Fashion Designers and Wealth

[home]

Call me ignorant, but I've always wondered what sort of money can be made in the fashion industry, individually speaking.

I can only begin to imagine that the likes of Hedi Slimane, Christopher Bailey, Marc Jacobs and other high fashion directors live more than comfortable lives. Does anyone have any knowledge of what any distinguished designers get payed/earn? I can only imagine that these guys/girls would be living lifestyles akin to those of Hollywood actors and sports-stars.

What about your mid-range labels such as the Acne, Tsubi, Filippa K, April 77, You Must Create, etc., etc.? Are these guys raking it in? I'm beginning to believe that profit margins for such companies would be smaller than I once thought.

I know it is a bit of an open-ended/rhetoric question that I'm proposing as I understand that every label is of course different, and their profit/loss margins are dictated largely by exposure and accessibility within the market. Having said that, I'm sure a lot of you guys may be able to provide some insight and anecdotes into the aforementioned issues..

Cheers.

[Servo2000]

I know Slimane was asking for 2 million euros monthly as salary when he was let go. I don't have any idea what he was making before that.

[poly800rock]

I know Slimane was asking for 2 million euros monthly as salary when he was let go. I don't have any idea what he was making before that.

wow, 2 million euro a month, that's like a billion dollars! seriously, i didn't know he commanded that much.

[wEstSidE]

more like 50 million a year

[sybaritical]

Nawh?! ... 2 million euros is about 2.8 million dollars.

Recognised and valued fashion designing friends of mine have stopped producing annual collections in favour of making their money lecturing or acting as design consultants to other brands. Much more lucrative and much less stress.

[wEstSidE]

i used a geto conversion rate of 1 euro to 2 dollars. i know that isnt right but i'm just as math lazy as polyrocker.

[sybaritical]

Hey that's cool. I'm just toasted and precision really counts.

[wEstSidE]

a very strange thing just happened. the last 3 digits of my post count and the last 3 digits of your post count are both area codes i reside in.

now i'm fixing that.

[goldengloves]

I don't think you'll be able to find eact figures on what these designers make, but I'm sure your guesses are somewhat accurate. The likes of Lagerfeld, Slimane, Jacobs, and other designers probably are making a mint; Not only off thier own clothing labels but consulting/designing for others (Marc Jacobs for LV, etc.).

The smaller companies are probably making less overall money, but everything's relative when your operations aren't as big as a company such as Dior. Someone like YMC or even APC doesn't bother themselves with runway shows, shit loads of magazine ads, etc.

[sybaritical]

aarrrghhhhhhhhh stop it you're freaking me out.

[theLorax]

why was Hedi fired from Dior? was he too big of an egomaniac?

[herpsky]

why was Hedi fired from Dior? was he too big of an egomaniac?

neg repped

[theLorax]

neg repped

judging from your avatar, the reputation feature is like your hobby?

i dont even give enough of a shit to neg rep you back.

[penfold]

Contrary to belief these big fashion labels dont make as much moeny as you think.

Im sure the big designers such as Heidi and co may command a nice salary but most of the big labels such as Prada etc profits are not that large.

When it comes to apparel sales alone they definately make miniscule profits if any. It is a fact that Donna Karen has mad very little money on her apparel sales. Most profits are generated from their liscensing rights from their brand through perfumes, cosmetics, sunglasses, handbags etc etc.

In fact Richard Caring (a guy who made himself rich from the clothing business in the UK) has recently put a bid in for Prada for £1.3 billion....not that much money if you consider the power of the brand plus all its assets.

Most the money in the fashion industry (besides a select top few companies/designers) is made from mass merchants who can sell huge volumes; e.g. Sam Walton with Walmart or Phillip Green with Arcadia group. I could name a few people who have made up to $500 million from selling to the big volume stores but are relatively unknown outside the industry.

In todays environment profits are getting even smaller; the big player such as Jones New York and Liz Clairborne are all looking to sell the brands they all own in order to make money from liscensing.

The 2 fashion companies who are currently turning big profits are H&M and the Zara group whose sales are increasing by up to 50% a year.

While this may not answer your question...i hope it offers a different insight.

[Mbrand]

APC's turnover is 19.000.000 EU in 2005 with 9,25% profits after taxes.

