CFDA Award-winning accessories designer Telfar Clemens explained why his latest bag is more expensive than previous drops.
In an interview on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, which aired on March 14, he went into detail.
”I think people that… don’t know about the brand and think that I’m raising the price of the regular shopping bag, which I priced that specifically based on what I was making as a DJ at night. Like, $120 bucks was what I got for DJing an hour set, and I know I could have afforded that if I did three gigs that night or week,” he told Charlamagne Tha God, DJ Envy, and Angela Yee.
Clemens’ logo-emblazoned purses, made of vegan leather, have ranged from $150-$257 depending on their size: small, medium, or large. They proved to be a big hit over the past few years, appearing on the arms of stylish celebrities, including Beyonce and Zoe Kravitz. Naturally, his bags garnered mainstream attention, making them highly sought-after by fashion lovers and fans of the designer.
However, during New York Fashion Week in February, the 37-year-old revealed his new Round Circle Bag that would retail at $567. He justified the price, saying that many high-end designers make bags that are way more expensive, yet no one bats an eye.
“If you consider me a designer, luxury brand, there’s designer bags way more expensive than this, and nobody’s saying anything about this,” he said during his interview.
He also touched on why the bags have sold out so quickly on Telfar’s website every time he made a new drop.
“We do make enough bags, but [there are] increasingly more people that want to get a bag, and there’s always more people than the bags that we make. We dropped thousands of bags each time that we dropped a bag,” he said.
Last month, Clemens released one of his signature purses in a new colorway with the peculiar name, Corned Beef. It sold out in minutes, and resellers have already listed them on popular reseller websites such as StockX.
During his interview, he expressed his gratitude for his supporters, saying they played a massive role in making Telfar what it has become today.
“I’m not a regular fashion brand. If anything, it’s the community that made this brand what it is [and] it’s really important to nurture that,” he said. “It’s why we have a TV station now. We talk to people all day long. Not me personally, but someone is talking to someone all day long.”
The 37-year-old launched Telfar TV in September 2021, which the website described as a “black-owned” and “24-hour live-linear public access” TV network.
https://twitter.com/TELFARGLOBAL/status/1437097189105446918?s=20&t=qHgVWKaAkJd-083numdOjQ
One would watch live shows, and news about upcoming releases from bag drops to collaborations. Hosts would also give viewers information about Telfar’s bag security program, enabling shoppers to secure their purses months in advance.
Every week, the channel has been streaming via Telfar’s official Instagram page, Roku, Google Play, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV.
Nearly 20 years since his brand’s inception in 2005, Clemens also revealed that he would soon be opening a brick-and-mortar Telfar store in New York City.
“There is one coming. We’re opening a store this year in New York City,” he said during his interview on 105.1. “We’re still deciding where that’s going to be. I don’t want to say too much about it, but it’s opening this year.”
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal in 2019, the Queens-native designer’s “in-demand accessory helped spur Telfar’s annual sales to $1.6 million from $100,000 over the past two years.”
