If you've already bought our items you for sure noticed: Our clothing is not as cheap as fast fashion. However, we don't sell our clothing for the price we do because we want to become millionaires (which, nevertheless, we wouldn't mind) but because maintaining an online shop comes with many costs. So to be fully transparent, we want you to know the actual costs of each and every step of the process.
SECOND HAND:
Buying and PackagingFirstly we have to invest a lot of time into going on a treasure hunt and finding all of these unique pieces. Then we have to store them and check every single one individually just in case there are little flaws.
Next up we have to pay for the materials and the working utensils like sewing machines, yarn and elastic bands that we use to stitch up our clothing. People also need to get paid for their time expenses to turn up and sew each item, because, as you know, they are uniquely and made by hand.
Our clothing tags are being produced in Germany, which is also more expensive than the ones fast fashion companies use. Additionally, we have to pay for the packaging materials, such as the cardboard packages and the printed adhesive paper tape, which adds up to about 360€. Together with silk-paper another 360€ need to be paid for a batch.
Storing and shippingTo be able to store our pieces, we have to pay 2,50€ for every item to be kept in the goods receiving department. Which means we already had to pay 375€ for the first drop (150 pieces of clothing) - just so our products would be accepted in the warehouse. Plus, it takes time and gas (duh) to get our items to the warehouse, studio, and other locations. Furthermore, monthly insurance and storage also costs quite a lot of money. Also, if you send back clothes, we have to pay 2,50€ again for every returned garment.
Content creation and TaggingApart from the time expenses that come with organizing and coordinating our campaign shootings, our models, photographers and videographer (should) get an adequate payment (at the moment many people are offering their time for free just to make this project happen). Additionally, one day of shooting in a low budget studio costs us about 400€. Pricer locations range between 700€ and 1000€ a day. Moreover, all the time, sweat and tears (no exaggeration here) that flow into sorting out, selecting and editing our photos need to be compensated.
Each and every piece must be provided with an item number, that has to be printed out and then attached to the garment by hand.
Concerning jewelry, we sew bags made of fabric leftovers and for other accessories we sew small ribbons out of scrap fabrics in order for the tags, to not get the items damaged.
Website and Social MediaOwning and taking care of a website equals additional costs. We have to pay for our domain and our template, which already costs 200€. „Shopify" charges money every month and the platform also gets a percentage of every sold item. When people pay via Paypal, Credit Card or Klarna, they also receive a percentage of the sale.
Every garment has to be uploaded individually and be labeled with the following information each: Name, description, item number, barcode number, weight, place of origin, price and collection. This process even has to be repeated due to logistics - but we spare you the details at this point!
Also, we have to take time for customer service, answering emails, maintaining our social media channels and looking after our PR.
Additional costsFrom what is left at this point, which is not that much (as you can imagine now), 20 percent must be subtracted because of VAT (= value added tax). Furthermore, everything that remains after thatis taxed with about 40 percent.
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Lastly, everywhere we mention „we" und "us" it's mostly just one single person that does all of the work - the founder and CEO/ "person for everything" @michelledanzinger. Luckily we expanded the team for production process and content creation part of the Capsule collection. 1000 Thank you's to every single person who invested their time for free to make this vision come to life.
So please try to be kind and understanding if things don't go as planned, because at the end of the day we're all just humans and do the best we can. And even though we'd like to grow as a business to help and do good, we are not a NPO (non-profit-organization), so our goal is for it to be as profitable as possible. We would love to expand in the near future, rent an office and grow our team from 1 person to at least a pair of people. And also we got to cover rent, food and such minor things too..
Now it's your turn to decide whether all this effort is worth being supported. Whichever way of consuming you choose, keep in mind that only if we all work towards a common goal, we are able to make a change. Together. For your beliefs. For the mistreated people working in the fast fashion industry. And for our environment.
The only question left is: Are you willing to pay the price to support a non-exploitative, sustainable way of shopping clothes?