[Lucas0607]

Wow. 2 Mil Euros a month? I wonder what Lagerfeld's net worth is... Chanel and all.

Silly. And stupid Daniel Radcliffe gets to be a millionaire (14 mil for the last movie I think) for being a shit. Pfft.

[Remy]

I dont think Lagerfeld would ultimately care about money he is earning, he grew up in a very wealthy family and judging from a documentry, cares very little about the money he makes from designing.

Although he has had brought out a Cd of his favorite music haha can you say money money money

[ryegb]

I know Slimane was asking for 2 million euros monthly as salary when he was let go. I don't have any idea what he was making before that.

Ha ha, no way. Maybe 2 million Euro a year, but even that is optimistic!. I work in the industry and hear allot of gossip through headhunters etc. 24 million Euros a year (approx $100 million Euros over 4 years) to design a Men's collection that optimistically turns over $25 million Euros per annum (I'm speculating here, I would be very surprised if this line made more). "NEVER". Heidi wanted to start his own line as well as continuing with Dior Homme, but he wasn't allowed free reign over the project, so he bounced!.

Marc Jacobs and Karl Lagerfeld are in a different league. Both will take modest salaries for their status but will make up for this in profit sharing agreements.

Overall people aren't making as much cash as many would believe. YMC for example even with Japanese licenses and distribution won't be raking in huge amounts of money. As for these labels: Acne, Tsubi, Filippa K, April 77, You Must Create there design studios will have a well paid Director to keep shit together being paid $200-250k if their sane, a senior designer usually one for Men's and one for Women's should be able to squeeze out $80-130k and the associates and junior staff normally bring in $30-60k. If your company has a certain amount of cache with design students or is London based for example you can bring in a bunch of interns to offset your costs who'll spend most of the day sketching and running around doing the dirty work. YMC being based in London probably has no problem bringing in gimps from Saint Martins, same with the Swedish brands.

A decent design director position in NYC will get you between $165-$280k on average. If you’re decent at your job you could attain a position like this at the age of 28-35. Most designers whether graphic or clothing command between $70-125k depending on company size and negotiating experience .

From experience New York offers the best salaries. Los Angeles is around 10-15% less than New York and London is a fuck'n joke!. Italy pays well but if you hook up with a company like Diesel or Iceberg your stuck in the middle of nowhere making decent money but very little to do outside of designing ugly jeans and bad graphics.

[Servo2000]

Ha ha, no way. Maybe 2 million Euro a year, but even that is optimistic!

via blog.fashionwindows.com:

As for Hedi’s asking salary of 2 million euros a month ...

Could be a typo, could be simply a mistake on their part or yours, but that was the first site I pulled up when I was looking for information on the deal, so I just assumed it was accurate.

[wEstSidE]

lagerfeld had a diet book. those are money makers.

JCDC is also a really wealthy designer...not from designing though.

[englandmj7]

I heard Mr. Mervyn (as in Mervyn's, idiot) commands $30 million a year to design their couture line.

...........I have nothing else intelligent to add.

[onemancult]

lagerfeld has a ton of books out, ackshully.

im on the lagerfeld diet. pardon me, i have to go suck the pum pum juice out of a 14 year old croatian model.

[alterion]

YMC were aquired by FCUK though were they not, hence they are prbably on a centralised pay-scale

[cmykhustla]

Newly graduated Fashion Design students at the school I attend in Philly have an average starting salary of $33,200 with a salary range of $25,000-$40,000

[home]

Interesting stuff..

If you have anything to contribute, please feel free to add!

[baskew]

i was making nearly 60k last year just doing tees...

I hope to god if you're doing cut&sew,techpacks,bodys,fits even knockoffs, you're making at least that.

:/

[notesee]

As a graphic design student, the question of salary is intriguing to me. I've heard estimates from $30K up to $70K.

Any recently graduated graphic design students around to share how much they make and what kind of design work they do?

[andewhall]

My services are available to design skinny jeans for skinny legz for the bargin basement price of only 1 millionz euros per month.

[flex1]

What I want to know is how much are the owners of these brands raking in. lets say tsubi, acne etc in that league, how much do the owners pull in at the end of the day?

[poly800rock]

there aren't individual designers per se is there? it's not like acne is bringing on someone to develop their look.