The write stuff.

[trinityofone]

Have I mentioned lately how much I love slodwick? Not only did she make this hilarious icon based on my brother's reaction to European exit signs, she made me a gorgeous cover for my Urban Legend Challenge story, Silence Implying Sound.


I love John in this. I...love John, basically.

(And Rodney too! Don't ever let him doubt!)

Thank you to everyone who's been distracting me with drabble prompts. You can still request one; I'm getting sleepy, though, so there's a good chance I might not get to it until tomorrow. It really does help my bleh mood. I like to write.

Speaking of, could you maybe help me out with a few questions for a fic? I have no concept of what anything costs, so do you think you could maybe tell me how much the following would be:

a) Really fancy, designer drapes?
b) A full-price, top of the line Armani men's suit?
c) Again, a really fancy, designer men's shirt?

It's amazing how hard it is to find this stuff out online; when something is really top-of-the-line, it apparently becomes uncouth to list its price. But hey, let's be vulgar! Help me out!

Comments

[of-evangeline.livejournal.com]

A really fancy dress shirt could go from $500 to $1000, but hey, that's Canadian dollars. XD

[sinensiss.livejournal.com]

info on men's suit prices, including bespoke Savile Row tailoring (http://www.englishcut.com/archives/000016.html). Some of them are listed in pounds, but I figure you can probably do that conversion. *g*

as for designer drapes, it would depend on the fabric; expensive fabric can be a hundred bucks a yard or more (imported silk, linen, satin, etc., especially if it has hand-made elements like embroidery or special dyes.) Add a designer's costs on top of it, and you could spend hundreds or thousands, depending on how many windows you were draping. In other words, pick a number--you can justify it narratively.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that's super helpful. And did you notice the link to the previous column? Mr. Sheppard's Shears (http://www.englishcut.com/archives/000014.html). Heh.

mr. sheppard's shears

[sinensiss.livejournal.com]

he gets around, that boy. (The Tailoring AU! John is a Savile Row tailor, and Rodney is the reluctant younger son of some aristocratic family--he wants nothing more than to be left in peace with his experiments and wear whatever is handy, but is forced by family obligations to be suitably clothed for some event. John, too, is unhappy--he wanted to join the RAF, but Father insisted he go into the family business, oh the burden of expectations--and then John gets his hands on Rodney's inseams and Love Blooms.)

[lillyjk.livejournal.com]

have no clue on the drapes...but a really nice, hand-tailored shirt - easily $750-$1000. and an Armani suit, at least $3000

[corinna-5.livejournal.com]

Figure at least 2K on the suit, and a high-quality shirt could go around $200-300. You can get bespoke shirts in New York for the higher sum.

Drapes, fancy wouldn't be designer, they'd be interior design. You'd have them custom-made, and it would depend on the fabric and who you worked with.

[emidala.livejournal.com]

when I was in rome with my latinists in 1997, one of them (the only guy!) bought a prada shirt for something like 9,000 SEK. the only reason I remember this is because people argued about it for the entire trip (sixteen girls thought it was too much money, one was his girlfriend and forced him to buy it, and I could not care less but thought it was absolutely hysterical that a guy whose idol in life was michael jordan had just spent four months' rent on a shirt). this was in 1997, when a dollar was worth about 7 SEK, so you do the math. I bet prices have gone up-up-up since then, too.

[emidala.livejournal.com]

(and I should add that this was couture, ie, the stuff that normally does not even appear in the stores - the girlfriend in question had seen a picture of BRAD PITT wearing prada and decided that she was going to make her jordan-loving boyfriend look exactly the same. idiot.)

What is the occasion?

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

I took an entire class on this at university. I hope this info helps.

As people above have implied, people use the term "designer" to mean two different types of clothes - those you can find in stores, and those you cannot.

The most expensive would be the type you can not find in stores - haute couture - which either can be designed explicitly for you by the design house, or else you may have seen it in a runway show and ordered it for yourself - less likely, as most of the items shown in haute couture shows are one-offs, and I think of them as PR for the design house, rather than in relationship to any clothing you'll ever seen in real life.

Haute couture is custom cut, custom fitted, high quality fabrics, lots of hand-sewing. In terms of cost? Heh. Ha ha. Could cost a mint. It depends on the designer, the fabrics, the style, etc. Too many variables. I'd guess well over US$1000 for one man's shirt, if done in a reasonable fabric and style.

Most of the design houses that produce haute couture also produce a "ready to wear", AKA "pret a porter" line. This is what most people on the street call "designer clothes".

Regular "designer" clothing is available in stores. It's more-or-less based on the fashions that the design house showed during one of the "fashion weeks", like Fashion Week in NYC, but then adapted for a mass-market. Some houses create ready to wear lines that are mass-produced, while others offer lines that are produced in limited numbers and therefore much more exclusive.

Ready to wear "designer" clothing can be quite expensive, but really depends. And in general, men's clothing would be less costly than if a similar item were made for a woman.

Also know - if the person is a celebrity attending a major event, they probably didn't pay for the clothing. The designer would make the dress custom for them to wear at the event - and BTW, those items of clothing would be considered couture. The celeb might be able to keep the dress afterwards, or more likely it would revert to the designer's own collection. The jewelery would be borrowed from a designer or a high-end store, like Tiffany. The shoes - it depends. They might have been a gift or a loan from a clothing or shoe designer, or the person's own, depending. The underwear - unless it's something spectacular or something specially required by the outfit, then that's often the person's own.

Designer drapes

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

Yes, designer drapes would be done by an interior designer, who may be working with a seamstress/tailor. The cost would depend on the designer, the complexity of the design, the fabrics used, how much fabric, etc. I'd estimate one set, for one window, perhaps US$500 at the low end, up to thousands.

And in the US, we call these "custom window treatments", rather than "designer drapes".