Sin Khan
Familiar Face
- Messages
- 81
- Location
- Panama City, Florida
I ordered two books from amazon about tailoring a suit coat and jacket. I have looked for a long time for suit patterns from the major pattern sales web sites, almost none of them have mens pattern suits and coats. Then after reading an advice column from a sewing page that said basically (not word for word) that sewing garments at home is not profitable unless one is sewing high end or difficult products.
That statement to me explains why it is difficult to find mens pattern coats and suits. It is because these are profitable items to sell. Most of the patterns that I see even for women?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s clothing are for simple cloths that one can easily purchase for a minimal amount of money in a department store.
Remember that clothing is manufactured mainly in cheap sweat shops in china and other Asian rim countries that have poverty level working wages. But when distributors and wholesalers get the product, it is marked up about 50 percent from that producer. Also, the department store will mark up the item another 50 percent. I good friend of mine used to be a Target executive over softlines. He observed directly that the clothing department had one of the highest profit margins in the entire store.
Clothing is also a high theft item and has a large overstock requirement for sizing purposes. For this reason, clothing in a retail outlet has always had a high built in profit margin. It is also considered a perishable good in that it is seasonal and period based. So at the end of any season or drastic change in fashion, many items will not sell and must be marked down or sold in batch lots to the discount outlets.
Many of the most expensive items in a department store today are regular cloths with high priced name tags on them in order to brand them. A pair of jeans with the Tommy Hilfiger brand can cost over 80 dollars. These jeans are no better than any other comparable brand and can easy be made by the home tailor for less than 20 dollars in materials and about 2 hours work. If even the home tailor bought a larger quantify of material and so called mass produced them him or herself the cost would drop even less.
Today the home tailor can purchase computerized sewing machines and pattern software that only need basic measurements to spit out an almost tailor fit pattern in practically any style of garment or clothing required. Many of them produce a standard base item that is tailored then further additions can be added to make the item unique and differentiated in the market.
It seems to me that the reason one cannot find patterns for high end product like suits and jackets is for these reasons:
1. It is the biggest profit maker for the major producers.
2. Today?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s home tailor can more easily produce these high end products at home than at anytime previously.
3. The world wide web?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s function as a world wide wholesaler to other global small businesses gives the small business operator a more competitive cost per unit figure than previously possible.
4. Due to the need for high profit on these items in the marketplace, the majors cannot afford to let home tailors competitively steal market share in high end product.
the big dogs don't want the average person with a home computerized sewing machine to be able to compete with them on higher end merchandise.
That statement to me explains why it is difficult to find mens pattern coats and suits. It is because these are profitable items to sell. Most of the patterns that I see even for women?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s clothing are for simple cloths that one can easily purchase for a minimal amount of money in a department store.
Remember that clothing is manufactured mainly in cheap sweat shops in china and other Asian rim countries that have poverty level working wages. But when distributors and wholesalers get the product, it is marked up about 50 percent from that producer. Also, the department store will mark up the item another 50 percent. I good friend of mine used to be a Target executive over softlines. He observed directly that the clothing department had one of the highest profit margins in the entire store.
Clothing is also a high theft item and has a large overstock requirement for sizing purposes. For this reason, clothing in a retail outlet has always had a high built in profit margin. It is also considered a perishable good in that it is seasonal and period based. So at the end of any season or drastic change in fashion, many items will not sell and must be marked down or sold in batch lots to the discount outlets.
Many of the most expensive items in a department store today are regular cloths with high priced name tags on them in order to brand them. A pair of jeans with the Tommy Hilfiger brand can cost over 80 dollars. These jeans are no better than any other comparable brand and can easy be made by the home tailor for less than 20 dollars in materials and about 2 hours work. If even the home tailor bought a larger quantify of material and so called mass produced them him or herself the cost would drop even less.
Today the home tailor can purchase computerized sewing machines and pattern software that only need basic measurements to spit out an almost tailor fit pattern in practically any style of garment or clothing required. Many of them produce a standard base item that is tailored then further additions can be added to make the item unique and differentiated in the market.
It seems to me that the reason one cannot find patterns for high end product like suits and jackets is for these reasons:
1. It is the biggest profit maker for the major producers.
2. Today?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s home tailor can more easily produce these high end products at home than at anytime previously.
3. The world wide web?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s function as a world wide wholesaler to other global small businesses gives the small business operator a more competitive cost per unit figure than previously possible.
4. Due to the need for high profit on these items in the marketplace, the majors cannot afford to let home tailors competitively steal market share in high end product.
the big dogs don't want the average person with a home computerized sewing machine to be able to compete with them on higher end merchandise.
