2nd Birthday

On August 10th my store turned two. This past year has been amazing in terms of learning experiences, growth and also creativity. I feel I am closer to finding my voice, I’m reaching out to more Brass Tacks customers, and I’m also incorporating suggestions without having to compromise on my creativity. Of course I’ve had some downs – perhaps a couple of downs for every up – but overall I’m really happy with the way things are going, and so grateful to everyone who has helped along the way.

During my sale last year I was surprised to see the overwhelming response; customers trooped in and out throughout the day and on the first day I sold around 40 pieces. Not all those pieces were on sale, which led me to believe that announcing a sale is also a way to remind customers that you exist.

I had a similar experience this year, selling 100 pieces in the first two days of the sale, but now I’m learning more from these sales. I think people are more willing to buy something they consider expensive if they know they can also get great value for money on some other pieces. So someone would rather buy one dress for Rs 2000 along with 2 tops for Rs 500 each, rather than one evening dress for Rs 3000. Intuitively that does make sense, but I just never thought along those lines before. Observing customers in the store is a lot more conducive to understanding their rationale than sitting in front of an excel sheet (which is how I do my pricing).

I’m now ready to try out a pricing experiment with my upcoming Monsoon collection. I want to see how I can spread my production cost across my collection to allow for some garments to be less expensive than others. Before it was an even distribution, but now it will be according to level of complexity. The simpler garments will end up being less expensive, but the more complicated ones with a lot of tailoring details will work out to be more expensive.

Getting back to the sale, things were going too well for that Corporation Shopping Complex (I’m already battling a case with a leakage in the building and no drainage on the street for rain water), so on Tuesday afternoon at 3pm the electricity went off. My inverter carried us through to the end of the day (without the air conditioner though) but all of Wednesday we had no power. One of the power lines had burnt, affecting 5 shops in the building and as luck would have it mine was one of them. The corporation waited for a few hours on Tuesday before declaring that it was too dark to start work that day. On Wednesday they hired electricians and labourers to dig up the road to find the burnt cable, which they finally found at around 6pm that day. Still giddy from Sunday’s sales, I went up to them filled with naïve enthusiasm and asked, “So it will be fixed by tonight, right”?

Electrician: Well now that we’ve found it there’s little left to do. If we don’t finish it tonight then it will take only 30 minutes to complete in the morning.

Me: Great, I’m so glad. We’ve lost out on a lot of sales because of no power today.

Electrician: The thing is, tomorrow is a government holiday, and Independence day is coming up on Saturday, so we were hoping to get a long weekend starting from this evening….

Note: To compensate for days lost without power, after Independence day on Saturday (we will be closed on August 15th), we will continue with the sale for another week.

Controversial Transparency

I’ve been thinking a lot about my pricing lately. When I think about the amount of effort that goes into finalizing a style, the time spent in tailoring, and the expense in experimenting with different colours and fabrics, I think my prices are too low. But then, I never wanted my brand to be in that high-end and almost unaffordable league, so I guess it’s up to me to be smart about my fabric and tailoring choices to deliver a unique product that’s still affordable.

The definition of affordable, however, varies from person to person and from income to income. I understand that completely- we all have different reference points after all- but what does upset me is when people cannot imagine why my garments would cost as much as they do (my prices range from Rs 800 to Rs 2,600). This post is my attempt to explain why a well-tailored garment made from handwoven, natural fabric cannot be sold for cheap. Well, at least not be yesteryear's standards of cheap.

Most designers follow a simple equation to help them price a garment. There are more complicated ways of doing this by taking into account hidden costs such as rent, sales staff salaries, etc, and some designers have a wholesale price and a retail price but at its basic level, this is the standard equation.

Cost * Profit Margin = Price

Usually, only direct costs are taken into account. This includes the cost of fabric, notions (buttons, thread, zips), and tailoring charges. Let’s take a look at each of these direct costs.

Fabric: It’s no secret that natural fabrics are more expensive than synthetic fabrics. Add to that the process of small scale yarn dyeing, and weaving- that’s a lot of skilled labour right there! Many people seem to be under the impression that labour in India is still really cheap and that handwoven fabric should not be that expensive. The farmers and weavers who work for cheap can’t survive with today’s standard of living; has no one read the news stories about farmers and weavers in Andhra committing suicide? Just so that everyone is on the same page (and in the same decade), here are some figures to get you up to speed on what quality labour costs these days.

One metre of handwoven cotton can cost anything between Rs 80 to as much as Rs 450 per metre. This is dependent on the quality of yarn, the amount of yarn, and the tie-dying work done on the yarn (ikat is obviously more expensive because of the labour involved before the weaving itself). Additional textile crafts like extra weft (jamdaani) weaving add to the cost.
If the cotton is real khadi (and by real khadi, I mean the yarn should have been spun by hand) and handwoven, then it can cost anything between Rs 150 to Rs 350 per metre. I know, it’s such a steal it’s not even funny.

Handwoven silk can cost anything between Rs 200 to Rs 800 per metre. This is dependent on the weight of silk, the quality and type of silk, and special weaving techniques like jamdani or ikat.

Tailoring cost: A really good tailor can cost anything between Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 per month. A good tailor has control over a sewing machine, can give you a good finish with concealed zips, darts, and French seams, and he knows how to change the machine tension according the fabric so that you don’t have a beautiful satin silk garment puckering at every seam.

