>> Black Friday, Cyber Monday, January sales that really begin in December, the sample sales that are in full swing in London at the moment… the flurry of discounting activity in all sectors of retail is hard to ignore. RRP – recommended retail price is fast becoming the price we look at with a #NotImpressed rolling of the eye, before we await its heavily discounted destiny. I’m not , save for a few exceptions, that’s fast becoming the case. Blame eBay, flash sale sites, discounters like Yoox and the Outnet and then of course the traditional retailers, who go on sale earlier and earlier in a bid to get rid of unsold stock.
As I was looking back at some outfits back in September during Paris fashion week and what I’ve been wearing a lot recently, the primary source was Vestiaire Collective. They had set me the challenge of wearing their pre-loved and past season wares for a few days during fashion month. No challenge there. Preloved and past season denotes most of my purchases these days as I continuously re-adjust the scales on what I consider to be the “true value” of clothing. I remember visiting Vestiaire Collective HQ and hearing about the fact that unlike bags, clothing gets extra discounted as the seasons wear on because their value diminishes rapidly. One glance at the site currently and you’ll find a Celine dress from SS14 at half the price it would have been in store and a Miu Miu coat from AW13 down 75%. Going back further in seasons and you find some veritable bargains – a Prada top from their memorable SS08 fairy collection for £200 and a Rochas by Marco Zanini (my current hunting obsession) printed top available for a snippy £70.
When you get into the semantics of it, the “true value” of fashion becomes a tetchy subject, and one that brands definitely don’t want consumers discussing, even as we’re bombarded with discounts and sale tags. You have cost price – the cost of what it took to make something, which incorporates everything from the cost of materials to the wages of design teams. Then there’s the wholesale price that a designer will charge to retailers, that might be double the cost price or more depending on what other costs of branding, running stores and other overheads need to be worked into that. Then you have the retailers’ mark-up of anything between 2.2 to 2.6 times that cost, giving them enough wiggle room to do their discounting. Bruno Pieters of the label Honest By is one of the few, if not only label, that will have their customers privy to the exact breakdown of this information.
But it’s not as easy just to say that “true” value is the wholesale price that a designer or a brand charges retailers. What price do we attribute to that feeling of buying a brand new brocade padded jacket that has just landed into a Miu Miu flagship store, with its lush cream carpeting and tactile walls? I’m using a personal working example there as someone, who pays full prices for a few notable exceptions. It’s what retailers and brands bank on, that we will constantly yearn for that feeling of the new and the fresh, as well as the fear that something might sell out in our desired size or colour way if we don’t buy it as early as possible. There’s an unquantifiable value on buying the new, that accounts for the way sites like Moda Operandi work in their periodical trunk shows or when fashion insiders make personal orders without seeing the product in question.
Then there’s more of an more of an emotional value when it comes to shelling out full price in other instances. How do you value the feeling of say buying something from an independent designer, taking satisfaction that you’re contributing to their upward trajectory? Or wanting that blue sequinned dress because it’s there in front of your eyes and all you ever ever want to wear is that blue sequinned dress, and all sensical knowledge of it eventually being discounted goes out of your head? Or memories, associations and attachments to specific designers and collections that spark off imaginary notions of value in your head. A metallic silk pleated jacket from Balenciaga’s S/S 09 collection is currently hanging about on Vestiaire Collective for a princely sum but I’m being swayed nonetheless…
In the end, “true value” is still a subjective thing that’s for each of us to grasp and figure out as we wade through the myriad of seasonal sales and discounts or at the other end of the scale, the New In boxes, the exclusives and the limited editions.
I’d be interested to know how YOU determine a “true value” of something.
Photograph by Street Fashion 5 Xpro – Prada jacket, Julien David net top and Chanel skirt from Vestiaire Collective worn with Tabitha Simmons shoes and Valentino sunglasses
Photograph by White Rabbit Dreams
Photograph by J’ai Perdu Ma Veste – Balenciaga dress and Prada sandals from Vestiaire Collective worn with Body Editions top and Sandro rucksack
Photograph by Moez Achour
Photograph by Le 21eme – Marni top, Jean Paul Gaultier jumper and Lucian Pellat Finet skirt from Vestiaire Collective worn with Louis Vuitton boots, Christopher Kane bag, Sandro rucksack and Finlay & Co sunglasses
Photograph by Your Ensemble – Vanessa Bruno jacket and Dior dress from Vestiaire Collective worn with J Brand jeans, Sophia Webster x Selfridges shoes and Celine bag
Photograph by Style du Monde
Photograph by Moez Achour – Proenza Schouler dress from Vestiaire Collective worn with Marco de Vincenzo jacket, Chanel trainers, Valentino sunglasses and Mansur Gavriel bag
Love the photos!
