If you have spent any time looking at Turkey wholesale suppliers, you have probably run into a phrase that does not appear in most Western wholesale catalogues: size series. A supplier quotes you a price, you get ready to choose your sizes, and instead you are told the style ships as a series. For buyers used to ordering "twelve of style A in medium", this is the single biggest source of confusion in wholesale clothing from Turkey — and once it clicks, it is also one of the biggest advantages.
This guide explains the size series model end to end: what a series is, why Istanbul manufacturers build their production around it, how it changes your minimum order quantity, how to cost a pack down to the piece, and how to use it to test styles without burying cash in dead stock. Everything below reflects how Modest Wholesale actually sells — manufacturer-direct from Istanbul, one pack per style, worldwide tracked shipping.
If you would rather look before you read, the full catalogue of wholesale modest dresses and wholesale evening dresses is open to browse, and you can open a wholesale account any time at https://www.modestwholesale.com.
What a size series actually is
A size series — seri in Turkish trade language — is a pre-packed size run of a single style in a single colour. Instead of choosing quantities per size, you buy the pack, and the pack contains a ready-made spread of sizes built by the manufacturer. One style, one colour, one pack, a working size curve inside it.
That is the whole idea. The series is the unit of trade. When a Turkish supplier says "this dress is 90 dollars", they are almost always quoting the pack or the per-piece rate inside the pack, and the product page will tell you which. A listing such as Layered Pleat Beige Modest Dress 10334BEJ spells the composition out in the title itself, which is exactly what you want to see before you commit.
Layered Pleat Beige Modest Dress 10334BEJ — from the Wholesale Dresses collection, listed with its pack composition stated on the product page.
Why Turkish manufacturers sell by series
The size series is not an arbitrary rule invented to make life difficult for foreign buyers. It is a direct consequence of how production works in Istanbul's garment districts. A cutting table lays up fabric in plies and cuts a marker that already contains the full size ladder. Cutting one size in isolation wastes fabric, wastes marker efficiency and wastes machinist time on a line that is set up to run a balanced batch.
Selling the output the same way it is produced keeps cost down, and that saving is what makes manufacturer direct pricing possible. It also keeps stock clean: nobody ends up with a warehouse full of orphan XXLs because every buyer cherry-picked mediums. In practice, the series model is the reason a small boutique can buy at factory prices at all.
There is a second, quieter benefit. Because the pack is the unit, the supplier does not need to impose a large blanket minimum. That is our angle on MOQ: the minimum is one pack per style. You are not asked to commit to 100 pieces or a 3,000 dollar opening order to get wholesale rates.
How the size curve inside a pack is built
Inside the pack, sizes are not distributed evenly. Manufacturers weight the middle of the ladder because that is where real demand sits. A typical Turkish modest-wear series is heaviest on the two or three central sizes and lighter at the extremes, so that the pack sells through in roughly the order a normal customer base buys.
- Standard series — the common run for daily dresses, tunics and shirts, weighted to the middle sizes.
- Extended or plus series (büyük beden) — a run shifted up the ladder for boutiques whose customers sit in larger sizes.
- Short series — a smaller pack used on higher-ticket pieces such as heavily worked wholesale abayas and occasion wear, so the cash tied up per style stays modest.
- Free size / single size — used on capes, kimonos and some outerwear where cut is forgiving; these are the exception, not the rule.
Always read the composition on the product page rather than assuming. Two dresses at the same price can carry different pack sizes, which changes your per-piece cost completely.
Series buying versus per-piece buying
Here is the honest comparison. Neither model is universally better — they optimise for different things — but for a boutique building an assortment, the series model wins on price and on assortment discipline.
| Factor | Size series (Turkish model) | Per-piece / open-size buying |
|---|---|---|
| Unit price | Lower — factory-direct, no repacking labour | Higher — the seller absorbs size risk |
| Minimum order | One pack per style | Often a high piece or value minimum |
| Size control | Fixed curve set by the manufacturer | You choose every size |
| Risk per style | Small — you test one pack | Larger if you over-commit to one size |
| Assortment breadth | High — same budget covers more styles | Lower — budget concentrates in fewer styles |
| Restocking | Reorder the pack, or the colour that sold | Reorder individual sizes |
The trade-off is real and worth stating plainly: you give up size-level control, and in exchange you get a lower cost per piece and the freedom to carry twelve styles instead of four. For most boutique owners, breadth of assortment is what drives a first season, not depth in one size.