Oh, and even a good tailor can take up to half a day to tailor one garment if that garment has a lot of darts and pin-tucks or pleats.

A good pattern maker (and it is the pattern maker, not the tailor who decides the fit of the garment) can cost anything between Rs 12,000 to Rs 30,000 per month. I’ll say less about this because clearly there are pattern makers and there are pattern makers. This cost really depends on what kind of garments you want to make and how much time and effort the designer spends explaining her vision, concept and style.

A good cutter (whose job, literally, is to cut out fabric in the shape of paper patterns that the pattern maker generates) can cost anything between Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000 per month.

Notions: Invisible YKK zips cost anything between Rs 35 to Rs 90 per zip, depending on the length. Shell buttons cost anything between Rs 3 to Rs 20 per button, depending on the type and size.

Now that’s a lot of information to help anyone figure out how much it costs to make a range of garments in cotton and silk. And these are only the costs for the direct input into each garment, mind you. Not factored into the direct costs are the time spent finalizing a pattern from sketch to final product, the time spent grading patterns to different sizes, the production manager’s time spent making sure everything gets done in time and without tailoring errors, sales staff salaries, rent, electricity, phone, and of course the cost of machinery.

Yeah, don’t even get me started on the hidden costs of running a business.

Retaining Staff and Climbing Expenses

Over the last few months I’ve felt the need for a store manager at my shop- someone smart and confident with handling customers, and most importantly someone who will run the store when I’m not around (giving me more time to focus on designing).

Ideally one of my sales people should also act as a store manager because the roles are not too different. Everyone in the store needs to be completely on top of inventory and accounts, make sure stocks are replaced, recognize regular customers (and remember their taste), and inspire confidence in customers while taking alteration requirements. The one differentiating factor is that a manager must be responsible, motivated, and accountable. At my production unit I have a manager who is in charge of production, and anytime I have a problem with the tailoring quality or low productivity, I take it up directly with her. Her job is to ensure that the problem gets solved. I really need someone like that at the store.

I am fully aware that someone at that level will command a much higher salary than a sales person. However, the most promising candidates for this job are also the least likely to stay. I’ve hired a couple of new sales staff through a recruitment agency (and I think the recruitment agency found the candidates through a job website), and while these women are bright and very quick to learn, they are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities that pay them a little more. To me this means they will never fully immerse themselves in their work to the point where they feel a sense of ownership- the criteria for being responsible, motivated and accountable. I still go through the efforts of spending time with them, training them and hoping that they learn the intricate details of store managing as well as the bigger picture of where this fits in with their personal career goals. Hopefully they will stay. If not- I guess I have to fulfill the role of store manager myself or just pay more for that position. Damn, just when I thought it was time to sit back and relax for a few weeks after the madness of February and March.

100 hours to Jaipur

I do a lot of work with block printers and tie-dyers in Jaipur. Last year when I visited them, I had a wonderful time seeing their work and experiencing their hospitality. I was both shocked and sad to hear the news about the bomb blasts in this colourful and diverse city. My heart goes out to the people of Jaipur and especially to those who lost family and friends.

I’m often told that I like to do things the complicated way. A whole lot of this has to do with my focus on getting things right (translation: perfect). But in my defense, my methods are perceived as complicated because the systems I have to go through are riddled with hurdles. Even something simple like sending a package via courier can get really tricky.

Take the case of my relationship with my mud-resist block printer in Jaipur. Their work is very creative and their colour combinations are beautiful. However I do not care too much for their cotton fabric. It’s certainly not bad for the sixty rupees per metre they charge for their printed fabric, but it doesn’t have the smooth polish of mill-made mercerized fabric or the interesting texture of certain handwoven fabrics. So what I do is I buy a more expensive mill-made cotton fabric from an Arvind Mills distributor in Chennai and then courier it to my supplier for printing.

My supplier doesn’t have a good way of keeping track of orders like mine where the order comes with fabric that has to be paired with the corresponding design/print order. The more complicated part however, is reaching the fabric to my supplier.

The first time I sent the fabric to my supplier via speed post. The government speed post is kind of like the tortoise in a race with no hare. I mean, the package will each its destination, but not in a hurry. Chennai to Jaipur took 3 weeks. They charged Rs 50 per kilogram.

The second time I decided to try this really shady service that charged Rs 10 per kg from Chennai to Jaipur via train. Now I regret the allure of “cheap and best” because I ended up paying Rs 20 per kg to have the package door delivered to my supplier (which they finally didn’t do), plus here in Chennai I had to deliver the package to their office near the railway station. This wasn’t half as bad as the constant calling and tracking I had to do before I called up my supplier and explained my embarrassing situation. He eventually picked up the package himself from the courier office in Jaipur. Chennai to Jaipur took 3 days, and another week before my supplier picked it up.

The third time I wanted to go with GATI, a well known and reputed courier service. One of my suppliers in Hyderabad sends my orders via GATI and although they are fairly expensive, they are supposed to be reliable. If only it were that simple - GATI wanted me to get a road permit signed by my supplier with his sales tax number printed on the form. Considering my suppliers are based out of remote villages near Jaipur, this is another 3 weeks added to the ordering process. No thanks, GATI.

If cost wasn’t an issue I would use Blue Dart- both fast and reliable- but courier costs alone would force me to double the price of my final garment.

So finally I sent my package through Skylark Express. Rs 30 per kg, door delivery to my supplier, no road permit required, and it will take 3 to 4 days.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed.