What a DTC program needs
Direct-to-consumer intimates run on a different rhythm from wholesale. Depth per color is shallow, colorways turn quickly, and the parcel - not the shelf - is the package a customer actually experiences. A program therefore has to hold three things at once: samples fast enough to plan a drop calendar, batches small enough to test a colorway without overcommitting, and packaging that arrives looking like the product photography. The desk builds the program around those constraints rather than around plant convenience.
Recommended starting lines are the wireless bra, the bralette and the bikini: all three sew well at small scale, grade cleanly across XS-2XL bands, and photograph flat without styling tricks.
Sample programs before batches
A drop calendar lives on samples. Catalog models sample in 7-15 working days and answer the fit question quickly; branded samples - own colorway, own logo - take 15-25 days once decisions are fixed. The desk runs sample programs as a batch exercise: several lines sampled in one round against one color standard, so a drop decides between photographed samples instead of between sketches. Each round is logged - what changed, why, and which decisions it locks - because a drop team usually works weeks ahead of the plant and needs to know what is still open. The sample programs post shows how teams structure those rounds.
Drops, colors and depth
Stock catalog models typically start at 500-1,000 pieces per color, which is what makes multi-color drops possible without a warehouse. The usual shape: two or three core colors that repeat every drop, plus one or two seasonal shades that rotate. Depth sits on the core tier; experimentation sits on the seasonal tier, where a miss costs one batch rather than a season. Reference ranges and timing sit on the MOQ and lead time page and are confirmed in writing per program.
Packaging that survives the parcel
The parcel decides more first impressions than the product page does. Poly bags sized to the fold, tissue that holds a lace cup in shape, a box stiff enough for a doorstep, and a size card readable without unfolding everything - these are specified per line, not inherited from a plant default. For sets and multi-packs, carton weights stay inside the parcel bands carriers charge fairly at, and a packed-unit drop test settles the design before the first customer does. The packaging and retail boxes page carries the formats and the decisions each one needs.
Returns you can explain
Intimates returns concentrate on fit, and most fit returns trace to a gap between what the size chart promised and what the garment measures. The desk attacks that at both ends: the grade file fixes what every size measures, and the fit content - size charts, measurement guidance, stretch notes per fabric - is drafted from the same file rather than from a template. Batch-level inspection records close the loop: if a returned lot measures off-grade, the record shows it; if it measures true, the chart is the thing to fix. The returns reduction post carries the working checklist.
Subscription and replenishment
Replenishment programs - subscription boxes, repeat basics - fail on the same risk brand programs fail on: batch two drifting from batch one. The discipline is the one described for brand owners: retained references per approved batch, elastics recorded by lot, standard-lamp checks per lot. For subscriptions the stakes are higher because the same customer meets the same SKU twice; a color or stretch change reads as a defect even when the certificate file is clean. Reorder batches run 30-45 days for catalog models and 35-50 for private label, and the desk schedules them against the subscription calendar rather than against production convenience.
A first-season calendar
- Brief, line choice and color direction; the scope returns in writing with reference ranges attached.
- First sample round against the color standard; packaging mockups run alongside, so the parcel is designed with the product.
- Drop content shot from approved samples; the size chart drafted from the grade file rather than from a template.
- Pilot batch with the inspection plan agreed before cutting; parcel drop tests on packed units before the carton design is locked.
- First batch ships; retained references and the inspection record enter the program file, and the reorder calendar is scheduled against the drop calendar.
Timing follows the reference ranges above rather than a fixed calendar; the program sheet sets dates per line. To open one, the quote form is the entry point.