My wife studied costume design with a focus on historical European garments a few years back. Fascinating field!

And yes, when you can't mass produce clothing it goes up in price massively. Most mass produced clothing costs slightly more than the fabric, but even a very fast couturier will spend hours on a single piece. On top of that, it's one of those industries where price sensitivity inverts at the upper end.

▲

robocat 7 hours ago | parent [-]

> it's one of those industries where price sensitivity inverts at the upper end

What does that mean?

▲

eucyclos 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Custom clothing is used to signal wealth, so past a certain point, more expensive actually becomes more desirable.

It happens when something is supply constrained and a costly signal. Universities are the classic example, Harvard would never lower its prices to be more appealing than Yale.

▲

thaumasiotes 4 hours ago | parent [-]

> Universities are the classic example, Harvard would never lower its prices to be more appealing than Yale.

This would sound more convincing if Princeton hadn't already done that exact thing.

	▲	eucyclos 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Well, obviously there's an upper limit to that game, but I would bet Princeton's issue wasn't that they were failing to fill classrooms at the higher price point.