Story about Prima Materia ready-to-wear items

Today, please allow me to talk about my ready-to-wear items and why they matter to you and me.

Prima Materia has very roughly two product categories: customisable items and ready-to-wear (RTW) items. If you are a repeat customer who knows my now-inactive Etsy shop (thank you!), you might have noticed there are more RTW items than before.

Producing custom and RTW items is a comprehensive approach to give customers more choices, reduce waste, keep running costs down and keep the product price as low as possible.

For custom items, I work in the so-called pre-order system, i.e. I procure materials after receiving a custom order. This not only allows me to provide customers with flexible personalisation options but also helps me to keep the inventory low.

However, I usually order materials in slightly longer lengths and in slightly larger quantities just in case. This practice produces remnants in various sizes and shapes that are too small to make one leotard or skirt but too large and wasteful to throw away. It also takes a few weeks to produce custom items.

Etsy charged me monthly listing fees for each product, which discouraged me from producing RTW items. I did not want to list too many products and end up with being charged a lot. That’s why my products were mostly custom items back then.

However, I decided to graduate from Etsy and become independent in July last year because Etsy blocked my shop (long story).

This independence has given me freedom to design more, produce more, list unlimited numbers of products, deliver more quickly and reduce waste further!

Now I can keep all remnants to make RTW items later. Sometimes, I find enough remnants to make one leotard in the same fabric or in the same colour. Other times, I use different fabrics and colours for sleeves, bodies and backs, which results in unexpectedly playful colour and fabric combinations.

This is why most of my RTW items are one or two in stock, in sizes small or medium, and priced lower than the corresponding custom items (However, most RTW items can be repeated as custom items in such a case that they are sold out or not your size).

Of course, RTW items are made the same amount of love and care as custom items. If you purchase RTW items, you help reduce the waste.

Thank you for your support and happy dancing!