Via the ever-wonderful fashion-incubator.

Verbal Croquis (who has just launched her own line) created an excellent post about the costs that go into creating a dress.

"In order for a dress to get from random idea to you as a finished garment you want, you have to pay a lot of people.  You pay:

  • the guy who designs the dress
  • the guy who helps the guy design the dress
  • the guy who specs out the dress
  • the guy who orders all the inputs for the dress, tracks all the vendors down, make sure things are delivered on time
  • the guy who sells you the inputs
  • the guy who inspects the inputs and makes sure they’re what you ordered
  • the guy who drapes the dress and/or drafts the pattern
  • the guy who cuts the sample
  • the guy who sews the sample
  • the fit model
  • the guy who fixes the spec
  • the guy who fixes the sample
  • the guy who cuts a new sample
  • the guy who sews the new sample
  • the guy who makes the linesheet
  • all the guys who make the lookbook
  • all the guys who put together the runway show, tradeshow booth, sales pitch, etc.
  • all the guys who follow up with stores to get the sale

Now if you’re lucky and get some sales, you have the privilege to pay:

  • the guy who puts together the cut tickets
  • the guy who alters the pattern to make it “production friendly”
  • the guy who runs around to get the inputs for the production
  • the guy who inspects your inputs
  • the guy who grades your patterns to make all the sizes
  • all the guys who make size run samples to make sure your size 14 works as well as the size 0
  • the guy who makes the marker according to the cut tickets
  • the guy who lays out your fabric
  • the guy who cuts out the pattern pieces
  • all the guys who sew the garments together
  • all the guys who iron the dresses and package them
  • the guy who packs up the shipments and sends them off
  • the guy who follows up with stores
  • the guy who has the happy, happy task of collecting money from the stores
  • the guy who figures out what sold and what didn’t so they can use that information to design better things next time

Then, in order to take the garment and take it to the consumer, you pay:

  • all the guys in PR
  • all the guys in advertising
  • all the guys in the store that unpack the boxes and hang them on the racks
  • all the guys who hunt down a different size and bring it to the dressing room
  • all the guys who work for the store, from the CEO to the janitor to the guy who designs the cute little bags people take their purchases home in."


I think this is a great, simple illustration of the scale of challenge that a designer faces, when they're responsible for co-ordinating the majority of this. It should also give a few clues as to why the target adoption funding on Catwalkgenius.com is so high!

Being something of a process geek, I'm always interested in evaluating different ways of simplifying processes, removing extra steps and handoffs. It's a great way to reduce costs if you're in the fashion-production business and also a great way to cut down on waste.

I'll share my thoughts on this another time, but for now here are some questions for you to ponder:

* Are there any steps in this process that could be skipped or condensed without compromising the quality of the end result?
* If you produce a product, does it need to pay this many different parties?
* Is clothing more or less difficult to create than other commodities? Are accessories any simpler to produce?
* How can current or future technology help to get clothes and accessories from idea to consumer more efficiently?