>> Well, I don't get good sales so I may just be deluded into thinking I make good products.

One reason, I suspect, is because you have a very specific style that's utilized within a very narrow range. I took a look at your store offerings: while they're very well designed, they're also extremely limited in their usage and not exactly the kind of thing that lends itself to impulse buy. Just speaking for myself, I might not consider them until I had a need for that precise look -- and then I'd jump all over them.

I'm sure this is a quandry that affects all merchants, both here and in the Real World. But my recommendation would be to build up a series of WIPs to showcase what you're doing, then start a few threads to see what the public response would be. The top merchants do that, so no reason why you cant as well: Stonemason, for example, is almost unforgiving in tantalizing us for months on end with images of his latest flight of fancy.

But you have to enter into it with a sense of where you want to go. Too many merchants see what they think is a bandwagon and jump on it, while the top ones look longer range. Look at Darie's work, for example: I could buy any of that on the spot at any time (and I have) and know that I have a great product that I can use it for years if I so need to. That, to me, is the hallmark of a merchant that will get my attention: someone whose stuff lasts more than a style cycle at the Gap.

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