Thank you to everyone who participated in the “Seabury” Flash Sale on Facebook. That’s over now, and it’s time for our regular website pre-order. So without further ado, “Seabury” in black and grey-gold is now officially available to order:
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| “Seabury” in black, with custom-designed brocade, French heels, and detachable bow clips. Click the image to learn more. |
“Seabury” will arrive in late November, just in time for holiday shopping. Order “Seabury” at
3 Comments
The Quintessential Clothes Pen
November 1, 2014 at 2:29 PMLove that heel! I hope you are able to use it on future pairs of shoes. I can only imagine the work that went into these and the custom materials which would raise the price, but in the spirit of giving positive feedback I just want to say that the price point on these shoes is on the high end in my opinion. I would be more tempted to purchase a future pair of shoes with this style heel if there was any way to lower the price without compromising the quality (and perhaps that's not possible, which is understandable). Again, I hope this is positive feedback!
Best,
Quinn
Lauren Stowell
November 1, 2014 at 5:16 PMHi Quinn,
Thank you for your comment. I think there are some things you don't quite understand about manufacturing, that may help you look at the pricing of ours, and other company's products, in a new light.
We're an independent brand manufacturing in batches of 200. We use high quality materials, most expensive of all leather soles. We also custom-made all of our lasts and heels, and in the case of Seabury, the fabric reproduced from the original. All of these things cost money, and the lower the quantity we make, the more it costs.
When you add all of these factors up, we're actually significantly cheaper than similar companies like Remix and Miss L Fire (both small companies), and hugely under market compared to anything you would find on Zappos.
This is because we have no distribution network. We go directly from the factory to the customer, without a wholesale markup in between. If you were buying these shoes in a store, they would be double the price you see on our website.
It actually hurts our company to sell our shoes for such a low price, but we don't believe in gauging our customers, a great number of whom are also our friends, so we charge what we *have to,* not what we might want to. In the case of Seabury, it's also a Signature Collection shoes, which means that a large portion of the profit goes to Newport Historical Society.
I'm sorry you feel that these are too expensive for you, but we do everything we can to help budget-conscious customers out. We have the EasyPay layaway plan that breaks the payments into installments. More about EasyPay here: http://www.american-duchess.com/easypay
I hope that helps explain it. I invite you to study the pricing of other very small, independent brands making shoes out of silk and leather, with leather soles and original French heels. If you find any at all, you'll see that our prices are incredibly good value for money.
The Quintessential Clothes Pen
November 9, 2014 at 5:13 AMThanks for taking the time to respond in such detail, Lauren. I appreciate the points you made and the perspective you provided!