Fashion Designers and Wealth

[herpsky]

acne isn't just a clothing company. it's the clothing branch of ACNE design firm, which stands for "Ambition to Create Novel Expressions."

They do advertisements and other assorted things.

[RockTheVote]

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.

Try Forever21, Cheap stuff, but just last year sales was over $1B ! 2 years ago was $1B also.. Mass Volum, baby.. it's the key to make money

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?

It all depends on how the owner wants the line to go.. now many brands have a final goal, sell the brand to a huge company in 3 years.. or starts high and small, the mass it to a hugh account.. it's all about the money..

[ryegb]

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

I'm sure the direction comes from the top with 2 to 3 designers executing the idea. Acne's all concept anyway just like Nudie, it's just merchandising basics with decent fabrics.

[baskew]

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?

heh, It all depends on a couple of things,

How good you are,

How good you can be,

How good they need you to be,

How good you can fake it for your clients,etc...

I'm currently working for a small boutique agency as an Art Director and I salary about 50k, and make another 10k-15k a year doing fashion stuff on the side. However, I was thinking about moving to a larger agency in town where I'd start out as an AD at 75k-80k. (Big Agency mentalities are crazy tho... Where I'm at now I've got a very easy relaxing job and I do what I want to do work wise... Big Agency, is the gambit...)

[Morningstar]

Interesting that someone brought up Liz Claiborne as I work as a designer for one of the brands they're looking to sell (Laundry by Design). When started my first design job a year ago I started out at 37k and now I'm making in the low 40's.

Like someone else mentioned being a senior designer, design director or VP is where the money is (100K+). However you'll definitely be working for you money

[flyoungman]

This has been an extremely informative thread. Until this past year I always assumed that the people who designed the clothes that I wore lived these lavish lifestyles and made truckloads of cash. However, recently I have really suffered from disillusionment and realized that though there are a few top designers making large sums of money there is not as much money to be made in cutting edge fashion as I once thought.

[jon the kid]

Flex, to put it simple, if someone can charge $200, $300, and $400 for jeans, they're daring; if in two years the price is the same, or possibly even increased, you know they're not having economic difficulty. I mean... Look at "BBC/Ice Cream"... They used to charge $92 for all of their plain cotton, plain ink tees (excluding the gold/silver crap). Now they have gone down to $80. Think about it -- the price to make a cotton tee-shirt didn't drop $12; they simply weren't selling enough of the $92's, if you will. People weren't willing to pay that amount for what they, most likely, knew they could get better with. So they (whether it be Nigo/Pharrell himself, or someone a wee-bit smarter in the industry that's trying to get some sense into their heads) dropped the prices down. I don't see A77 going down anytime soon. You're probably never, ever going to find a legit sale on Nudies. I don't see, hell, Dior or Marc Jacobs lowering every item they have by 8% (we'd all be partying right now...)

Easy concept, K-Mart happens to not be selling enough Cherokee and Hanes tees, so what do they do? You know the answer: SALE!

[wEstSidE]

iced cream goes on sale...it's on sale right now at commonwealth.

[jon the kid]

Well that's the only way it can work. Despite the fact that Pharrell started Commonwealth, every OTHER boutique (especially online shops) had to lower their prices as well. I mean... Would you rather buy a $350 (you're, of course, going to get the afterbite of streetwear, being that well, there is no wholesale, so boutiques have to jump the price to make ANY sort of profit) hoodie from a boutique, or a $200 hoodie straight from BBC/IC themselves? What sucks the most about that are the independant boutiques that literally buy them full-price and sell them for a few bucks more, because they WILL get profit -- so long as the company doesn't decide to chop their prices in half. Cause then most of the kids are just going to go straight to the company; and I'm pretty sure it has to be the most difficult thing on the planet to sell 20 hoodies you bought for $300 each, for $200. That's strict loss. That's what I mean about Ice Cream and other companies like THAT that DO go on sale, because they overproduce (which... isn't a problem to them. Hell, if they sell 10 tee-shirts they've made enough money to reprint the whole line again). But it is a major bummer for someone who, say, DOESN'T get to make the tees themselves.

The crappiest part is that BBC/IC is honestly the worst quality clothing I've ever had in my life.

[seven.homme]

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.

correct me if im wrong, but i remember couple years back, when tsubi/ksubi starting to became the main thing in AUS.

one of the designer bought roll royce phantom

[Morningstar]

I don't think it's entirely truly that streatwear companies don't sell wholesale. I believe most legit companies big or small have wholesale prices. I know my friend who has a small tee shirt line has wholesale prices. It's the boutiques who decide the price they want to sell them at for retail, be it double wholesale or more. I could be wrong as I'm more familiar with established large brands.

[seven.homme]

i think its true...my friend whos working at retail told me the same...

her store carries brands like PAM, 2K, ALPHA60, tatty devine etc..

n they all got wholesale price..

[jon the kid]

Yeah that makes sense, I'd go by that. I'm just stating the overall idea that you can tell how a business is doing based on it's fluctuation of price -- whether it be streetwear, designer labels, or big brands, etc. etc. I just used streetwear as an example because we all know a Supreme Tyson shirt doesn't have a tag that says $120 in the store. It's honestly the hype of the item/name/availability. I mean... Ice Cream, BAPE (moreso Ice Cream, because BAPE is still a little more exclusive) -- they messed up. They took out the hunt. They made it rediculously easy to get just about any item they have. People don't want to spend a fortune on something that's easy to get. And honestly, I don't see Ice Cream/BBC lasting too much longer in the streetwear biz. It was cool for awhile. But look at Supreme. Look at Ubiq. Visvim. Fenom. All those cats are geniuses. It's so hard to get ahold of that ONE item you HAVE to have. And when it's in your face, the LAST thing you're going to think about is price. Whereas with the less exclusive items... it's just spending a tight wad for literally clicking a few links.

[baskew]

I don't think it's entirely truly that streatwear companies don't sell wholesale. I believe most legit companies big or small have wholesale prices. I know my friend who has a small tee shirt line has wholesale prices. It's the boutiques who decide the price they want to sell them at for retail, be it double wholesale or more. I could be wrong as I'm more familiar with established large brands.

You mean like HUF marking up supreme shirts $14 above retail.

[baskew]

Also to add,

I think BBC/IceCream would have done much better as a brand/line if they wouldn't have went for online retail. I think the disillusion of the brand being more scarce and privileged would have gotten a stronger following.

[wEstSidE]

price discrimination is real...and it works.

btw baskew: i've heard that before from consumers..."WTF??? SHIT AINT EVEN LIMITED!!!" truth is most "limited" items are only limited because the demand outstrips the supply...not because there are so few of them.