Have you ever wondered how department stores or boutiques decide what clothes to carry and how these decisions get made?  Lucky for you, I am currently working at the Intermezzo Tradeshow as a showroom representative and can dish all about it. 

A fashion label will either have their own ‘in house’ showroom or hire an outside one to represent and sell their collection.  In these showrooms are the entire collections, displayed neatly on racks. 

Department stores and boutiques (with smaller boutiques, the buyer is usually the owner of the store) have buyers who decide what the story is going to carry.  Every store has them: Barney, Bergdorf’s, Bloomingdales, you name it.  The buyers then go to showrooms or trade conventions and order what they think will sell in their store.  These tradeshow events, such as the Intermezzo show that is currently taking place, are not open to the public, which would likely riot when they see the profit margins of some designers and companies. 

These stores will often sell the merchandise for double or even triple what they paid for it, allowing them to still make a profit with big sales when inventory is left over.  Even if a designer has their own store, they sell for the same prices as the department stores that stock their clothes so as to not undercut them.  For example, Prada makes a lot more money when you buy an item at their store than if you go and get the same thing at Neiman Marcus or Saks, though you’d likely pay the nearly the same price. 

Unless labels have their own store, they make most of their money from big department store orders.  One of our clients made over $100,000 today alone after an order from Loehmanns. 

Once you see the inside workings of the fashion world, the allure the fabulousness fades somewhat, though I bet it’s still more glamorous than working in a law firm or the post office.