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Clothing that looks good and feels good!
Hi, My name is Akashia and I have been designing clothes for some time. Due to the recent request that I have recived I thought that I would post one of my latest designs and see what kind of feed back I recived.
All of my outfits are handmade using the best materials and notions. This isn't your usual stripper gear where you buy it then try to work in it and are so annoyed my the fabric/cut that you wasted you money and it sits w/ the rest of your collection in your locker!
The prices may be more expensive, but you aren't going run into someone else w/ your outfit and I promise that if you don't love it, I'll give you a full refund!
This dress is a sheer lace w/ black flowers, the flowers are outlined w/ a metalic silver. It is strech lace, so it will hug your curves and from to your body type!
The Sale price for this item is $95 U.S.D.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
I think It's a very pretty dress BUT I know me personally I'd never spend $95 for it. There are tons of ebay sellers who are custom dress makers as well. They make only so many of a certain item. Since they ship all over the country/world I have never had to worry about someone having a similar dress as me. And the items I get from ebay from these sellers is always top quality.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
$95!! GOOD LAWD !!!that's a lot for a lace chemise/dress. How bout I give you $14.99 and you let me wear it for one stage-set? j/k
It is pretty, just too expensive IMHO;)
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
I know that $95 may seem excessive, but when I started dancing it was hard to find things for less. When you spend $25/yrd on quality fabric and another $15-$20 on other notion along w/ your time... it isn't worth it to sell a dress for less. I have heard the complaint of cost many times, but after purchasing my clothing, my customers never go anywhere else. The dresses don't bunch or slip up when you don't want them to and there is a real fit, not just a hint of one that you will be tugging at all night trying to get it to stay in place.
Quite simply girls, you're dancers and if you can't afford a good dress you're in the wrong buisness! I'm sure you have a ton of outfits that only cost you $15... but how often do you really use them? Or do they just sit around because they're cute, but they drive you crazy when you try to dance in them.
Let's be real ladies... you're in the buisness of looking good... looking good is what makes you your money.... That's why this is posted as "Clothing that looks good and feels good!"
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
$25 a yard? I rarely have to spend more than $14 a yard for good fabric, and that's paying retail! What are you using, silk charmeuse?
I agree that it isn't worthwhile to sell stuff cheaply, though, especially considering the value of your time, but dancers as a group generally don't invest a lot in their clothing -- maybe about 10% of them do. I just make stuff for myself so I can have exactly what I want and then do alterations for friends if they need something specific.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
It's a nice dress, but I won't pay $95 for a minidress. I spend more than average on my stripper gear and I don't mind paying a bit more for a fabulous outfit, but not $95 for a minidress. I know what looks good on me and I always look good at work.
Your selling schpiel is a bit of a turnoff too. "You're in the business of looking good"..."If you can't afford a good dress.." etc - seems a bit patronizing and condescending at the same time.
If I want something custom that fits me well and looks fabulous on me, I go to the costume lady at my club. She makes GREAT quality stuff and she sells gowns (not minidresses) for $75. Her minidresses or shorts sets run about $50. AND they all come with matching thongs. I bought a lace gown from her nearly a year ago that I still wear and still looks good. It has a couple minor problems now but nothing that really looks bad and I've really worn the hell out of it! The regular lycra stuff I've bought from her is still in practically new condition and fits as well as or better than any other stuff I've seen.
Strippers generally don't spend much on outfits. And we know that good lycra doesn't cost $25 a yard. Not even close. You need to lower your prices a bit.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
I agree. I would only pay that much if it came with matching shoes, garter, and g-strings. Take note on how the g-string is plural.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
i like the shape of the top, but i dislike the strap location. whenever straps are located that close to my armpits they irritate me. i wouldn't pay 95 dollars for it either. it's not that i wouldn't spend 95 dollars on a dress for work, i would just expect a lot more for that price. i've spent less on beautiful full length gowns that last for years. i wouldn't pay more than 40-45 for that dress, simply because i know plenty of people who could make something similar for that price.
