily found in any other product line.
Final thoughts
Expanding a fashion brand into ceramic tableware isn’t as simple as choosing a factory and shipping a logo file. It takes a manufacturing partner who appreciates technical issues of clay and glaze and also the branding sensitivity that fashion labels value. Companies have developed around that intersection, which allows a clothing brand to turn into a lifestyle brand, one plate, mug, or bowl at a time, without years of learning the hard way.