I’ve just been reading an interesting discussion on about why customers are unwilling to pay prices which genuinely cover the cost of a handmade garment, whether it’s a reconstructed t-shirt or a couture wedding dress. I’ve had many customers – individuals and other small businesses – come to me asking for hand-made clothing, only to disappear without a trace when I told them the price.
Thanks to companies like the dreaded Primark, clothes have become cheaper and cheaper to buy, and the actual cost of their manufacture (in both monetary and human terms) is no longer reflected in their selling price.
As an independent businesswoman in the UK, I am legally obliged to pay myself a minimum wage (currently £5.52 an hour) for my work – and yet in many cases I am simply not able to do that. If I charged the full amount of what my work was actually worth, my customers wouldn’t be able to afford it, and I would make no money at all.
Unfortunately, by selling myself short, I devalue not only my own work, but also that of other business and craftspeople in a similar position, and I exacerbate the problem of customers expecting to pay cheaper prices.
If I were a computer programmer, I’d be charging an awful lot more than £5.52 an hour. Heck, if I were a plumber, I’d be charging more than ten times that! When did dressmaking, or any form of craft which requires a development of skill to learn, become such an undervalued occupation?
has written a really interesting article on the subject: Why do wedding dresses cost so much?
I’ve been the lady hand-sewing the beads onto your precious dress, and I’ve listened patiently to the complaints about the cost of the alterations when I’ve had to hem, by hand, all ten tulle petticoat layers under your skirt. I can state unequivocally that although I was paid slightly more than minimum wage for doing that job, neither I, nor the husband and wife team who ran that independent bridal store, were making our fortune from the cost of that work.
I’ve also had several brides come to me, assuming that because I was making them a “home made” dress, it would be much cheaper than one bought off the peg. In actual fact what I would be making is a couture dress, which is a different thing altogether!
Last week I wore a dress that I’d made myself, to work. One of our customers expressed surprise that the dress was “home made”, because “it looked really neat”. Now I have eleven years’ experience as a dressmaker – of course my sewing is neat! Would you react with surprise if you hired a plumber with eleven years’ experience, and he turned out to do a good job? No, and you’d pay him good money to do it.
The lady who made the comment obviously had no way of knowing that I’ve been a dressmaker for a long time, but it made me very sad that “made by hand” in her expectation was inextricably linked to “looks a bit rubbish”. The current rise in popularity of “DIY” and reconstructed clothing is also doing nothing to disabuse people of this notion, as so many sellers of this style are using the term “DIY” to apparently mean that they don’t have to finish seams or be able to sew well.
Now I’m completely self-taught, so I have no issues whatsoever about people just getting in there and having a go! I’ve written a couple of tutorials for simple skirts, and I hope to write more in the future. I also enjoy reconstructing t-shirts, and making clothes out of recycled materials. However, I do believe that if you’re going to sell your work, then there are some fairly basic standards that need to be applied. Otherwise, once again, you’re lowering the standards and expectations that apply to all of us.
I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to make a living from my dressmaking, and that makes me very sad. It’s not going to stop me from sewing, because I really enjoy it, but I do wish that it were possible for more people to understand the value of these skills that I’ve worked hard to attain.