Reviewing my survey results, I got a comment - fortunately just one along the lines - stating that my designs are over-priced. I do apologize for the tone of this post, I admit the comment upset me a bit. The pricing has been very difficult for me to get right, and I have given it a lot of thought. I wanted to tell you all why I have come to the price range that I have, given that it is likely to be adjusted in the future. While I realize my prices are too high for a lot of people, I do stand by them, and consider my designs somewhat of a luxury item for an important day, and they are not MEANT to attract everyone out there. Having said that, there are still people who tell me I don’t charge enough.
Let me quote the comment in question:
“I am buying from an Australian designer (based in Queensland) who does unique dresses taylor made for the individual who has been in the business for over 10 years. But she doesn’t charge the earth for them (I’m paying $380 for mine). Calico is a very cheap material - your designs are nice but way overpriced.”
Let me start with the price range we are talking about here. If you walk into a bridal shop and ask for something under the 500 dollar mark, what you’re most likely going to get is a mass produced Chinese made simple polyester dress -if anything. I have seen one of those sell for 350 euros, which is about 700 Australian dollars. It was a gorgeous dress, but it doesn’t change the fact it was polyester, required the smallest possible amount of seams and was mass made in China. In a word, that was the cheapest and easiest way possible to make a pretty dress - and very much not tailor made.
Secondly, I doubt very much that this designer mentioned in the quote is actually a designer, but is in fact a dress maker, and I’ve been writing about the difference quite a lot lately. If she is a designer, I suppose our professional goals are very different. I’m hoping that what I am charging now is peanuts compared to my prices in 10 more years after I get my name out there. Where I am starting is not where I intend to be in ten years. In comparison, another Australian designer quoted that her custom design (couture) prices start at 1900 dollars. In other words, she doesn’t get off her sofa for under 1900 dollars. (Unfortunately I haven’t found many other designers that would actually publicise their price range at all, so I don’t know if she’s in the high end or low end of the range, however, if I had to bet on it, I’d put my money on the low.) In a bridal shop, a mass produced (or limited edition) gown will cost you easily 1200-3500 dollars, depending on the design and materials. While I am not turning my nose at off-the-rack gowns by any means, you should expect to pay more for a one-of-a-kind designer dress, which is not the same thing as a one-of-a-kind dress at a dress maker’s.
One of my dresses take me about 2 weeks to finish, counting designing time, looking for materials (other than the fabric) and the actual sewing. How many of you would work for the salary of 380 dollars in 2 weeks, which is 175 dollars a week? That is not even counting all the work (administration, book work, advertising etc) I need to do to start and run a business, which I can’t directly charge for.
What I am trying to say here is that you get what you pay for. If you don’t see the difference, and don’t think it’s worth it to pay more for, by all means, have a gown from the lower end of the price range, however… This is what I do and I’m proud of what I do and charge accordingly. When I was planning to get married, I tried on a few gowns for the fun of it. The only one I really really liked was about 4000 dollars, and way off my price range. Even though it was out of my price range, I thought it was worth every cent of it, off the rack. I think there is a big difference between “way out of my price range” and “way over-priced”, don’t you?
