Indie Fashion - Tumblr Posts
Grumpy Flower Plush Bag // SoLazoIllustrator
Thank you for loving the lover boi tee!
Grumpy Flower Plush Bag // SoLazoIllustrator
Grumpy Flower Plush Bag // SoLazoIllustrator
Thank you for loving the lover boi tee!
Thank you for loving the lover boi tee!
thinking about how I had a few folks at my last market suggest to me (kindly and with good intentions) that I make and sell some versions of the hand knit cardigan I was wearing because people would "totally pay $300 for that!"
I appreciated the sentiment, but people don't understand what goes into handmade clothes! I don't use a knitting machine. Every stitch in that garment is created by hand on needles, and the sleeves were brioche. Even using inexpensive acrylic yarn for the whole project, and accounting for the HUGE sleeve stitches (saving me time making the sleeves)—the material cost was $55 and the labor was well beyond that.
Let's conservatively estimate the cardigan took me 30 hours to create. Currently, when pressed to put a dollar amount to my time, I use the living wage as a baseline and then go up from there $1/hour for every year I have been actively practicing that particular skill. In the case of knitting that would be 11 years, and the current living wage in my area is approximately $23/hour. Setting aside the fact that this is calculated based on a 40 hour work week and I don't believe that is ethical or sustainable, we'll just leave it at $34/hour. That would make labor alone $1,020.
This brings the "production cost" to $1,075.
Items are not sold at production cost because that would leave your profit margin at 0%. This is not sustainable because it costs money to run a business (think things like paying for computer repairs, buying tools, the tablecloth you use at markets, paying for a website, etc.). Realistically to cover business costs and still come out with a 7% "net" profit margin, which is just a number pulled from averages in the clothing retail business...
... I'd have to sell that cardigan for $1,350.
So yeah! Something to think about when you see the price of clothes that are handmade. :o)
thinking about how I had a few folks at my last market suggest to me (kindly and with good intentions) that I make and sell some versions of the hand knit cardigan I was wearing because people would "totally pay $300 for that!"
I appreciated the sentiment, but people don't understand what goes into handmade clothes! I don't use a knitting machine. Every stitch in that garment is created by hand on needles, and the sleeves were brioche. Even using inexpensive acrylic yarn for the whole project, and accounting for the HUGE sleeve stitches (saving me time making the sleeves)—the material cost was $55 and the labor was well beyond that.
Let's conservatively estimate the cardigan took me 30 hours to create. Currently, when pressed to put a dollar amount to my time, I use the living wage as a baseline and then go up from there $1/hour for every year I have been actively practicing that particular skill. In the case of knitting that would be 11 years, and the current living wage in my area is approximately $23/hour. Setting aside the fact that this is calculated based on a 40 hour work week and I don't believe that is ethical or sustainable, we'll just leave it at $34/hour. That would make labor alone $1,020.
This brings the "production cost" to $1,075.
Items are not sold at production cost because that would leave your profit margin at 0%. This is not sustainable because it costs money to run a business (think things like paying for computer repairs, buying tools, the tablecloth you use at markets, paying for a website, etc.). Realistically to cover business costs and still come out with a 7% "net" profit margin, which is just a number pulled from averages in the clothing retail business...
... I'd have to sell that cardigan for $1,350.
So yeah! Something to think about when you see the price of clothes that are handmade. :o)
thinking about how I had a few folks at my last market suggest to me (kindly and with good intentions) that I make and sell some versions of the hand knit cardigan I was wearing because people would "totally pay $300 for that!"
I appreciated the sentiment, but people don't understand what goes into handmade clothes! I don't use a knitting machine. Every stitch in that garment is created by hand on needles, and the sleeves were brioche. Even using inexpensive acrylic yarn for the whole project, and accounting for the HUGE sleeve stitches (saving me time making the sleeves)—the material cost was $55 and the labor was well beyond that.
Let's conservatively estimate the cardigan took me 30 hours to create. Currently, when pressed to put a dollar amount to my time, I use the living wage as a baseline and then go up from there $1/hour for every year I have been actively practicing that particular skill. In the case of knitting that would be 11 years, and the current living wage in my area is approximately $23/hour. Setting aside the fact that this is calculated based on a 40 hour work week and I don't believe that is ethical or sustainable, we'll just leave it at $34/hour. That would make labor alone $1,020.
This brings the "production cost" to $1,075.
Items are not sold at production cost because that would leave your profit margin at 0%. This is not sustainable because it costs money to run a business (think things like paying for computer repairs, buying tools, the tablecloth you use at markets, paying for a website, etc.). Realistically to cover business costs and still come out with a 7% "net" profit margin, which is just a number pulled from averages in the clothing retail business...