What MOQ means when you buy from us
"No minimum order" is a phrase that gets thrown around loosely in B2B fashion. Our version is specific and easy to check: the minimum is one size series per style. You can order a single pack of one dress, or one pack each of eight different styles, and you are still buying at manufacturer-direct prices.
Practically, that means a new boutique can open with a genuinely varied rail rather than a wall of one dress in six sizes. You might take one pack from wholesale tunics, two from wholesale dresses, one from wholesale two-piece sets and one occasion style, and have a coherent opening range.
Buttoned Cherry Two-Piece Modest Set 20374VSN — from the Wholesale Sets collection, a co-ord style sold as a full series.
How to read a series listing before you buy
Every listing on https://www.modestwholesale.com carries the information you need to price the pack correctly. Read it in this order:
- Pack composition — how many pieces are in the series and how they are spread across the ladder.
- Whether the price is per pack or per piece — some listings state the per-piece rate in the title, which makes the comparison immediate.
- Fabric and construction — crepe, satin crepe, viscose, denim and knit all behave differently on the rail and in the wash.
- Colourways available — colour is usually a separate line, so a style you like in three colours is three packs.
- Category — occasion pieces and abayas are typically higher ticket and shorter series than daily dresses.
If a supplier cannot tell you the pack composition before payment, that is a warning sign. Transparent pricing and a clearly stated size run are basic marks of a trusted supplier, and they are the first thing an experienced buyer checks.
What a series looks like, category by category
The model is consistent, but the shape of the pack shifts with the product. Daily dresses and tunics run in fuller series because they turn faster and carry a lower ticket. Occasion wear and heavily embellished abayas run shorter, because the fabric and handwork make each piece more expensive to produce.
Denim behaves differently again. Weight, wash and shrink behaviour make sizing more sensitive, so denim series are usually tightly specified — a listing such as Denim Blue Modest Dress 19121M states the pack in the listing itself. The whole wholesale denim range follows the same logic.
Denim Blue Modest Dress 19121M — from the Wholesale Denims collection, sold as a stated size set.
Costing a series properly: the per-piece number
The only figure that matters for your retail pricing is landed cost per piece. Work it out like this, every time, before you place the order:
- Take the pack price and divide by the number of pieces in the series. That is your ex-works cost per piece.
- Add your share of freight. Freight is charged on the shipment, so the more packs you consolidate into one shipment, the lower the freight cost each piece carries.
- Add duty and import VAT if your country applies them, calculated on the customs value plus freight where local rules require it.
- Add payment and currency costs — card fees, wire fees or the spread on your currency conversion.
- Divide the total by the piece count again. That is the number you multiply up to set retail.
Two habits make a visible difference. First, consolidate: shipping five packs together rather than one pack five times can change your landed cost more than any discount negotiation will. Second, cost the pack, not the piece you like — your margin lives across the whole series, including the sizes that sell last.
How many series should a first order contain?
There is no universal answer, but there is a sensible shape. A first order that spreads across six to ten styles gives you enough signal to learn what your customers respond to, while keeping the cash exposure per style at a single pack.
- Core daily wear — the backbone: plain and lightly patterned modest dresses and tunics in neutral tones that photograph well and repeat all season.
- One or two co-ords — two-piece sets read as a complete outfit and lift average basket value.
- One occasion piece — a single evening style tells you whether your audience buys abiye from you at all before you invest in depth.
- One outerwear or abaya style — a cape or a ferace anchors the rail and photographs strongly.
- One seasonal or patterned style — a floral dress or a knit to keep the range from looking flat.
After the first sell-through you stop guessing. Reorder what moved, in the colours that moved, and let the rest go. That is the practical value of the series model: it turns a first season into a cheap, fast experiment instead of an expensive bet.
Stone Appliqué Burgundy Modest Abaya 82421BR — from the Wholesale Abayas collection, an occasion-weight piece sold as a stated set.
Reorders, colour depth and the second order
Your second order is where the model pays. By then you know which silhouette sells, which colour sells, and which price point your customer accepts. Depth in a proven style is far safer than breadth in unproven ones, so the second order usually looks different from the first: fewer new styles, more packs of the winners, and the same style repeated across two or three colourways.
