Creating a premium fashion brand: costs and lessons learned
In early 2020, I started a fashion brand. I called it “Club Lucienne” in homage to my late grandmother, Lucienne Léonie Heintz. My vision consisted of bringing slow fashion back, of providing busy women with versatile high quality dresses made in Vietnam.
Prior to launching the brand, I did my homework:
Completed a one week course on creating a fashion business at Central Saint Martins (London) in 2016
Starting again in 2020, created a business plan
Talked to founders of small fashion brands about lessons learned
Conducted qualitative interviews with my customer group
Deliberately chose a co-creation process with customers, letting them vote on sketches of the future dresses and provide feedback on dress features
Worked with a social media expert to analyze the social media consumption patterns of my target group
Cooperate with a website designer to get a website
Had a creative director and UX expert carefully assess my website website
Co-creation and community building were at the front and center of my efforts.
Moodboard created by Linda Mai Phung, 2020.
This wasn’t my first rodeo — not the first startup I founded. Equipped with knowledge about direct-to-consumer brands (D2C — think Warby Parker or the Dollar Shaving Club), I knew that a considerable percentage of my budget would have to go to marketing. I also at least theoretically was aware that lots of founders underestimate customer acquisition costs (CaC).
Despite this knowledge, I spent EUR 28.500 in two years. And did not sell a dress.
💸 I am a fan of breaking down expenses and reflecting on lessons learned. Hence this article is all about how much it can cost to create a premium fashion brand.
Keep in mind that roughly 30% of the costs could have been saved had I created this brand out of Southeast Asia and NOT out of Germany / Switzerland, where I spent 2020 and 2021, waiting out Covid and travel restrictions (and being gainfully employed).
Club Lucienne website: www.lucienne.club
Without further ado, this is my breakdown: expenses of EUR 28.500 total:
The biggest ticket — EUR 19.770 - for fashion design and implementation (I worked with a very skilled, Paris-based fashion designer with ties to Vietnam), including a (dress) tech pack, several iterations (we changed the look of the dresses once), getting the dresses tailored in Ho Chi Minh City, shipping them to Germany, and doing a photoshoot with two professional models in Paris — I will break this down further
EUR 3878 for website design and logo design — I teamed up with an equally talented website designer
EUR 2500 for marketing strategy and implementation — this encompassed an analysis of the customer target group, advise for outreach channels and influencer strategy, a critical review by a creative director / UX expert of the website, and two full months of posting content
EUR 1610 admin cost — e.g., paying a Secretarial service in Hong Kong for the establishment of a Hong Kong-based company (ltd.)
EUR 770 for co-creation and customer-centricity costs.
Club Lucienne landing page. Screenshot taken on 16 February 2023.
With the biggest chunk of my expenses — EUR 19.770 — going to fashion creation and implementation, it is worthwhile breaking down what this entailed. This is already part of the lessons learned analysis.
Roughly 35% were dedicated to sample dresses and a photoshoot in Paris (EUR 6000 — this does not include my fashion designer’s invoice). Prior to it, I had estimated it would cost EUR 2500–3000 total.
My fashion designer and I did not take into consideration the cost of digital rights beforehand. And the models rightly asked to get paid for them. In addition, a good photographer has her price (and I am quite happy with the quality of the pictures she provided).
💡 My lesson learned: it is worth it waiting for Southeast Asia / Vietnam to be accessible again for travel and do the photoshoot there. Even taking into consideration the price of an airline ticket, I could have saved 50–75% of the expenses taking the pictures in Ho Chi Minh City instead.
10% of the fashion expenses (EUR 2000) were spent on on fashion design and tech pack creation of dresses that my fashion designer and I eventually abandoned. At one stage in the fall of 2020, I took a look at our designs and decided that these dresses veered too much from the kinds of elegant dresses my grandmother Lucienne had worn. I could afford to do so because I had a well-paying job in banking at the time.
💡 Lesson learned: be clear on your product vision
💡 Only ever work with reliable service providers — at one stage, I took the executive design to change tailors as the first one — a nice tailor based in Ho Chi Minh City — was just not reliable. The new studio — equally based in HCMC — was. This saved us a lot of energy.
The look of Lucienne. In memory of Lucienne Léonie Heintz, 1907–1995.
45% of the budget (EUR 9080) was dedicated to paying the very skilled fashion designer. The fashion designer’s rates were reasonable and she was very reliable.
The remainder — 10% — were spent on dresses I had made for “influencers”- friends of mine who were supposed to take pictures of themselves wearing the Lucienne dresses in various cities — from Seoul to Los Angeles.
3 never received their dress, 1 did not take a picture of herself wearing the dress…
💡 Lesson learned: do not ask your international friends to do you such a favor. People get busy and cannot always be counted on.
One might argue that it takes in the tens of thousands to make a premium brand a success. I ended up putting the brand on hold as I did not want to spend more money. A two-time founder and freelance consultant, I know when it is time to stop — or at least put the brand on hold.
Writing an article about the brand Lucienne in Singapore. 13 February 2023.
As a founder of a deeply personal brand, you have to be able to be honest with yourself:
Why are you creating this brand? Are you doing it for economic reasons — do you want to eventually be able to live off the revenue?
Or is there another “Leitmotif” — is the brand’s purpose self-actualization?
If I bring this brand back to life, I will ensure I focus on one geography only and start in one city. In this case, it would be Singapore. I already showed Singapore-based acquaintances the dresses in May 2022 and tested the price point. I would refine the customer personas and hone in on them to get it “right” this time around. As mentioned in the lessons learned part, Singapore would be close enough to Ho Chi Minh City, where the dresses are tailored.
It is also crucial to challenge oneself on the hidden beliefs one might have — “do I believe I am a successful fashion entrepreneur”? Deep-seated beliefs can certainly slow down a venture’s success.
All in all, I am glad I (a) tracked my expenses and (b) was rational enough to put the brand on hold for now.
How about you? Did you also create a (fashion) brand and decided to put it on hold or pivot? For which reasons? Did you revitalize it eventually?
Sources:
Club Lucienne: https://www.lucienne.club/
“How to create a fashion business”. Short course. Central Saint Martins, London. https://www.arts.ac.uk/subjects/fashion-business/short-courses/entrepreneurship-and-innovation/how-to-start-your-own-fashion-business-short-course-csm