We started with $150, as far as I can remeber than went down. The higher the price, the more important is the brand component OR bespoke experience in the luxury offline environment. We did work with ateliers that sold our jeans for $300, but a) the volume was still low and b) we were only getting our $99 out of the each pair. Besides, when you go for real bespoke, people tend to be much more picky → more returns and alterations as a result.
$100k was never a budget estimate. There is a long story under the hood, but (in very short) we had to switch agency but lost a lot of money, than waisted a lot of money again on the indian offshore engineers that made shitty product that we had to remake. So $100k and a year is just an outcome. We had an angel investor who (just as we did) firmly believed in the concept and wanted the project to launch and not to be dropped on the way.