For years “designer” brands have been able to get away with making a few lovely high-end pieces and sticking a label on the rest; a bit of effort in one place pulls the bulk behind it. Now, us lot – yes, I too am a consumer of fashion – have realised we can buy the same staples cheaper from brands without the advertising budgets and still get the good stuff from the designers. The trouble is, the designers don’t make any money on their high end -they need the bulk.
And, department stores have either not realised this or they know something I don’t (always an outside chance!). With the bean counters cutting buyer’s budgets by up to 60%, they’re stocking up on the cheaper designer bulk, the stuff they’ve also traditionally made money on. They’ve shunned many smaller labels and are holding back on the quality. In short, they’re doing exactly the wrong thing.
And, I’m sure everyone’s noticed, thrift not ostentation are in fashion. Thrift – that’s getting the most out of your dollar, not just buying cheap. The IPC (Involentary Price Confession) surfaced a few years ago, the “Yeah, and it was only £40!”.
So, the days of the well polished turd* are over and, although people will buy exceptional clothes, they’ll not pay exceptional prices. (*Interlude – I heard of an ad exec the other day who said “You can’t polish a turd, but we have found you can roll it in glitter”, genius!) What to do? Well, I’ll continue to do what we’ve always done – make exceptional clothes and sell at reasonable prices. It doesn’t cost that much more to make great designs and to design them merely takes effort.