Selling dresses in a recession

It's been a while since I last wrote a post documenting my efforts with my brand, Graey.

When I last left off, I had decided to do a small production run with my Fall 2009 collection even though the trunk show with Henri Bendel had fallen through, on the blind faith that I could sell the pieces through consignment at a few boutiques.

In retrospect, I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea.  Had I paid closer attention to financial forecasts, I probably would have realized that things were going to get worse before they got better, and there was probably a good reason that Bendel's laid off their entire clothing buying staff, but hindsight is 20/20 right?

I sold consignment through a few boutiques and a small online retailer, with mixed results.  A couple of the boutiques and the online boutique (a great one called Sunday Brunch) were able to sell a few pieces here and there.  The best performer was the least expensive piece, the kimono dress.  I learned the hard way that in this recession, consumers were a) not buying as much b) only buying at heavy discounts c) sticking to designers they'd heard of rather than trying out smaller lesser known labels.

Also, I might have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.  Consignment, although a great opportunity to get a buyer to try out your merchandise in their store, has its pitfalls.  It's hard to say how much of my lack of sales was because of the recession, but when buyers have your merchandise on consignment, they have less of an incentive to sell your goods because if it doesn't sell, they can just return it to you, whereas they bear the burden when they buy the merchandise. 

In sum, although I was able to sell some pieces through retailers, we didn't sell as much as I had hoped.  I also tried to sell pieces directly through other methods.


GenArt which recently folded due to - surprise! - financial troubles (but apparently is relaunching) was an organization that championed up-and-coming designers.  Twice a year, they held a SHOP NYC event, which was a big bazaar with alcohol and other sponsors, and a DJ spinning.  Although I did manage to sell pieces at this event, they were mainly my less expensive knits, and I barely broke even on the entry fee.

Some friends and family also bought pieces.

I also held a couple of independent sales at a storefront I found in the East Village, with mixed results.  The location was probably not ideal in terms of traffic and the kind of customer who shops in the area, as my dresses were mainly targeted at the type of clientele that shops at more chic West Village boutiques.

Additionally, I got in contact with someone who held sales at Chelsea Market and was able to sell some of my knits inventory at one of his sales.

A while ago, on a friend's suggestion, I opened up a shop on Supermarket, which is kind of like Etsy but curated so that the selection is not quite as extensive so that the chances of someone buying your product is higher.  After putting my products on the site, I didn't really pay much attention to it, but every once in a while I got a sale, even from a customer in Austria. 

I probably won't be doing any production runs without guaranteed (well, as guaranteed as they can be) buyers for a while.