Founders asking "how long does production take?" usually get a one-line answer that hides a dozen sub-stages. Here's a realistic week-by-week breakdown of a 90-day apparel production cycle, what happens at each stage, and where timelines commonly slip.
This is the standard timeline for a new style in a familiar fabric at 500-1,000 units in an ethical Indian factory. Bigger orders, custom fabrics, or first-time-factory relationships extend it.
The factory reviews your tech pack, flags gaps, and returns a quote with:
Common delay: back-and-forth on specifications the tech pack didn't cover. A complete tech pack cuts this from two weeks to a few days.
Factory sources fabric (from existing stock, a partner mill, or a custom mill order). If you're matching a specific Pantone, the dye house runs lab dips — small fabric swatches dyed to your target color — and sends them for approval.
Typically 2-3 lab dip rounds before bulk dyeing starts. Approve each round in 24-48 hours if possible; every day delaying approval pushes bulk dyeing back a day.
Common delay: lab dips that don't match within 2 rounds, triggering a re-dye. Custom fabrics that need mill orders add 2-4 weeks.
First physical sample in the real fabric, made by a senior stitch operator, usually in one base size (often Medium). Expect deviations from the tech pack — some intentional (the factory's interpretation of ambiguous callouts), some not.
You review, mark up corrections (measurements, construction details, colorway, trim), and send feedback.
Common delay: multiple sample iterations. Budget for 2-3 sample rounds before approval. Each round is 1-2 weeks round-trip (stitch + ship + review + feedback).
Once the proto is approved, the factory produces a fit sample (refined from the proto) and a size set (one sample in each size across the range) to validate grading.
You try on the size set, confirm the fit curve, and approve for bulk. This is your last chance to catch grading problems.
Common delay: fit doesn't carry from base to extremes (XS and XXL), requiring regrade.
A single sample made using the bulk fabric, the bulk trims, and the bulk process — as close to the actual production run as possible. Approval of the PPS is the gate to bulk production.
Common delay: bulk fabric arrives off-shade or off-hand from the lab dip, triggering re-dye.
Fabric is cut using a production marker (the layout that minimizes waste). Cut panels are bundled by size and sent to stitching lines. Lines typically run 8-12 stations per style, with quality-control checkpoints at hem, seam, and label attachment.
Common delay: none if sampling went well; lots if it didn't.
Stitching continues for the bulk order (500 units typically takes 4-6 production days at standard line speeds). Finishing — hang tag attachment, labeling, inspection, pressing — runs in parallel once the first units come off the stitch line.
Inspection at AQL 2.5 level (or stricter if specified) — a statistical sampling method where the inspector checks a random sample of units and accepts or rejects the lot based on defect count. Acceptable defects at AQL 2.5: very few.
Approved units are poly-bagged, boxed into master cartons, and prepared for freight.
Common delay: customs holds for documentation issues, particularly for fiber-content declarations and country-of-origin paperwork.
The pattern is clear: most delay is avoidable with a clean tech pack and fast approvals. Factories are not the bottleneck; the information exchange is.
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We work with emerging and established apparel brands on ethical, women-led production in India. If you have a tech pack or even just a concept, we can walk you through what's possible.