Discussions about the fashion industry thread

[dieworkwear]

How does a business function (and hires dozens of people) with no margins?

As it turns out, Brooks Brothers has been operating as a non-profit.

sorry im very sorry

 

[clee1982]

well, fashion is full of deception, some are worse than others, in this case DTC, hum I'm not sure what to feel, I don't know how many people buy into the whole deception vs. "this price feels cheap and it looks decent for basics"

 

[cb200]

How does a business function (and hires dozens of people) with no margins?

I'm sure the business angle is that the margin is in memberships - those cost basically nothing to make new ones. As long as they grow those memberships they have recurring and predictable revenue for the year. They "just" have to manage expenses, supply chains, and keep the growth story going for investors.

 

[dieworkwear]

Anyone looking out for cheaper memberships should wait for my new site, Bold Italic. I will be selling discounted memberships made from the same digital technologies as those used to create Italic memberships.

Equinox SoHo membership: $3,120/ year
Italic membership: $100/ year
My membership: $25/ year

 

[clee1982]

How much money did they raise, they're not the first one to do membership, but think they might be the first one to do membership from DTC angle? I just thought $100 is not a cheap hurdle, and it's not like you "get something" for that $100 (from consumer immediate feel perspective)

 

[IJReilly]

Cheap cashmere is the worst investment there is. I bought a piece from Massimo Dutti like twelve years ago. That thing was pilling like crazy after a few months. Literally could not take it off since my shirts were covered in cashmere flecks.

My advice is to buy from a reputable company, pay a lot at full price and use it for a decade. I have a cashmere sweater that is still going strong after over a decade (only problem is that I lost 15 kilos since then but now I think of it as “over sized”).

If you don’t want to shell out 300 euros, go for merino or another nice wool. It’s a way better deal, and there are so many varieties out there which feel almost as soft as cashmere.

 

[gdl203]

I'm sure the business angle is that the margin is in memberships - those cost basically nothing to make new ones. As long as they grow those memberships they have recurring and predictable revenue for the year. They "just" have to manage expenses, supply chains, and keep the growth story going for investors.

With that many new employees, they'd need at $5-10 million a year to simply break even. That's 50,000 - 100,000 memberships, taking into account the churn rate (which I anticipate to be quite high). Do we expect 100,000 people to pay for the right to shop there? Maybe I just see the world through a small little lens, but I find it hard to believe. Deep-pocketed Mr Porter was able to get 70,000 founding members with a heavy and expensive pre-launch promotional campaign. And that was a free membership...

 

[K. Nights]

Not gonna lie though, a $95 Dutch oven breaks my brain and does tempt me haha. https://italic.com/products/zest-dutch-oven?Color=Bright Red

You can get a Dutch oven from Aldi for like $40. I bet this one isn't even any nicer.


Also, is it just me or do these reviews seem super fake?

 

[cb200]

With that many new employees, they'd need at $5-10 million a year to simply break even.

Yeah, hard for me to make sense of it... but looks like they have some believers. I'm likely too close to product and unit economics too be able to believe that's not critically important and central to any business.

https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/italic-series-a--f98efbdd#section-investors

 

[Mariokartfever]

so its just online costco with branding?

I'll be sold in on it after I try their $1.50 hotdog with free soda

 

[lesamourai]

i'm trying to think of the last store i heard of that had a similar model. only thing i can come up with was jet.com and they at least offered a free trial. $100 upfront for nothing seems like a hard sell during good times let alone during covid right now

 

[King Calder]

You can get a Dutch oven from Aldi for like $40. I bet this one isn't even any nicer.


Also, is it just me or do these reviews seem super fake?
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No doubt you're probably right, but i more meant to say that i found it funny that on the one hand I totally agree and aware of how greg and @dieworkwear discuss Italic's approach to clothing, but when i look at the home goods I'm still like "huh". Those reviews...do not seem helpful.

 

[dieworkwear]

No doubt you're probably right, but i more meant to say that i found it funny that on the one hand I totally agree and aware of how greg and @dieworkwear discuss Italic's approach to clothing, but when i look at the home goods I'm still like "huh". Those reviews...do not seem helpful.

I think I do the same thing for any product category that's not clothing. I just don't know enough about the subject to say whether something is a real value or not, or what kind of qualities I should look for. I have no idea which brands or stores to trust. Shopping at one of these places is more about convenience than anything. I don't want to spend any time researching.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Frankly, Italic looks like it wants to be Muji (not Uniqlo) but with a DTC model. And since Muji didn't work in the USA, they probably have a good chance. Whereas Muji has an aesthetic vision (whether you get it or like it or not), Italic is for people who want it to look like they work in a hip start-up - whether or not they actually do - and they don't want to have to think about how to look that way.

 

[dieworkwear]

Kind of amazing to me that the t-shirt can be designed, packaged, and repackaged in so many ways to suit the many different identities that people use to say they're part of this group, but not this other group.

Does your plain white, thin jersey t-shirt say that you're "in the know" about slightly obscure minimalist Japanese brands? Or that you work at a tech startup? Or does it signal that you know something a little more obscure than people who *think* they know about obscure Japanese brands?

And yet, functionally, all these things basically look the same.