Colour is the cheapest way to add depth without adding risk. A tunic that works in black almost always works in beige and white; a dress that sells in navy usually sells in emerald. Because each colour is its own pack, you can scale a proven winner one colourway at a time — for example, adding Brooch-Detailed Black Modest Tunic 11192S alongside its pink and beige siblings.
Mistakes buyers make with size series
Most problems come from applying per-piece habits to a series catalogue. The five below are the ones we see most often.
- Comparing pack prices to piece prices. Always normalise to cost per piece before you decide anything is expensive.
- Buying depth before proof. Three packs of one untested dress is a worse first order than one pack each of three.
- Ignoring the size curve. If your customer base skews larger, look for the extended run rather than fighting the standard one.
- Shipping in dribs. Multiple small shipments inflate landed cost far more than most buyers expect.
- Pricing off the best size. Your margin has to survive the whole pack, so price on the average, not the piece you are confident about.
Placing your first series order
The mechanics are straightforward. Browse the collections, choose one pack per style, confirm the composition on each product page, and place the order. Orders are prepared in one to two business days and shipped worldwide with tracking, and multiple packs are consolidated into a single shipment so you are not paying freight repeatedly.
If you intend to build your own label rather than resell as-is, private label is available on original Istanbul designs — custom woven labels, hang tags and packaging — and it works on exactly the same series basis, so you can launch a branded range without committing to bulk production quantities.
Balloon Sleeve Black Modest Evening Dress 62251S — from the Wholesale Evening Dresses collection, a short-series occasion style.
Why the series model suits small retailers best
It is worth ending on the counter-intuitive part. The size series looks, at first glance, like a restriction imposed by the factory. In practice it is the mechanism that lets a boutique with a modest opening budget buy at the same rate as a much larger account. You are not paying a middleman to break packs, you are not carrying a five-figure opening order, and you are not locked into a single style because the minimum forced you to be.
That is the case for wholesale modest clothing Turkey in one paragraph: original Turkish products, factory-direct pricing, a pack you can actually afford to test, and a supply chain short enough that a reorder arrives while the trend is still current. To see the current range and open an account, go to https://www.modestwholesale.com and start with the collection closest to your customer — knitwear, denim, tunics or occasion wear.
Frequently asked questions about size series and MOQ
What is a size series in Turkish wholesale clothing?
A size series is a pre-packed run of one style in one colour, containing a spread of sizes chosen by the manufacturer. It is the standard trading unit in Turkish wholesale clothing: instead of ordering quantities per size, you buy the pack. The composition is stated on each product page, so you always know how many pieces you are buying and how they are distributed before you pay.
Why do Turkey wholesale suppliers sell by series instead of by piece?
Because production is organised that way. Fabric is laid up and cut against a marker containing the full size ladder, and lines are balanced to sew a complete run. Selling the output in the same shape avoids repacking labour and orphan stock, which is what keeps manufacturer-direct pricing genuinely low. The series is not a sales tactic; it is the natural unit of a Turkish garment factory.
What is your minimum order quantity?
One size series per style. You can order a single pack of one dress and still buy at manufacturer-direct prices, and there is no blanket value minimum on top of that. This is deliberately structured so a new or small boutique can open with several styles rather than sinking its entire opening budget into depth on one product it has not yet tested.
Can I choose which sizes are in the pack?
No, the size curve inside a series is set by the manufacturer, weighted towards the middle sizes where most demand sits. That fixed composition is precisely what keeps the per-piece cost low. What you can control is which series you buy: check the stated composition on each listing and pick styles whose runs match your customer base rather than trying to modify a pack.
Is the listed price for the whole pack or for one piece?
The product page states which. Some listings quote the pack price and some show the per-piece rate directly in the title, which makes comparison immediate. Before ordering, always normalise to cost per piece by dividing the pack price by the number of garments in the series. That single number is what you should use for every margin and retail-price calculation.
How do I calculate landed cost per piece?
Divide the pack price by the piece count to get ex-works cost, then add your share of freight, any duty and import tax your country applies, and payment or currency conversion costs. Divide the total by the piece count again. Because freight is charged per shipment, consolidating several packs into one shipment lowers the freight each piece carries and improves the final figure noticeably.
Can I mix different styles in one order?
