Cost to make also includes executive salaries, marketing and celebrity endorsements. Actually cost of making a shirt (labor and raw materials) is usually very low
Labour and raw materials cheap? That is absolutely untrue. As I have said and will say again, My aunt and sister makes clothes for a living. I know that certain brands such as Gucci / Prada might have outsourced to China or hire lowly skilled chinese labourers to craft their items, but this is not true for the best of houses (LV, Dior and expecially Hermes). I have seen how expensive fabrics can actually be. Have you actually asked your tailors how much Dior/McQueen fabrics
cost in the pure uncut form? As I said, easily up to $200/meter before you even stitch it. And you need more than 1metre of fabric to make a shirt, trust me. The embroided fabrics used in couture / haute couture are easily several times that, even up to 1k/metre if the threads are gold etc. As for labour, artisans for Hermes are
not allowed to make anything unless they have recieved
years in training. This includes training school, then apprenticeship and this takes roughly 5-10 years, depending on product (shirt/bags/leather..) An entry level apprentice roughly earns 2.5-3k euros per month. This is considered cheap to you?
Also. just some general information: the cotton used to make luxury clothes is usually
Gossypium barbadense, which is extremely difficult to grow and by its biological properties, very susceptible to insect / fungal damage. Only about 2-5% (depending on region) of all cotton produced is the Gossypium barbadense variety. After subtracting the amount of crops that would not survive to be cultivated, you can easily tell how expensive it would cost just as a raw, unrefined material and yes, it is unusually long and silky which gives luxury goods that matt look and gorgeous silky texture.
For instance, a burberry polo i once bought for $225, wasnt that premium felt as compared to a polo from uniqlo which only costs $29 or an Lv wallet purchased for $500+ didnt feel much diff compared to a wallet from even a brand like goldlion lol
There are people that cannot differenciate between real and fake abalone. Doesnt actually make real abalone lousy or less premium just because one cannot differenciate.
can start a shop, sell my items high in price and with good quality but relatively cheap cost, get some celebs to advertise for me, get some endorsement, im good to go as a 'branded'... In reality, im just adopting the prestiege pricing method.
I would like to see you start a tiny unknown brand, hire Beyonce to endorse it, and be the next Mr Louis Vuitton. Just to spell it out, no international celebrity would willingly endorse an unknown brand even if you can shell out the millions required (I hardly think Mr Vuitton started off that rich) and that is a big, big
if. Point: you need to actually give people their money's worth.
The leather for my picard wallet actually started peeling in 1 month. And the price cost is actually less than 10% difference from the Braun Buffel
If you look really closely and compare products across a relatively long time period, the differences are obvious. Burberry polos retain their colour and shape very well even after repeated (years) of washing while Giodarno / Hang ten fades after just a few months. Not to mention problems like thread fraying etc etc. My Uniqlo rollneck already lost its structure after the first wash.
Heck, ill be surprised if your Charles and Keith Heels make it past a year without damage and astounded if your Church's spoil in anything under 5 years