Pricing has always been a challenge, from the very first product I created with Istani. Not the formulaic, extractive kind of pricing that encourages maximum profits for capitalists and entrepreneurs. Rather, the kind of pricing that reflects the true value and timelessness of what I create with Istani. How can I ever distill all the depth, history, and ingenuity of Ajrak in a dollar amount for a garment?
How do you put a price tag on the labor of someone who has honed their craft for decades, whose hands carry the wisdom and legacy of generations of textile makers? How do you assign a figure to the invisible hours that go into weaving a story with every design choice? How much is an unknown craftsperson's time worth? And why is a garment worth more when it has been worn by a celebrity?
A capitalist world ascribes value based on manufactured desire, manufactured scarcity and market manipulation - a garment is given its value simply based on the label on the garment or if a celebrity has worn it, or worse yet - garments are exorbitantly priced simply because there is a market that will pay that top dollar for empty values. This is myth-making; the trickery of clever marketing and the mechanisms of industry-driven scarcity.
We live in an economy that encourages the devaluation of human labor - extracting labor from every single worker is how mega corporations accumulate their wealth. People’s time and skill are often reduced to a wage that doesn’t reflect their true worth - instead, it usually reflects the least amount of money a worker can legally be paid while those in power accumulate wealth.
How much of what we pay for a garment is the price for the fabric, the labor, the resources, and how much is just smoke and mirrors? In this game of manufactured scarcity and value - a game I refuse to play - how can I distill the wonder of plants that imbue color; the meticulousness of a craftsman's hands, the legacy of lineages that this cloth carries, into the few digits of a dollar amount? These are some of the hardest things for me to reconcile as the owner, founder and lead designer of a garment company. There is no dollar amount that can reflect the immense skill, time, and intention of the artisan.
Each garment I create contains a legacy, whispers of the past, and better paradigms for the future. Each garment I create is part of a living archive of an indigenous cultural craft. Each garment I create is an intention: for us to come in closer, loving communion with nature, ourselves and each other. This is where pricing comes in conflict with my values.
I don’t have answers. I am feeling and intuiting my way through this process. And perhaps that’s the joy of this work—not seeking perfection, but reconciling the multiple, often conflicting truths that are present and holding space for my values and authenticity to guide me through it all.