Which way to go?

[DomenicasFineFashion]

This is a question I have been debating for a while now. The etsy teams slipped my mind, but then I remembered them and thought that they might be good places to get some opinions :-)

I make renaissance clothing to sell on etsy and at ren faires/SCA events and I am trying to overhaul my current designs. I feel there's a lot of room for improvement, and I feel inspired to really step it up and start producing higher-end garb. My question is this; it's a lot harder nowadays to sell a $300 item as opposed to a $30 item. On the other hand, when it comes to the less expensive things in your average renaissance clothing shoppe, there are so many people out there making nearly identical items. I used to be able to sell whole outfits easily, and now I am finding most people are buying a single item here and there to augment what they already have. Where to focus? Are people interested in spending the money for something really special, or am I better off focusing on making a wider variety of the base items? What has your experience been lately?

[Former_Member]

Hello Jessica, I can try and give a response but its going to come from more of a social science perspective then a sellers perspective as I have a degree in Anthropology and I study trends in alternative culture/counter culture etc. So here it goes.

Basically since the financial crisis the old punk ideology of DIY (do it your self) has become far more popular than it used to be. Also do to the direction the "western world" seems to be headed (that of Ancient Rome i.e. destroying itself) many people are getting in to primitive skills and learning how to do everything for themselves thus the rise in the interest in blacksmiths in recent years among other things. Naturally not everyone will have to skill to make everything they may want and those who are more well off will never take the time to learn how to do something on their own because they can just pay people like you and I to do it for them. This leaves two groups of people open for us to sell to: People who dont have a lot of money, and people who are loaded.

So I guess my point is this. It seems to stand to reason that given the current economic situations primary sales are going to come from cheaper items. This does not mean, however, that you should stop producing high end products. It does mean that you may want to stock less of them. They are likely not going to sell right away and may sit in your studio/storage space for quite awhile. But if they are really good you will sell them eventually.

I hope this is of some degree of help.

~Nick