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I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, what with sales and sample sales. When people pick up items for a 1/5 of it’s retail price it’s kind of an eye opener and a reminder of actually as consumers we do pay quite bumped up prices and makes you wonder whether THAT designer bag is really worth the price tag.
Though, while handing over hard earned savings for certain designer items is a bit nerve racking, it’s also pretty satisfying too.
Although I personally absolutely agree with the pricing theory you are here promoting, as well as all the possible outlets of discounted clothing (ebay, vestitaire, yoox etc.) yet I somehow think there is still a big part of the fashion-oriented population that give extra money to get into a Chanel store and get out after 30 minutes with a huge b&w bag and feeling better about themselves. It may seem wrong from an anti-capitalistic view, but I still somehow doubt that determining our own value of clothes go beside what Honest By does…
It would be awesome creating products for the exact costs of its production/design, but where does the heritage of a brand, its spirit or the price of its interior design (e.g. Victoria Beckham’s first flagship store and its high-designed are) come in?
It’s an ideal, one that I would love to explore (that’s why I applied for the Kering award for Sustainability with a similar though of both cultural, productional and economic transparency) – and not to say that I don’t believe in it with all my heart – but I am still afraid it’s quite dreamy to think of it as becoming anyhow mainstream…
ps.That Proenza Schouler dress looks like it’s tailor-made for you!
So in love with the Chanel sneaker<3
Shall We Sasa
Amazing details…I’m in love with these looks!
XOX, Gap.
http://www.gaptoothedgirl.com
Awesome post. We do need to redefine value I think. http://www.thepaarblog.com/
love how you styled all these looks
http://hashtagliz.com
Thankfully a post about sales that makes you have to stop and be thoughtful about it all. I love to know about the clothes I am buying and by that I mean I have certain designers that I favor because their story, their values and their ethics appeal to me and for me that attaches value to the clothes I wear. I have been writing about one of my favorites, Ann Demeulemeester on my blog. Because of this I find value wherever my favorites are selling, retail, consignment, sales, vestaire collective is a fave. Most of all I find value in being able to honor them by how I actually inhabit their clothes and how I use them to project my sense of self into the world.
Accidental Icon
http://www.accidentalicon.com
Wow! That post is certainly food for thought.
Thanks for the link to Honest By – I like the idea of being that transparent. It is on my list of considerations for Project No. 1.
I love some of those combos you were snapped wearing, particularly the Proenza Schouler dress etc.
Xtal
http://vapourphase.blogspot.co.uk/
She looks really gorgeous with the amazing coat. And great photos with great place. My recomandation for stylish lovers specially who want to be familiar with such amazing ideas to have a look on our site.
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Thanks.
This is one of my favorite posts ever, Susie! Both the thoughts you expressed and the fantastic images were so inspiring. You are the best.
I’m intrigued that you brought the emotional meaning of “value” into the discussion too—it’s very easy to look at just the cost price when evaluating is something is fairly priced, or if it’s “worth it” for you to buy. Emotional value and satisfaction isn’t easily quantified, but I think for a lot of fashion-obsessed and fashion-influenced people, the emotional value is the main driver in choosing to buy or not buy things.
I’m normally a snob about never purchasing at RRP/MSRP, and my rule was that I wouldn’t get up/add to cart for less than a 30% markdown (but usually more). But recently I’ve been getting really into certain brands (specificially: I’m very into Kaarem and A Kind of Guise and Morphe), and I love knowing about their origin story, their production and manufacturing process, &c. Things like interacting with their reps over Twitter and email also helped. So I’ve become a fan, and as a fan it seems more reasonable in my head to pay full price for something, as a way of manifesting my appreciation of the brand and what they stand for and what they do.
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