The name Naeem Khan has been synonymous with intricately-embroidered, glittering evening wear for more than two decades. It hasn't always been easy.

"It's been incredible, the journey, because keeping a house like mine, which is small, which is like a jewel, and I make jewel like clothes,” he said.

But Khan admits, along with the glitz glamour came some tough financial times.

"I produced the first season on time, perfect fit and I was in business," he said. "But it doesn't mean that you remain in business because you are as good as your last season."

He learned the intricacies of designing from the legendary Halston. And he also learned the cost of creating a luxury line can be astronomical.

"I usually create about 150 to 200 pieces and each piece can be between $2,000 to $5,000," he explained. "So just to make the collection can be anywhere between a quarter million to $300,000. Then for the fashion show it'll be like $150,000."

But fashion is a business of scale, and for new, emerging designers, just getting started can be a struggle.

Emma Gage started her label, Melke, after interning for some of the industry's greats, like Betsey Johnson.  After graduating from Marist, she interned at small design firms.  But when COVID struck, she decided it was time to start her own brand.

"I kind of figured if I am not going to be making a lot of money working for someone else," she said, "maybe I will just not make a lot of money working for myself and pursue this dream that I've always had."

She used unemployment and COVID funds to start Melke, named for the way she and her fellow Minnesotans pronounce "milk." She wanted a brand that would be fun and sustainable, much of it is sewn in her Brooklyn workspace.  But funding she says, is not easy to find.

"Every person is just very scrappy in their own way," she said, "whether it's going to friends and family for investment, whether it's opening up for investments, whether it's a loan, whether it's savings that you've had."

In the past, she's done presentations using spaces provided for emerging designers. This Fashion Week, she did her first runway show, thanks to sponsors like Afterpay and Doc Martens. IMG, the company that operates New York Fashion Week, provides emerging designers with space to show their collections, and sponsorships to help them show.

Kim Fasting Berg is the executive vice president of marketing for WME Fashion, and she's charged with helping emerging designers get their collections seen during New York Fashion Week.

"One of the things that we have also been working really hard at is pairing designers with brands," she said. "So that's something that we uniquely do for the industry. And this season alone, we have raised over one and a half million dollars in funding for designers. So we have companies like Rakuten who are sponsoring the Black in Fashion Council, and there's no cost to the designers to participate in our showroom space."

Veteran PR executive Erin Hawker, who represents Melke, has made a career out of helping emerging designers get their brands noticed through the company she founded and leads, Agentry PR.

"This is why we launched New York Men's Day for instance," she said, "because a lot of emerging designers that we saw needed help and support. They can come in, we take care of all the PR, we take care of the space, we take care of all the ancillary extras."

And, she said, designers need to ask themselves hard questions before they embark on this expensive journey.

"I do think it's about the overarching vision of where they want to take their brand, namely, where do you see yourself in three years? Where do you see yourself in five years? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?  This business is hard."