*edited to add...
i sympathize with your needing to make a profit. i'm an artist and i understand how difficult it is trying to sell something that will cover your cost and at least give you a reasonable profit. supplies can be ridiculously expensive, but you need to do research so you can learn how to turn a better profit. try searching the internet for the best prices you can find, or buy bulk so you can save money in the long run. i'm not saying you should buy lower quality, just that you should find more reasonable deals. also, clip coupons. many fabric stores have 20 or 40% off entire purchase coupons once a month or so. if you wait on buying fabric till you have one of those coupons, you could save A LOT of money.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
Between the possibility of an outfit getting ruined by somebody spilling something on it, ripping it somehow or stealing it(I've had several outfits stolen over the yrs, both by girls and customers) I would never spend $95 on one outfit for work. Especially when you can get quality brand new outfits for half that or less places like ebay (hell..I've found nom de plume gowns on there for $50). I have a closet full of work outfits that are almost new, because I can buy 5 for the same price I'd pay for one in a store around here.
And telling girls that if they cant afford your prices they are in the wrong business....not cool. If you know this biz, you know it goes up and down..right now That dress would almost be a whole days profits for me. And when i am doing well....I have more important things I prefer to spend my money on then outfits for work.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
I always look good at work, and rarely spend more then 50$ for something. I usually get bored with my clothes, so I don't intend to make a long term investment, pluss i can get really pretty, classy things in a jr's dept, usually onsale. The most expensive things usually look the most common. How can i stand out in the same old, same old! It's pretty, but not a smart buy.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
I've spent as much as $150 on a gown before, but it was exceptional, and it was a GOWN. I probably spend more than average on outfits, but I'm still looking for good value for my money too.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
What people are failing to see is that these are hand-made and one-of-a-kind...
If you think she did about 15 hours of work (pattern, buying things and sewing) minus cost of supplies...
she's still making less than $4 an hour.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
The gowns I buy from the costume lady at my club are also handmade and one-of-a-kind, and I pay $75 for a gown. A nice gown.
We aren't failing to see it, we're just stating that we won't pay that high a price. That's all.
Where do you get your $4/hour? That seems like a mighty generous estimate for time to me. I HIGHLY doubt it takes 15 whole hours to make one dress. She'd go broke at that rate. No hun, it takes more like 3 hours, and the cost of supplies is maybe $20. So nah, we're not being too mean to the seamstress.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
You have to make a pattern. You have to make a mock-up to make sure the pattern is plausible. You have to draft. You have to actually sew.
If each piece is one-of-a-kind, she should be doing all of those.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
it ain't gonna happen like that. Trust me.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
Even if each piece you make is one-of-a-kind, they are all variations on a basic theme (tube dress, halter dress, skirt and top, etc) so at most you make minor adjustments to an existing pattern. I spend maybe 3 hours the first time I make something from scratch or copy from an old outfit to work out the pattern and cut and sew it. I have made a tube dress, a pair of pants, and a matching shrug in two hours before work. Granted, they were simple, but still - I am working with the most basic of sewing knowledge and without a serger. In a fully tricked out sewing room it would probably take me half the time.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
akashia
Quite simply girls, you're dancers and if you can't afford a good dress you're in the wrong buisness! I'm sure you have a ton of outfits that only cost you $15... but how often do you really use them? Or do they just sit around because they're cute, but they drive you crazy when you try to dance in them.
Let's be real ladies... you're in the buisness of looking good... looking good is what makes you your money.... That's why this is posted as "Clothing that looks good and feels good!"
Your dress is pretty; however I side with everyone else that I would not spend $100 on it.
We are in the business of looking good, yes; however we are also well aware of what we put our clothing through and, frankly, how long it will last. Your average dancer has at least 10 changes of clothing that have to be replaced pretty frequently; your "favourite" outfit will only last a couple of months. So by your rationale we should be spending... a whole lot on clothes that we do nothing but work in. So high quality doesn't really pay off for us. Also, it is dark in the club - imperfections and stuff that are normally a big deal are invisible. So that is not going to happen. If you have that much confidence in your designs and quality I would recommend that you make a couple of alterations and sell them on a normal market. $100 for a civilian dress I love is not excessive, but it is for a costume. Conversely if you try a feature market you might have more luck. Those ladies have a different kind of investment in their costumes than we lowly house dancers.
