Naergi's lost keys - 'Phantom of the Opera' Wishing gown examination

From: siggesot Date: September 13th, 2006 - 11:07 am (Link)

Great examination, very interesting. I'm also a great lover of this costume with my own replica at home. Operafantomet is so lucky to have bought this :D.

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From: operafantomet Date: September 13th, 2006 - 11:54 am (Link)

Aye! :D I feel insanely lucky, because only a week ago I would never have throught that such an item would be achieveable. I hope I'll be able to share it with you all, so it serves a better purpose than hanging on my wall, making only me happy.

Thanks for those pictures, Naergilien. They are a super resource for any costume interested POTO fan. Excellent job. And I finally friended you (plus a bunch other people)! :D Nice to get ahead of things again. I'm still in a summer (=vacation) mood.

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From: harmanhay Date: September 13th, 2006 - 01:08 pm (Link)

Thanks, great resource and very thoughtful of you. BTW, thanks very much for recommending me to the bride on dressdiaries. I'm very flattered.

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From: naergilien Date: September 13th, 2006 - 04:25 pm (Link)

No need to thank me. You're in the UK, and you make great wedding costumes in collaboration with the customer; that's what she wanted - so I recommended you ;-) I think you would do the same if someone asked you about someone who could make Elizabethan or movie costume reproductions in Germany ;-)

By the way, that was what I was trying to tell you the other day:
The work of a *good* seamstress is appreciated and spread by the word of mouth; *not* by a keen web designer (what the *hell* do you think is *wrong* with your page???), advertising in the most expensive journals or some sort of 'business plan'. It will always be highly *underpaid*, yes, and the aim to make a fortune with sewing will always go utterly wrong; but one can make a living with it, if the word of mouth is right. Not a 'rich' living... but a living.

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From: harmanhay Date: September 14th, 2006 - 06:18 am (Link)

You're right of course. It's been easy to get lost in what the course is about and lose sight of what I'm about. This was the conversation I had with the therapist. Everyone's terribly impressed with me, and yet it's not that I'm good at Business with a capital B - I'm just good at knowing what people want and impressing them.

What's wrong with my page is that people aren't sticking around to order things. I've used a site design that's great for getting information across but that doesn't suit the use of lots of detailed pictures, which would show what's different about me better. And as I've looked aroud, I've discovered that the pages look all out of whack on some computers; I haven't made it work on everyone's machine. I get your point though, it *is* a still a good site and I'm being pedantic.

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From: harmanhay Date: September 14th, 2006 - 06:20 am (Link)

And as an epilogue to that, I'm going to be putting a final page in the back of the business plan I hand in that quotes Joseph Campbell: We must give up the life we have planned in order to live the life that is waiting for us.

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From: naergilien Date: September 14th, 2006 - 07:06 am (Link)

What's wrong with my page is that people aren't sticking around to order things.

You're not a groceries store and you don't sell "things", so you can't be seriously expecting that? You're specialized in custom made wedding- and evening gowns, and you're not exactly cheap, either.
You won't *ever* have *masses* of customers buying your gowns, unless you become a big name designer (as, for example, Westwood and Versace), which is practically impossible (not just for you, but for 99.99999% of all the good seamstresses in the world).
Honestly, I would have never ever thought about 'business plans', 'advertising' and 'website makeovers by pros' - simply because I, even if I was booked 6 months in advance, wouldn't have had the money for that. As I have said - you can make a living, but you'll never become rich.
I have thought long about your idea to employ other seamstresses. WEll, have you thought about what happens if a few of them thoroughly mess the gowns they make? Then you'll have to double buy the materials etc. and *still* make the gowns yourself. And from my experience, one person can't finish more than 2 gowns per month - and that just if they're *simple*, meaning they won't bring much money.

You recently quoted a figure for a simpler wedding dress - $3,500, if I am remembering correctly. I stared at the screen when I saw this; because *that* was the price I had asked for this gown...:
http://www.naergilien.info/planned/queen_peacockfeathers_judi_dench_Shakespeare.jpg
when a customer asked me for a ballpark figure for it, and I already thought it was too much (well, it was - for her).
Sewing is a passion, not something to make you rich. I don't say that I don't follow your tries on making it a wealthy business with interest, but honestly, I doubt that this will work.

As you know I'm always honest, so this is just my very own honest opinion from being in the business for almost ten years.

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From: harmanhay Date: September 15th, 2006 - 10:32 am (Link)

Thank you, I appreciate your honesty.

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