This page explains how to cost a lingerie or swimwear order, for anyone who builds or checks a costing for this kind of garment: a merchandiser, a factory owner, or a buyer. A merchandiser who quotes a lingerie or swimwear order at work has to price a stretch body fabric, decide how to charge for the elastic trim at every stretch edge, and, on a structured style, price a separately sourced cup and underwire, before any price reaches the buyer. Without knowing which lines a lingerie or swimwear order adds beyond a basic garment's costing, a merchandiser can quote a price that misses a real cost. Lesson T01-C07-L02 already fixed the core costing method for this academy: every cost component gets its own dollar value, and every total is calculated by formula, never typed by hand. This lesson mainly teaches the money flow of a lingerie or swimwear order: which lines exist, and how each is calculated by that same formula method, using Order D, Cairo Intimates' underwire bikini top and matching bottom, this academy's own fixed lingerie/swimwear order (docs/02 section 27).
You need: the costing method from T01-C07-L02 (every component its own value, every total a formula, never typed). Lessons 6.6.1 and 6.6.2 help you recognise the fabric, elastic and construction this lesson costs, but neither is required for this lesson's method.
By the end of this lesson you can:
Not covered here: identifying lingerie and swimwear fabric, elastic and construction features (lesson 6.6.1); checking an order against lingerie/swimwear-specific quality faults (lesson 6.6.2); assembling the complete order file (lesson 6.6.4).
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Costing sheet | The document that lists a garment's cost components and adds them to the price the factory quotes. |
| Cost component | One part of a garment's total price: fabric, trims, making, overhead, or profit. |
| Making charge | The labour cost of cutting, sewing and finishing one garment. |
| Overhead | A factory's running costs that are not fabric, trims or direct labour: rent, electricity, management salaries and similar costs, shared across all the pieces it makes. |
| FOB (free on board) | The factory delivers the goods on board the ship at its own port. Freight from there is the buyer's cost. |
| Elastic | A stretch trim inserted into a waistband or cuff to allow fit without a separate closure. |
| Elastic trim gauge | The width and stretch-recovery specification of an elastic trim used on a waistband, leg opening or bra band, matched to fit and support needs. |
| Underwire channel | A fabric casing sewn into a bra cup to hold a rigid underwire in place along the cup's base. |
| Cup lining | An inner fabric layer sewn inside a bra or bikini-top cup for shape, support or modesty, separate from the cup's outer fabric. |
Costing a lingerie or swimwear order follows the same core method already fixed for this academy at T01-C07-L02: every cost component gets its own dollar value, and every total and share of price is calculated by formula, never typed in by hand. Order D's cost lines follow the same fabric-then-residual logic already demonstrated for Order B's own denim (T06-C01-L04), but with one extra line category a basic garment does not need: an elastic trim cost line, since structural elastic is a core, separately priced component at every stretch edge, not a minor trim like a basic garment's neck rib. On a structured underwire style such as Order D's bikini top, a cup and underwire are separately sourced components with no equivalent in Order A's or Order B's own denim costing, but Order D's own fixed figures (docs/02 section 27) do not break their cost out as its own line; they are folded into the combined residual with making, overhead and profit. Every figure below is Order D's own real fixed figure.
| What can differ | The shapes you meet | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|---|
| A garment with no support component (most swim bottoms, many bralettes) | Cost lines are body fabric plus elastic trim plus making, overhead and profit as one residual, closer in structure to Order B's own two-line-plus-residual denim method. | You need only the fabric and elastic lines before the combined residual; no separate cup/underwire line applies. |
| A structured underwire style, such as Order D's own bikini top | Cup and underwire are bought-in components with their own unit cost, distinct from fabric or elastic, but Order D's own fixed figures fold this cost into the combined residual rather than breaking it out. | The combined residual (making, overhead, profit, hardware) is larger for a structured style than for a support-free one, even without its own separate line. |
| Order B (the jeans order)'s own precedent (a partial fixed breakdown, reused as the method template) | Only fabric cost and target FOB are genuinely fixed for Order B's jeans; everything else is one honest residual, the same discipline this lesson applies to Order D. | Shows that a costing method can still follow the formula rule even when not every line is separately fixed. |
| A fully fixed breakdown (Order A's own costing, T01-C07) | Fabric, trims, making, overhead and profit are all individually fixed and sum exactly to the FOB price. | Order D stops at fabric, elastic and one combined residual, the same partial-breakdown discipline Order B's own denim costing uses. |
A merchandiser at Cairo Intimates, this academy's fixed lingerie/swimwear factory (docs/02 section 27), sets up Order D's cost-line structure for Cedar & Co., the domestic buyer this order is costed for under a hybrid business model. The merchandiser lays out which lines the costing needs: body fabric, elastic trim, and a combined residual for making, overhead, profit and cup/underwire hardware, exactly as Order D's own fixed figures are structured. This is the same disciplined structure Order B's own denim costing sheet (the jeans order) demonstrates (T06-C01-L04). Every dollar figure below is Order D's own real fixed figure, for Order D's underwire bikini top and matching bottom.
| Cost line | Order D value (USD per set) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Body fabric | 2.10 | Two-way stretch polyester/elastane blend, 0.35 m at USD 6.00 per metre |
| Elastic trim | 0.30 | Order D's own fixed elastic trim cost per set |
| Making, overhead, profit and cup/underwire hardware (combined residual) | 3.10 | Order D's own fixed residual: target FOB minus the fabric and elastic lines above |
| Total (FOB) | 5.50 | Formula sum of the three lines above; Order D's own fixed buyer target FOB |
Order D's own fixed figures (docs/02 section 27) are reused here as real academy facts, not invented. The worked output is the correct list of cost-line categories in the correct order: body fabric line, elastic trim line, then one combined residual line for making, overhead, profit and cup/underwire hardware, mirroring Order B's own two-line-plus-residual denim structure (the jeans order).
A common mistake is inventing a plausible-sounding fabric price, elastic-trim price, or FOB target "for illustration," the way earlier drafts of this course had to before Order D was fixed, instead of using Order D's own real figures: fabric at USD 6.00 per metre, elastic trim at USD 0.30 per set, target FOB at USD 5.50 per set (docs/02 section 27). Order B's own jeans costing lesson (T06-C01-L04) already shows the correct discipline for a figure that is genuinely not fixed: state the gap honestly. But once a figure is fixed, as Order D's now are, inventing a different "typical" number in its place is a different mistake: it replaces a real academy fact with a fiction. The cost of this mistake is a training example, or a real quotation, built on numbers that contradict this academy's own fixed cast.
Costing a lingerie or swimwear order works the same way as costing any other garment: every cost part gets its own dollar value, and the total is added up by formula, never typed. What is different for lingerie and swimwear is that an extra part is needed. The elastic at the edges of the garment is not a small trim; it holds the garment's shape and fit, so it gets its own price line. On a style with a cup and an underwire, that cup and wire are bought in from outside, but Order D's own fixed figures fold their cost into the same combined residual as making, overhead and profit rather than pricing them as a separate line. Order D, Cairo Intimates' underwire bikini top and matching bottom, is this whole training academy's own fixed lingerie/swimwear order, so every dollar figure in this lesson is a real number, not a placeholder.
A trainee merchandiser is asked to "just put in typical numbers" for a lingerie/swimwear costing example so the training material has a completed calculation quickly. The facts in front of the trainee:
The document the trainee is asked to complete:
Should the trainee proceed with these invented figures? Decide before opening the answer.
No. Two facts decide this together.
First, Order D's own figures are already fixed in docs/02 section 27. Fabric price, elastic-trim price, and target FOB are all real academy facts for Order D; inventing different "typical" numbers replaces a real fixed fact with a fiction that contradicts the cast.
Second, presenting invented prices as though they were the order's real figures breaks the same discipline Order B's own jeans partial-costing lesson demonstrates. When a figure is genuinely fixed, the correct response is to look it up and use it, exactly as this lesson does with Order D's own numbers, not to invent a substitute that only looks plausible.
Neither fact alone answers the trainee fully. Knowing only that Order D's figures exist would not tell the trainee where to find them. Knowing only that Order B's denim costing (the jeans order) uses a partial residual, without knowing that Order D's own figures are fully available in docs/02 section 27, could tempt the trainee to invent one anyway. The trainee should look up Order D's own fixed figures and use them exactly as this lesson does.
An invented price that replaces Order D's own fixed figure could be mistaken later for a genuine fact and quoted to an actual buyer, even though it contradicts docs/02 section 27. A merchandiser who repeats an unflagged, invented fabric price in a real supplier negotiation, believing it a checked figure, starts negotiating from a number with no connection to Order D's own real USD 6.00 per metre. This is a credibility risk, consistent with the same avoidance already applied to Order B's own denim residual line (the jeans order): use the fixed figure that exists, not an invented substitute.
The tool for T06-C06 is the Lingerie and swimwear construction and component checklist, a checklist with no costing sheet of its own. This lesson reuses its own check points as the cost-line structure: "Body fabric stretch" maps to the body fabric line, "Elastic trim gauge" maps to the elastic trim line, and "Cup/underwire construction" maps to the combined residual, since Order D folds hardware cost into making, overhead and profit rather than breaking it out. For any other real order, confirm real unit prices with the actual supplier quotes in hand. Lesson 6.6.4 builds the complete order file.
[Download the Lingerie and swimwear construction and component checklist](../../templates/T06-C06-lingerie-swimwear-checklist.xlsx)
1. What cost line does Order D add beyond a basic garment's costing structure, and where does its cup/underwire hardware cost sit?
2. Why does this lesson's worked calculation use real numbers, the way Order A's costing sheet does?
3. Order D's elastic trim cost is USD 0.30 per set and its fabric cost is USD 2.10 per set. What is the combined residual (making, overhead, profit and cup/underwire hardware) if the target FOB is USD 5.50 per set?
| EN | AR | FR | TR | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Costing sheet | كشف التكلفة | Fiche de coûts | Maliyet tablosu | The document that lists a garment's cost components and adds them to the price the factory quotes. |
| Cost component | عنصر التكلفة | Élément de coût | Maliyet bileşeni | One part of a garment's total price: fabric, trims, making, overhead, or profit. |
| Making charge | تكلفة التصنيع | Coût de façon | İşçilik (fason) maliyeti | The labour cost of cutting, sewing and finishing one garment. |
| Overhead | التكاليف العامة | Frais généraux | Genel giderler | A factory's running costs that are not fabric, trims or direct labour: rent, electricity, management salaries and similar costs, shared across all the pieces it makes. |
| FOB (free on board) | تسليم على ظهر السفينة في ميناء المصنع | FOB (franco à bord) | FOB (gemide teslim) | The factory delivers the goods on board the ship at its own port. Freight from there is the buyer's cost. |
| Elastic | مطاط | Élastique | Lastik | A stretch trim inserted into a waistband or cuff to allow fit without a separate closure. |
| Elastic trim gauge | مقاس (قياس) شريط المطاط | Calibre de l'élastique | Lastik aksesuar ölçüsü (gauge) | The width and stretch-recovery specification of an elastic trim used on a waistband, leg opening or bra band, chosen to match the garment's fit and support requirement. |
| Underwire channel | قناة السلك الداعم | Coulisse de baleine (armature) | Tel kanalı | A fabric casing sewn into a bra cup to hold a rigid underwire in place along the cup's base, keeping the wire from shifting or poking through the fabric. |
| Cup lining | بطانة الكوب | Doublure de bonnet | Kap astarı | An inner fabric layer sewn inside a bra or bikini-top cup for shape, support, opacity or modesty, separate from the cup's outer (face) fabric. |
You can now name and calculate a lingerie or swimwear order's cost lines by formula, using Order D's own real fixed figures. The next lesson builds the complete order file, including the lingerie and swimwear construction and component checklist, for a full lingerie or swimwear order. Back to the course map