How to cost a garment style: a working merchandiser's guide

This is the costing walkthrough we wished we had when we started. It assumes you are merchandising for an export house and quoting a Western brand, but the structure works for domestic brands too.

It does not assume you use TextileCost. It will tell you the same sequence whether you cost on paper, in a spreadsheet, or in software.

Step 1. Style info

Before any rupees move, capture the things every other step depends on.

• Style number. Use a prefix you keep across years (TC-2026-014). Sortable. Searchable. Tells you the year at a glance.
• Article name. “Cropped chore jacket,” not “Style 14.” You will thank yourself later.
• Buyer. Pick the row. Do not type it free-text. Make a buyer master.
• Order quantity. Affects per-piece allocations later (shipping, testing, sampling).
• Quote currency. USD, EUR, GBP. Different from your cost currency.

Step 2. Fabric

Add a row for every fabric in the garment: shell, lining, pocket bag, interlining, contrast panels. Each row needs:

Field	Why it matters
GSM	Buyer specifies fabric weight; affects look and price
Width	Determines consumption math (58” vs 44”)
Rate per metre	Today’s mill price
Consumption	Metres per piece (pattern master gives you this)
Wastage %	2 to 5% for stable wovens, 5 to 8% for stretchy or printed

Multiply rate × consumption × (1 + wastage %). That row’s contribution.

Common mistake. Forgetting to factor wastage into lining and pocket bag. They eat 3 to 4% too.

Step 3. Materials and trims

This is where merchandisers lose the most accuracy. Every trim (thread, fusing, lace, smocking, buttons, embroidery, pintex, elastic, zipper, non-woven, rubber sheet, anything custom) gets a row.

Format each row as average × price × extra %. The extra % covers small wastages, attrition during stitching, the bin of slightly-off lots you keep.

If you are quoting embroidery, get a panel-level price from the embroidery house, not a piece-level price. Panel-level prices stay honest as the design changes.

Step 4. CMT

CMT is Cut, Make, Trim. The per-piece cost of converting fabric into a finished garment. Split into four blocks.

Cutting

• Shell cutting. Per piece, charged by the cutting master.
• Lining cutting. Separate rate.
• Recutting. Defects and size grading. Add a 1 to 2% buffer.
• Cutting paper. Minor but real.

Stitching

• Tailor rate. Base per-piece for assembly.
• Commission %. Incentive on top of base, usually 10 to 15%.

Other

• Finishing and packing. Pressing, tagging, polybagging.
• Washing. If garment-washed.
• Trims fitting. Button-holing, button-attach, zipper-fix.

Quantity-based

Costs that vary with order quantity, not per piece:

• Shipping documentation (cost ÷ order qty)
• Testing (lab tests, lots of variants. Divide by qty.)
• Sampling charges (the 30 samples you made before the order)
• Courier

This is where Excel cost sheets fail merchandisers most often. They put shipping documentation as a per-piece value and lose accuracy on small orders. Divide by order quantity. Always.

Step 5. The markup sequence

This is the step that has to happen in the right order, or your final price is wrong.

Run it on the subtotal (Fabric + Materials + CMT) in this exact sequence:

1. Overhead %. Applied as markup math: cost ÷ (1 − overhead%/100). 15% is a common starting point.
2. Wastage %. Additive on the overhead’d cost. Usually 2 to 3% buffer.
3. Markup %. Applied as markup math again: cost ÷ (1 − markup%/100). This is your margin.
4. Bill discount %. Subtracted from final. Usually 0 to 2% to cover the discount you give for early payment terms.

If your buyer asks for the calculation, this is the sequence. Other orders give you the wrong final.

Step 6. Currency

Cost in your base currency (INR for us). Quote in the buyer’s.

Use today’s rate, plus a buffer. A 5% buffer is industry-normal for 60-day lead times. It absorbs FX moves between quote and invoice. Without it, you are betting on the dollar staying still, and the dollar never stays still.

Per-buyer currency defaults help here. Store EUR for the French buyer, USD for the Americans, GBP for the British. Picking the buyer should pick the currency.

Step 7. Save it where you can find it

The single most overlooked step.

• Use a style number that’s sortable across years.
• Tag it with the buyer.
• Attach the photos at the time of costing, not later.
• Keep an audit trail of who changed what, when.

When the sample arrives three months later and somebody asks “what was the cost on this one,” you want to be able to answer in ten seconds. Not ten minutes.

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If you want all of this in one form, with the markup sequence pre-built, currency math automatic, and a one-click PPT for the buyer at the end of it, that’s TextileCost. 14-day free trial, no card.

If you do not, this guide stands on its own. Print it, tape it to the wall, cost one style at a time.