7 Years of Building Fashion Brands ($100M Spent)

I spent $100 million on ads and I'm going to tell you something most marketers won't tell you. Fashion marketing is completely different to everything else. So the frameworks you've learned, PAS, ADA, problem solution, they just don't work, not in fashion. And the reason they don't work is the same reason why most fashion brands get stuck at 50K a month and they can't understand why. So here's what we're going to do. I'm going to give you my entire playbook.

Everything I've learned scaling brands from 10K a month to $2 million a month. No fluff, no theory, just what actually works. Let's get into it. So, here's the thing about fashion. Nobody tells you. People don't buy clothes. They buy identity. When someone buys your clothes, they're not buying fabric. They're not buying stitching. They're not buying premium fabric. They're buying who they want to become when they wear it. Think about it. The last time you bought something you were really excited about, you didn't buy the thing. You bought the feeling.

You bought the person you wanted to be when you wore that item. You bought it because you thought it represented you and subconsciously you thought it would help people understand what you wanted to represent yourself as or who you truly are. You bought that feeling that when you put it on and you looked in the mirror, your inside matched your outside. You bought the feeling of when your friend said, "Oh my god, where do you get that?" That's what fashion sells. Not products, not features, not benefits. Identity.

And if you don't understand this at a bone deep level, your ads are never going to scale because you're selling the wrong thing. Now, let me show you the four mistakes that kill fashion ads. And honestly, I see these constantly. Mistake number one is hard problem-solution framing. You've seen these ads, right? "Do your feet hurt? Try my new comfy shoes." It's dead on arrival 90% of the time. Here's why this doesn't work. Fashion is about signaling. When you buy clothes, you're signaling something to the world.

You're telling people who you are. You're telling people what you're into. You're telling people what tribe you belong to. Think about a Rick and Morty graphic tee — why does someone buy that? So that other Rick and Morty fans see it, recognize it, and walk up to start a conversation. The tee is like a flag that says "I'm one of you." Now think about someone buying a Louis Vuitton bag. They're not buying it for the quality. They're buying it for the signaling. "I can afford this."

And think about someone buying vintage Louis Vuitton — it's a completely different signal. It's like "I understand fashion, but I have taste. I'm rich. I'm also cultured." And here's the thing though, and nobody talks about this: people don't understand this about themselves. And if you tell them this, they'll completely flat out deny it. They'll get defensive because no one wants to admit they buy clothes to signal status or to attract a mate or to fit into a group or get the promotion. But that's exactly what's happening every single time.

So when you run a problem-solution ad, you're not doing the right thing with most of fashion. When you run fashion ads, you need to make sure you're not being explicit. Everything has to be implicit. You're calling out something people don't want to acknowledge. Fashion works when it's unspoken. Everyone knows, no one says it. Your ad can't say "Buy this to look rich," even though that's why they're buying. Your ad can't say "Buy this to attract women," even though that's why they're buying.

You have to show the transformation and let them connect the dots. Show someone wearing your jacket getting noticed across the bar. Show someone in your dress and her friend saying "Oh my god, where did you get that?" Show the founder of a brand who's sharp, successful, and put together. You're painting a picture, you're opening a door, and you're letting their imagination do the work. But the second you make it explicit — the second you say the quiet part out loud — you've lost. They reject it because they don't want to see themselves that way.

Mistake number two: feature-first ads. "Made from organic cotton, reinforced seams, and moisture-wicking fabric." Unless this is sports equipment, nobody cares. The reason people buy Louis Vuitton is not the quality. It's because of how it makes others perceive them. It's a show of wealth. It's a show of taste — and the craftsmanship is simply what they tell themselves after buying. Features can support a sale, but they can never open the door.

Mistake number three: most of the time when you're running fashion ads on social media, you don't want overproduced creative. You don't want professional studio shoots with perfect lighting and models who look nothing like your customer. Here's what happens when your customer sees that — their brain instantly goes "This is an ad." The second that happens, their guard goes up. Their instincts kick in and they're asking "Do people actually wear this? Is this what I want to be?" You need to match the platform. If the best creators on that platform are doing raw, organic, natural content — you need to do the same.

Mistake number four — and I've made this mistake a lot, tested it so many times: never lead with sustainability, ethical production, eco-friendly materials, "fashion that doesn't cost the earth." It almost never works as your primary hook. No one actually cares. Everyone says they care about sustainability, but their actions don't match their words. People buy Shein like crazy. The people who actually care are such a tiny market — it's way too small to scale.

This is key when you're running surveys: take those virtue signals with a pinch of salt. Lead with identity first, and then potentially sustainability can be an extra point to get them to finally convert. Those are the four big mistakes when making fashion ads. In my next video I'm going to show you exactly how to make fashion ads which crush — subscribe, comment below, and I'll send it directly to you.