... I'd have to sell that cardigan for $1,350.
So yeah! Something to think about when you see the price of clothes that are handmade. :o)
thinking about how I had a few folks at my last market suggest to me (kindly and with good intentions) that I make and sell some versions of the hand knit cardigan I was wearing because people would "totally pay $300 for that!"
I appreciated the sentiment, but people don't understand what goes into handmade clothes! I don't use a knitting machine. Every stitch in that garment is created by hand on needles, and the sleeves were brioche. Even using inexpensive acrylic yarn for the whole project, and accounting for the HUGE sleeve stitches (saving me time making the sleeves)—the material cost was $55 and the labor was well beyond that.
Let's conservatively estimate the cardigan took me 30 hours to create. Currently, when pressed to put a dollar amount to my time, I use the living wage as a baseline and then go up from there $1/hour for every year I have been actively practicing that particular skill. In the case of knitting that would be 11 years, and the current living wage in my area is approximately $23/hour. Setting aside the fact that this is calculated based on a 40 hour work week and I don't believe that is ethical or sustainable, we'll just leave it at $34/hour. That would make labor alone $1,020.
This brings the "production cost" to $1,075.
Items are not sold at production cost because that would leave your profit margin at 0%. This is not sustainable because it costs money to run a business (think things like paying for computer repairs, buying tools, the tablecloth you use at markets, paying for a website, etc.). Realistically to cover business costs and still come out with a 7% "net" profit margin, which is just a number pulled from averages in the clothing retail business...
... I'd have to sell that cardigan for $1,350.
So yeah! Something to think about when you see the price of clothes that are handmade. :o)
thinking about how I had a few folks at my last market suggest to me (kindly and with good intentions) that I make and sell some versions of the hand knit cardigan I was wearing because people would "totally pay $300 for that!"
I appreciated the sentiment, but people don't understand what goes into handmade clothes! I don't use a knitting machine. Every stitch in that garment is created by hand on needles, and the sleeves were brioche. Even using inexpensive acrylic yarn for the whole project, and accounting for the HUGE sleeve stitches (saving me time making the sleeves)—the material cost was $55 and the labor was well beyond that.
Let's conservatively estimate the cardigan took me 30 hours to create. Currently, when pressed to put a dollar amount to my time, I use the living wage as a baseline and then go up from there $1/hour for every year I have been actively practicing that particular skill. In the case of knitting that would be 11 years, and the current living wage in my area is approximately $23/hour. Setting aside the fact that this is calculated based on a 40 hour work week and I don't believe that is ethical or sustainable, we'll just leave it at $34/hour. That would make labor alone $1,020.
This brings the "production cost" to $1,075.
Items are not sold at production cost because that would leave your profit margin at 0%. This is not sustainable because it costs money to run a business (think things like paying for computer repairs, buying tools, the tablecloth you use at markets, paying for a website, etc.). Realistically to cover business costs and still come out with a 7% "net" profit margin, which is just a number pulled from averages in the clothing retail business...
... I'd have to sell that cardigan for $1,350.
So yeah! Something to think about when you see the price of clothes that are handmade. :o)
Morning After
Call me when you're rich
Her Majesty 🥀 (my dominant girlfriend dark poetry reading and h&m fashion model aesthetic lookbook)
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•
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my poem:
She wears his coat
As if it’s her skin
Tears his heart
And wears it like a necklace
He’s Her’s
And she’s his territory
If skin’s just leather
“I want you to own me”, she whispers with her legs on his tatted shoulders
Used goods, vintage history
“Polish me til I bust like a chimney baby”
She loves the scent of abandoned boys in her hair
Jealous of the side chicks that call him daddy
She’s f-uking the boss and that makes them angry
Burnt but-ts in her pockets
An open condom doesn’t use itself
Everybody needs a bad mommy
If you’re too shy
She’ll take control
Keep your eyes on the road
“I’m not an amateur”
“I’m the best b-tch in town,” she smirks as she bites his cheek
Ditch the roses, they’re for the pretty ones
She only want the thorns
Pain is her pleasure
Sin is her favorite bedtime story
She’s a living fantasy
The only thing missing is her him
A bad boy with scruffed up shoes to match her tortured soul
Look at him stepping out of his beat up corvette, light me up a marlboro too
Don’t remember her name
“It’ll be easier to forget me this way,” she pleads
Her Imperial Affliction
Bruised knees, Ripped black lace
Left with a smile you can’t shake away
Her cigarettes can only distort her thoughts for so long
Some highs only come in the form of a man
“Let me do the praying
I’m told I’m pretty
When I’m on my knees
Begging for mercy
Pleasing comes natural to me
Bliss is so cheap
Cheaper than me,” she repeats like a prayer for solidarity