I might add, just as a customer service technique - telling us that we are too poor to be dancers because we think your stuff is over priced is not going to net a lot of customer good will. Keep in mind you came to us; we didn't commission you then refuse to pay. Just something to keep in mind if you came here to try to drum up business, or ever plan to in the future.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
Not to be a bitch, but I've been designing and sewing costumes for the last ten years, and the dress is WAY overpriced. Even if the fabric was $25 a yard, a dress like that wouldn't require more than a yard of fabric and an hour of time to make, max. I wouldn't sell a dress like that for over $40, and all my costumes come with matching g-strings. (and are made using a french stitch, so they virtually NEVER fall apart)
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
Damned if I -always- mess up French seams. Easy, but I keep getting them backwards!
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
I understand that many of you are use to going through outfits and not spending much on them. I use mostly vintage fabric which is a bit of a stress, but it means that the chances of finding something like it are slim and null. I also fully line everything so that it will last. My girlfriend has been featuring in her fav. dress for 5 years. No repairs. I guess when you're use to doing things oldschool you don't like to change your ways. Around here you have girls that crank through the outfits and girls that pay for the main staples of their attire... because you stand out and are remembered. Even if a guy remembers his fav. girl... there are probably 5 new girls that look a lot like her!
As in response to the statment of pattern drafting and time... I make basic patterns that I send through a very demanding test run... to make sure that they do not bunch... "walk up" or twist when dancing... so yes... I could crank out the outfits... but I'm into perfection. As I stated... Most of my customers will use these outfits for a long time and depend on them... Even in the slow season, if you have something that has always worked and you are comfortable in... it gives you energy and draws people to you...
Anyway... enough of my ranting... I posted this dress to see what others thought... I guess you're taking it as an open season... but that's fine; it took all of a minute to sell... so enjoy your pokes.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
It's always amusing when someone who *asked* for our opinions on something and gets responses s/he doesn't like comes back and gets their panties in a wad because we said what we thought.
We're not poking, we're giving the opinions you *asked* for. If you wanted us to sugarcoat it or only say something nice, you should've said that when you asked what we thought
It is a nice dress, and I'm very sure your items are great quality and look great. But, as we've stated here, most dancers prefer to spend less per item and be able to get more stuff. I am one of those - I like to wear lots of different outfits and I bore of them easily. I can't tell you how many outfits I've got in my stripper closet that sit there for weeks and months because I just get bored of them. It's not that they've ripped or I don't like them either - I DO like them. And I don't wear them enough for them to wear out that fast (I also take care of my stuff). There is no way I could wear the same dress for 5 years!
So, the bottom line is that you cater to a nitch within the strippergear market. Most of us won't be interested in buying your stuff unless you come down on price a bit. That's fine. If you are selling as much as you want with your current structure, then you don't have a problem do you? If you want to sell MORE, you'll have to lower your prices a bit, and maybe worry a little less about perfection IMO.
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
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Originally Posted by
JustJayda
$95!! GOOD LAWD !!!that's a lot for a lace chemise/dress. How bout I give you $14.99 and you let me wear it for one stage-set?
ahahahah
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
My friend makes mini dresses from the best fabric and they're well made and come with matching chokers and anklets and gstrings and she charges $65 Canadian... and shes still making profit...
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
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Originally Posted by
Cally
My friend makes mini dresses from the best fabric and they're well made and come with matching chokers and anklets and gstrings and she charges $65 Canadian... and shes still making profit...
that sounds like a hell of a better deal than paying close to a 100 dollars for a mini dress.. no thanks....
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Re: Clothing that looks good and feels good!
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Originally Posted by
Krissy Kennedy
Not to be a bitch, but I've been designing and sewing costumes for the last ten years, and the dress is WAY overpriced. Even if the fabric was $25 a yard, a dress like that wouldn't require more than a yard of fabric and an hour of time to make, max. I wouldn't sell a dress like that for over $40, and all my costumes come with matching g-strings. (and are made using a french stitch, so they virtually NEVER fall apart)
^^^ where do u sell your stuff?????? :)