Fashion Designers: How Do They Make Money?

Factual Questions
1

What, exactly, is their business model? They spend alot of time and alot of money on clothing that is bought by nobody, and is only worn by models (some of who are paid large sums of money for parading the runway in this clothing).

My theory is this: the more outlandish the clothing, the more publicity for the designer. Of course, they won’t ever sell the $20,000 dress, but they will sell alot of “normal” pants and shirts and socks and underwear with their name on them.

I’m not sure if this question belongs in GQ (General Questions that is, not the magazine), since I’m not sure if there is a factual answer.

2

Actually, they do sell those $20,000 dresses. I was watching a show about designers once where there were two orders for the same outlandishly expensive item from the same city. The women who bought them had to sign contracts stating they would never were them in the same place at the same time.

For the most part though, the designers make their money off of their off the rack junk that rif-raf like us might buy.