Historical Reference About Us
Past projects and earlier services, kept as a record of how the guide grew
This page is a historical reference. Over the years, the Apparel Search Company tried several different projects with the intention of providing beneficial services for the apparel industry. Some of those projects proved amazing, and others fizzled out. The project descriptions gathered here are outdated and are kept for historical purposes only: some of the projects and services described are no longer available, and the dates and details belong to the periods when each project was active.
The record begins with ApparelSearch.com itself, launched in December 1998, and runs through the employment, design, news, production and modeling services that grew around it during the following decade - a directory company repeatedly testing a new service wherever the industry seemed to need one, then keeping, selling or closing each project as its usefulness became clear.
Apparel Search Through the Years
A Timeline of Launches
The main site came first: ApparelSearch.com launched in December 1998 as a fashion directory and guide. The employment line followed in November 2005 with ClothingIndustryJobs.com, a dedicated jobs site that ran for nearly seven years before it was sold in October 2012.
Designer Search launched in February 2006 and closed in November 2014. Clothing Model arrived in the same period, its portfolio service following in April 2006. ApparelMagazine.com launched in 2007, ApparelJobs.net in May 2007, and a separate Fashion Job Search site in January 2007. Earlier homepages survive in the history views at the top of this page.
Designer Search
Designer Search, launched in February 2006, was a free tool built to help fashion and textile artists, designers and design studios, and the companies searching for design help, find one another. Artists could create and modify a profile through a simple administration area, with portfolios of design images and contact information.
Because many artists wanted to freelance on the side, the service included anonymous communication: an employer could contact an artist without seeing the artist's full contact information, and only when the designer chose to respond did the employer learn those details. It was a meeting ground - a matchmaking service for the design side of the industry - while approvals, negotiations and payments stayed strictly between artist and employer. The portal was for clothing and textile design only, and it closed in November 2014.
Clothing Industry Jobs
ClothingIndustryJobs.com launched in November 2005. Apparel Search had run an employment message board since the first year of its main site, but that board was, by the company's own assessment, terrible - so it invested in a new system at a separate address, avoiding the risk of overloading the main site with too many databases and making the system easier to manage.
Employment coverage then ran in two parts. The Fashion Industry Jobs Directory gathered employment resources, agency listings, job guides and articles, while the Clothing Industry Jobs website itself was a jobs database where employers posted opportunities and employees posted resumes they could edit as their experience changed. Posting and reading were both free. In October 2012, the website was sold, ending that chapter.
News: The Associated Press Division and the Fashion Newspaper
The Apparel Search Associated Press was the news division of the company, often shortened to ASAP - a place to get fashion news fast. Readers could read apparel and textile related news, and viewers could also submit their own company news freely. Unlike some industry resources, the division did not require a company to advertise in order to post news: the service was free and open to all apparel and textile companies, big and small, so readers received news from all corners of the globe.
The Apparel Search Associated Press archive remains part of this site's news history. A separate fashion news site, FashionNewspaper.com, was launched as a newer home for the same free service, with the expectation that it would grow in depth as more companies learned of it. The division also looked ahead to developing further news properties, ApparelMagazine.com and ApparelNews.org among the names it announced for the future.
Production Services, India, the Design Studio and Logistics
Not every project lived on its own domain. The company offered Production Services for sourcing, production, quality control and importation of garments - a service presented as valuable for new and experienced members of the apparel industry alike, drawing on the company's experience and worldwide contacts. A related factoring service, formed through an alliance with a financial partner, offered factoring and purchase order financing to the international apparel and textile industry.
To support production work, Apparel Search India was developed as a partnership office in India, whose staff could assist companies with all aspects of producing garments from India, from quality assurance onward. The Design Studio handled the creative side - logos, labels, hangtags, garment silhouettes and presentation boards - while Apparel Search Logistics consulted on the movement of goods, evaluating a client's supply chain, guiding the company toward improved operational efficiencies and reduced expenditure, and developing a customized solution for the complete supply chain process.
Modeling Portfolios, Clothing Model and Sample Making
Apparel Search Modeling was an online portfolio service for young men and women interested in entering the modeling profession: an inexpensive method for models to create an online portfolio and increase their exposure through self promotion. The service was explicit about what it was not - it was not a modeling agency. Photographers, designers and magazines could also use it to locate new faces from around the world, and the related Apparel Search Models pages remain part of this site.
Clothing Model was the modeling industry's own directory: a business to business guide for models, photographers, hairstylists, makeup artists, modeling agencies, public relations companies, event planners and cosmetic and perfume suppliers, launched as a new division and designed to educate viewers about modeling and beauty while aiming to be convenient and easy to navigate. Clothing Model Portfolios, launched in April 2006, gave fashion models an online portfolio service for promoting their biographies and images internationally. A quieter service rounded out the group: sample making, under which technical sewing experts sewed clothing samples, with the equipment and knowledge to sew any garment fabrication, leather included.
Common Questions
When did ApparelSearch.com launch?
ApparelSearch.com launched in December 1998. Earlier versions of its main page survive in the history views linked at the top of this page - View 2 shows how it all began, View 3 a later modification, and View 4 another homepage era.
Are the projects described here still available?
Some are not. ClothingIndustryJobs.com was sold in October 2012 and DesignerSearch.com closed in November 2014, and other services described here were offered only during the periods this page records. The descriptions are kept for historical purposes, so check the current Apparel Search sections for services offered today.
Why did the jobs and designer services use separate websites?
To keep each system manageable. The employment database was placed at its own address so the main site would not be overloaded with too many databases, and Designer Search ran as its own portal for clothing and textile design, matching designers and studios with the companies searching for design help.