THE MONEY COAT is a conceptual, wearable art piece that is designed to raise awareness surrounding one of the many challenges new designers in the fashion industry face, which is having their money (quite literally) wrapped up in inventory.
Having money wrapped up in inventory is never good for business, but as Dee Silkie has learned throughout her fashion career, it is extremely hard to avoid. New and emerging designers find their money wrapped up in inventory for many reasons, and each of those reasons stem from one of the many problematic issues surrounding the fashion industry.
1.) Lack Of Funding
Fashion designers are both business owners and artists. However, unlike artists, fashion designers are not eligible for government funding (in Canada) as fashion is not considered art.
If designers are able to raise enough funds to create their collections and put them into production, they often do not have any money left over for proper marketing and advertising initiatives. (Let alone fancy packaging and brick and mortar rent.)
2.) Competing Against Fast Fashion Brands
As a result of little to no government/grant funding, fashion designers try to sell as much product as they can to the biggest market as they can in order to survive. This often leads designers to join the race to the bottom against some of the worlds biggest fast fashion brands such as Zara, H&M and Fashion Nova. In order to get their price points down, designers order a huge bulk order of product in order to get better wholesale pricing and higher margins. Unless designers have a big enough clientele built up right off the bat, they will have trouble selling that much amount of product.
Even if new/emerging designers are able to place large production orders, fast fashion brands are constantly releasing new and trendy clothing items on a regular basis. Some brands have over 20 seasons in a year and release new clothing every week! New and emerging Canadian designers are working solo or with very small teams and do not have the manpower (or capital) to pump out clothing that frequently.
3.) Not Having The Right Niche
Fashion designers are artists, and need the time and freedom in order to experiment and find their own voice. When designers are new and just starting out, they often get so focused on making something for everyone that they sell to no one.
Designers need the time and resources to be able to develop their own style and learn about the market they are aiming towards to so that they can be more tactful when designing a clothing line. Until designers find their personal voice and a market who supports that voice financially, designers are often shooting in the dark and designing clothing for "everyone" that (unfortunately) nobody wants to buy.
THE MONEY COAT HAS OVER $2000 Canadian dollars stuffed inside the coat. All of the money was entirely crowd-funded during Covid-19. In exchange for a donation of $30 or more, each patreon received a piece of inventory from Dee's personal collection.