Yes, and most buyers should. Mixing one pack each of several styles is the standard way to build a first assortment: a few daily dresses, a tunic or two, a co-ord set, and one occasion piece. All packs in one order are consolidated into a single shipment, so mixing styles does not multiply your freight cost the way separate orders would.
Can I mix colours within a single series?
No. Each colourway is packed and sold as its own series, because colour is a separate production run. If you want a style in three colours, that is three packs. This is actually useful once a style proves itself, since it lets you add depth one colourway at a time instead of committing to a large multi-colour order up front.
What if my customers are mostly plus size?
Look for styles offered in an extended or plus run, known in Turkish as büyük beden, where the whole ladder shifts upward. Check the stated composition on each listing rather than assuming a standard series will cover you. Many modest silhouettes — loose abayas, ferace and capes — are also cut forgivingly, so they suit a broader size range than a fitted dress would.
How many series should I buy for a first order?
Six to ten packs across six to ten different styles is a sensible opening shape. That gives you real sell-through data on several silhouettes and price points while limiting your exposure on any single style to one pack. Once you know what your customers actually buy, the second order can go deep on proven winners instead of guessing across the board.
Does buying by series mean I will be left with unsold sizes?
Some sizes always sell before others, but a well-built curve is weighted to real demand, so tail sizes are a small share of the pack. Plan for it: keep a small end-of-season markdown for remaining pieces, and remember your margin should be calculated across the whole series. Priced correctly, the last pieces are still profitable rather than a loss.
Is wholesale modest clothing from Turkey cheaper than buying locally?
Buying manufacturer-direct from Istanbul removes at least one layer of margin compared with buying from a domestic wholesaler who has already imported the goods. The comparison you should run is landed cost per piece against your local option, including freight and duty. For most retailers the direct route wins, and it also gives access to newer designs sooner.
How quickly are series orders prepared and shipped?
Orders are prepared within one to two business days and then shipped worldwide with tracking. Because packs are already made up, there is no production lead time to wait through on in-stock styles — the pack is picked and dispatched. Transit time after dispatch depends on your destination and the carrier service used for your shipment.
Can I get private label on series orders?
Yes. Private label is available on original Istanbul designs, covering custom woven labels, hang tags and packaging, and it works on the same series basis. That means you can launch a branded range without committing to the bulk quantities that a full cut-make-trim production run would normally require. It is the shortest practical route from reselling to owning a label.
Which categories are sold in shorter series?
Higher-ticket and heavily worked pieces generally run in shorter packs — embellished abayas, guipure and beaded occasion wear, and evening dresses. The logic is simple: more expensive fabric and handwork mean more cash tied up per piece, so a shorter run keeps the pack affordable. Daily dresses, tunics and shirts typically run in fuller series because they turn faster.
How should I price a size series at retail?
Start from landed cost per piece, not pack price, then apply the multiple your market supports. Sanity-check the result against comparable modest wear in your region, and make sure the multiple still leaves a margin after any end-of-season markdown on the last sizes. Pricing off your best-selling size alone is the most common way boutiques lose money on an otherwise good pack.
Do I need a business licence or tax number to buy wholesale?
Requirements vary by country. Many jurisdictions expect an importing business to hold a tax or VAT registration number for customs clearance, and your carrier or broker will tell you exactly what your destination needs. Sort this out before your first shipment rather than after it arrives, since missing paperwork is the most common cause of avoidable clearance delays.
Can I reorder the same series later?
Yes, subject to stock. Fashion styles run in seasons, so the safest approach is to reorder proven sellers promptly rather than waiting for the end of a season. If a specific colourway has moved on, there is usually a close equivalent in the current range, and staying in touch about upcoming drops helps you plan repeat buys around your own sell-through.
What does no minimum order really mean in Turkish wholesale?
In our case it means there is no large blanket minimum in pieces or value — the minimum is simply one size series per style. Be cautious with suppliers who advertise no minimum without explaining the unit, because the phrase is often used loosely. A supplier who states the pack composition and the per-piece rate clearly is giving you the information you actually need.
How do I start buying wholesale modest clothing from Turkey?
Browse the collections, pick one pack from each of the styles closest to your customer, and place a small mixed first order. Confirm the pack composition on each product page, consolidate everything into one shipment, and use the sell-through to plan your reorder. You can open a wholesale account and see the current range at https://www.modestwholesale.com.