We used to think that Luxury Designer fashionwear are made by people who have some sort of superpowers or skills, crafting and creating that beautifully designed bag with excellent attention to detail using exotic premium quality leather which is so scarce that only that particular brand has the means to source them.
How innocent can we be..
Today we are going to open up the darkest secrets of luxury designer fashionwear; by interviewing more than 25 former senior production specialists from various brands like LV, Chanel and Hermes with an average manufacturing experience of more than 10 years.
Why are we talking about this?
Because we deserve to know: WHAT it is we are actually BUYING.
DARK SECRET No.1 – Who designs the bags
Ah.. the big names – Karl Lagerfield, Nicolas Ghesquière and more…. God given talent, are they not?
Sorry to break it to you; but a bag is not designed from head to toe by a single Leonardo Da Vinci; rather, by a huge team of designers that come together to create the bag from the design of hardware, leather selection, handle and other little details.
Think of designing a building – The chief architect works with team of architect associates, who in turn work with structural, mechanical and electrical engineers to design a particular building. But the Chief Architect takes ALL the credit!
The process and time spent designing a Chanel bag is NO DIFFERENT than that of a Coach bag, or an Adidas bag. Do not buy into the whole “That Designer is a Gift from God hence ANY pieces he designs it’s worth the price” crap.
But that’s just the way it is. Luxury brands NEED a front person to secure their branding, and that is what makes their marketing so effective and products irresistible.
DARK SECRET No.2 – Who makes the bags
Now we debunked the people who Designed the luxury bags, let’s get to WHO actually makes them.
Perhaps they are leather makers with decades of experience, skills passed on from generations, and with delicate fingers that are blessed by angels?
Sorry to say that again; people who makes the bags are non-other than highly trained but average-income $5-10 per hour craftsmen who spend around 1-2 days making an average bag, whether its Louis Vuitton, Chanel or Gucci. Hermes may warrant up to a week for a single bag due to the fact that it’s 100% hand stitched; but hey, look at the price tag…
These craftsmen typically are trained for 60-90 days before being deployed to actual production lines, where they will be overseen by the production manager that works alongside with the chief designer. The chief designer’s job is to monitor the QC audit of the bags produced to make sure that each bag is up to their standards.
DARK SECRET No.3 – How much the bags cost to make
Often we ask ourselves ‘how much do the materials of these designer bags actually cost?’
Spoiler Alert: A helluva lot less than we all are inclined to believe.
The most expensive material cost of a bag always lies in their fabric, whether it is leather, canvas or tweed etc.
A single metre of Full grain leather, otherwise known as Caviar Leather by Chanel, costs around $60 per meter. It takes approximately 2 metres of leather to make a standard handbag.
And how much do they sell it for? Hint: almost 100 times the cost of the leather they use.
Even for top Nile crocodile leathers used by Hermes, they are in the ballpark of $700-800 per piece, as shown below:
How about workmanship costs?
As mentioned earlier, a craftsmen is always assigned to work on one single bag until its completion.
This means at $10 workmanship cost per hour, for 10 hours per day and a two days work, an average designer bag will take a maximum of $200 to make.
For Hermes 100% handstitched versions like Birkin and Kelly, they would need up to a week to make, which translates to a maximum cost of $700.
That is why replicas of Lushentic grade, the highest available grade of replica handbagss in the market, are typically sold for $400 and above considering these fundamental costs that could not be lowered down any further.
Marketing Costs
Yes, luxury brands do spend a huge amount on marketing expenses hiring celebrities, setting up branded outlets throughout the world that goes to the cost of their products; but hey, should we pay for that? Why has that become our problem?
If we were to be obligated to pay more for a product because of their marketing costs, perhaps we would be paying more than $100 for each of our beloved Mcdonald meals as well.
Now that you know the basics of what it costs to make a luxury designer bag, it is up to you to decide what you need to do in the future.
Do we need to continue feeding these corporate sucking giants with the consequences of our own desires,
or are they alternatives to getting what we want without burning unnecessary amounts of our hard earned money?
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