22 min presentation on how to source a luxury product

On my last AMA back in June, someone asked me how to source luxury fabrics for a swimwear line.

Sounds like a simple question, except the answer sent me on a tangent because before we can talk sourcing, we have to answer a bigger question first:

What actually makes something “luxury”?

When we think of fast fashion, we think of low-quality products that fall apart. So naturally, luxury would mean high-quality products that last.

But here’s the thing: quality alone isn’t enough for a luxury brand. (Don’t worry - I’ll get to sourcing the best quality products in a minute. But, first, we need to talk about financing).

Because, you could have the best product in the world, but if your brand isn’t perceived as luxury, it doesn’t matter. And, that perception requires a cash investment.

Luxury fashion houses spent decades, sometimes centuries, building their reputations. They didn’t pop up overnight with clever marketing. Their brands are built on trust, and the only way to earn trust is time.

And building trust over time is expensive. Nobody sees the millions poured into customer service, celebrity endorsements, and strategic partnerships that quietly elevate a brand.

So before you tell me you want to launch a luxury brand, I have to ask: do you have $500,000 to invest in your brand image?

Probably not.

Here’s where luxury brands have gone wrong lately: they’ve downgraded their products. They’re making $30 t-shirts and selling them for $1,000+. We all notice it, and everyone wants a piece of that money-making alchemy.

These fashion houses are essentially trading millions (if not billions) in accumulated brand equity to cash out on cheap product at inflated prices.

But customers have caught on. That game doesn’t work anymore.

Here’s the reframe: instead of a “luxury brand,” build a genuinely high-end product at an attainable price point. Still expensive but for the top 10% instead of the top 1%.

You won’t make luxury margins, but you’ll save yourself years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in reputation-building.

Here’s the hard truth: if you email a supplier saying “I want a high-quality product,” they will delete your email so fast.

That is because quality is quantifiable. If you can’t tell a supplier exactly what you want, in their language, you’re going nowhere.

That’s why, when I got that swimwear question, I created a 22-minute presentation breaking down exactly what to ask suppliers instead. (Spoiler: it’s not “I want high quality.”)

And the best part? The sourcing technique works for any product, not just swimwear.

The complete replay, with the exact questions to ask suppliers, word for word, is available now for my Substack subscribers.

For $5 a month (that’s $0.16 a day), you get:

• The full sourcing replay - the 22-minute system for sourcing high-quality products in any category

• My entire paywalled archive - fashion startup grant lists, vetted supplier lists, and step-by-step guides

• A free invite to my next Ask Me Anything on July 22nd, where nothing is off limits

One guide alone could save you weeks of research. Pretty good deal for $5, if you ask me.