So we went to the fabric stores again this past Monday and we had a bunch of questions to solve. Here's one for you. We found this fabric pictured above. It is a sturdy stretch denim with an overlay of flowers. It looks pretty good and would make a good jean jacket. The only problem is that the flowers are brown. If we make it then we have to have something it can go back to it. A skirt or a pair of pants or something. There are not that many brown things that would match up with it. A jean skirt might be all right but it has to be the same exact wash as this piece. Not so easy to find. I can only make 13 pieces out of it so it is not really worth it. Should I buy it? Or not?
14 comments:
Hey Trooper, you should be rooting for the Red Sox tonight.
Do you have an expected sell rate? Or is it essentially random?
In other words, do you have an idea up front how many of a dress you'll sell?
You could probably come up with some pretty good formulae to figure it out.
I like the combination of that faded blue and soft brown. With some other accents thrown into the mix, perhaps a soft cream-ecru color, to tone down the print, it could be very classy.
A pair of moleskin pants, or skirt in that soft suede looking material that drapes so nicely, in the brown would look good. A knit cream top under the jacket in a similarly soft, not shiny fabric.
I tend to go with more solid fabrics and use the prints as accents and of course a LOT of jewelry. Just my taste, for what it is worth.
Thanks DBQ. We were considering making a short jeans jacket but this is one of those fabrics that is six of one and half a dozen of the other. There is not enough to make a big size run so it is a specialty piece and you have to pay extra for the markers and cutting. So the price goes up and you have to ask the question is it special enough to be worth the extra price. I don't think so. You are not going to buy a jacket for $100 just because it has embossed velvet on it. So it was a no go.
You ask good questions blake.
The general rule is you should have a 60% sell through at full price to make out on a garment. I normally get an 85% to 95% sell through at full price because I am a specialty store with limited runs. So that is great. But now I am increasing my numbers a lot so I have to come in at a lower price to point to make sure I hit my sell through. It is a lot easier to sell 25 pieces than to sell 100-200. Hence the wholesaling.
It is a whole new world we are stepping into and we are a little scared.
Ahhh. So the issue is that you're entering a new (area of the) market and there are a lot of question-marks around what it's going to take to get the right numbers.
And I'd guess the hardest part will be switching your mindset from boutique to wholesaler. That's got to change a great deal of your business MO, make it a little harder to give full attention to every sale, etc.
And you'll be picking up problems caused by other retailers, too, I'd guess.
On the flip side, succeed and you make a lot more money.
Interesting.
Brown goes with leather. Sandals are made of leather. Hippies like sandals. You could make hippie stuff to sell. Hippies smell, so you might want to sell it out on the sidewalk in front...or in back would probably be better. I don't know anything about fashion, can you tell? I know a little bit about hippies. The little bit I know makes me want to avoid them.
New lines and horizontal marketing moves are scary critters. Hippies are scary critters, too, but you can always punch them. You can't punch the market because the market is huge and punches back about 1,700 times as hard as you punch. Hippies don't punch back. Not hard anyway.
Off topic, but anybody seen Cody or Palladian?
I think I heard they went white-water rafting w/Sixty Grit on the Cahulawassee.
@darcy: Aridog has been in contact with Palladian recently.
Sixty Grit's not here because TY invited me as a guest, and I hurt sixty's feelings after he called me a commie and a traitor. It's the old I said something, he said something, I said something and made him cry.
Palladian's made of stouter stuff. He dun like me either but nothing I say would phase him. I predict Palladian will phone home soon.
DBQ solves your problem: ecru. An ecru (or khaki) skirt or slacks would complement that elegant jeans jacket perfectly. Mens' khakis, that I wear year-round, aren't elegant, they're kinda baggy, but there's no reason why that material couldn't be cut in a tailored fit for the womens' market. A denim and brown jacket, an ecru or khaki skirt or slacks, a chambray shirt -- wow!
Attended a funeral for a friend Saturday night. He was from Brooklyn...Carnasie, Avenue D is where he'd say. Doesn't mean anything to me as a non-New Yorker, but it probably does to natives. Spent all of his adult life in Florida, then NC, and you'd never miss the fact that he was from the City. Hell of a nice guy. Slow decline over 15 years, but his mind was still sharp until the end, despite the shell his body had become. He would have fit in here. He was the biggest ball-buster of them all. Italian dad, English mom. You don't find those breeds in the South...one of the things I honestly miss about the North.
I think that denim with brown flowers would itself look good as a jean skirt. Such a skirt would sell for less than a jacket but use less fabric and less labor, plus it would go with anything.
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