There is a lot that goes into creating a selling clothing that most people don't see, and a lot of factors that I have really struggled with in trying to keep my brand affordable, but also ethically produced. I wrote this post while going through the pricing process for my Autumn/Winter 2012 collection, and it brought up a lot of the fundamental ideas behind my business and why I am spending my life designing and selling clothing.
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This morning I'm trying to finish my sales packet to mail out to a few special boutiques I really love, and I'm having to finalize my pricing calculations. This is probably the most cringe-inducing part of the design and production process for me. I've kept track of how long it takes to cut and sew each design, and the yards of fabric and other notions for each, and I have to plug in the actual dollars into my formula to get the wholesale and retail prices. Here's the formula I use, and you get to have a special preview of my Fall 2012 collection because I'm going to use the numbers for my Charles dress in the picture above. It feels kind of revealing, but I have nothing to hide:
