What a tech pack costs in France

It is the first question a brand that has never produced asks, and it rarely gets a number back. Here are both numbers, the French market's and ours, with what each one actually buys.

What a French freelance pattern maker charges

The only published price survey of the profession is Textile Addict's (27 independent pattern makers, 2019). It is 7 years old and the sample is small, so read it as an order of magnitude and not as a rate card.

• Day rate: €80 to €550, average €239.
• Pattern for one model: €150 to €700, average €400.
• Tech pack on its own: about €116.
• Grading and a measurement table in 4 sizes: €78.
• Digitising a paper pattern into CAD: €147.
• Flat rate per garment: t-shirt €159, shirt €270, dress €360, jacket €495, coat €594.

The flat rate per garment is the profession's preferred way of billing, and it is the number to look at: it covers the pattern, the tech pack and often a toile. A bureau d'études prices on the same logic, with an order minimum on top.

Why the range is so wide

Because the price does not buy a file, it buys judgement. The piece count doubles between a t-shirt and a lined jacket. Ease depends on the cloth and on how the garment will be worn. A good pattern maker will question your design where it will not sew, and that conversation is precisely what you are paying for. That is the artisanal route, and it is still the normal route for a signature piece or a cut nobody has made before.

What it costs here, and what it buys

The production pattern is priced by piece count and published before payment: $29 for a simple garment, $59 for a standard one, $129 for a complex one. Complexity is classified by the platform, never chosen by the buyer.

The factory spec sheet is not inside that fee. It is a $10 add-on, alongside grading at $15, a marker layout at $10 and seam allowances at $5. Every add-on is named and priced before you pay.

What it buys: a professional pattern maker takes the commission and cuts the pattern. An AI does not do that work and we do not pretend otherwise. On this platform the AI does the design and visualisation work and a human pattern maker cuts the pattern. That split is deliberate.

The whole of what you pay for the pattern goes to the pattern maker, net of the card processing fee. The house takes no margin on that leg; it is paid for the platform, in credits and subscriptions.

How to choose

• A signature piece, an unusual cut, a drape you need to feel: hire a pattern maker directly and pay for the days. Nothing substitutes for that conversation.
• A block you intend to produce, a capsule, a piece whose volume you already know: a per-piece fee published in advance saves you three rounds of quoting.
• You do not yet know which case you are in: read the garment first, for free, then decide.