Telfar drops dynamically-priced fashion

The Future. Telfar Clemens, the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund-winning fashion head behind totes worn by superstars like Beyoncé and Dua Lipa, is trying out an experiment to make his offerings more affordable — a dynamic pricing model that starts at the lowest price and goes higher over time. If the new experiment works, Telfar may also gain a better understanding of how much inventory it should realistically have on hand and reduce the amount of waste the brand produces.

Slide and pay
While Telfar could theoretically charge whatever it wants for its popular clothes and accessories, the fashion brand is trying out dynamic pricing to give people the best deal.

Here’s how it’ll work:

• Next week, every item on Telfar’s website will be available for its wholesale price, with the price going up a few dollars every second.
• Whenever the item sells out — whether in 30 seconds or a minute as is normal — then that final price will be the price forever.

FastCompany gives an example: “Take, for instance, a cropped, black crew neck sweater that typically retails for $260. Its starting price will be $65. If it sells out in 10 seconds, its final price will be $127.” That’s a steal for Telfar fans.

Accessorize access
The experiment, developed by Clemens and creative director Babak Radboy, has two goals:

• Make Telfar’s typically expensive items more affordable for the average consumer — Clemens says he never wanted “price as a barrier to entry.”
• Collect data on what is actually the most popular item it sells — if the brand knows what drives the most demand, it can place larger orders for a cheaper price, with customers ultimately getting to reap the savings.

The ultimate hope is that the experiment gives Telfar enough data to know how to accurately and fairly price items going forward. We’ll see if the gambit works, but snag your totes while you can.