Are luxury goods getting more expensive, or am I just getting older?

[softgrey]

as an american who has recenlty returned from europe..
i found it interesting to note that the higher end luxury goods are priced about the same here as overseas....
in other words the designershave made some sort of sprice adjustment depending on the market...

ie- something costing 600 euros will wind up costing you $1200 if you buy it in Europe...
but if you buy it in NY...it will still cost $1200...

it's the midlevel contemproary brands and lower priced high street brands where you really feel the weak dollar..


ie-a $10 drugstore lipgloss is suddenly 20 bucks...so totally not worth it...
even though i bought a couple anyway!.....
what?..it was a pretty colour...
...

this was a definite issue at topshop......
you wind up with h&m quality at zara prices...not so good......
so you really have to pick and choose carefully in these sorts of stores to find anything worth having...
such a bummer because i used to have a field day on the high street...

even zara had adjusted their prices though..
a top that was 39 pounds there...was $79 here..which is essentially the same price...

so if you have a fair understanding of the market...
you can avoid getting into TOO much debt...

 

[fashion_boi_01]

As the US dollar continues to weaken, the items will start becoming more expensive in the States. So for now they might the same because the inventory was purchased 6+ months ago at a different exchange rate, but s/s 08 inventory being purchased now will reflect the current status.

 

[softgrey]

if it really goes up too much,...
then no one will buy anything and it will all go on sale...

and we will get it all for 1/2 price......

 

[fashionista-ta]

As the US dollar continues to weaken, the items will start becoming more expensive in the States. So for now they might the same because the inventory was purchased 6+ months ago at a different exchange rate, but s/s 08 inventory being purchased now will reflect the current status.

But the dollar's been weak for awhile right? This is not new news Sounds to me like softgrey is right & they're giving us a break ... maybe because they know people can get online and order from elsewhere if the prices are too different?

 

[it-boy's nature]

Has anyone heard of the book Deluxe by Dana Thomas?

Anyway, it's an indepth look at how "luxury lost its luster" and in it she explains how the biggest fashion houses began in say, Paris with one designer commited to excellence and quality but now, with more houses going public and working with fashion groups, luxury is more so about selling a dream and including everyone as much as possible, whether it be with wallets fragrances or bags. Luxury is no longer for just the elite social circles that once dominated the industry in consumerism.

Thus far in the book:
Dana gives all the history behind fashion group LVMH as well as that of the owner Arnault Bernard (sp) .

She also claimed that while most fashion houses sell bags for about 11 to 12 times the cost of making them, Louis Vuitton sells bags for an astounding 13 times the cost of making them.

I'll continue to post as I read more, I'm only on about the third chapter.

 

[softgrey]

But the dollar's been weak for awhile right? This is not new news Sounds to me like softgrey is right & they're giving us a break ... maybe because they know people can get online and order from elsewhere if the prices are too different?

...of course i'm right...!...
was there ever any doubt...?!?!?...






boy-
i think that book is mentioned earlier in the thread...


but please do let us know if there is anything interesting that you come across as you go along...

 

[strawberry daiquiri]

even zara had adjusted their prices though..
a top that was 39 pounds there...was $79 here..which is essentially the same price...

this is almost always the case though... sterling being stronger than the euro does not make topshop, etc. clothes more expensive in ireland. it's usually standard procedure to price the goods using 'purchasing power parity' theory, stating that exchange rates between currencies are in equilibrium when their purchasing power is the same in each of the two countries... it means that the exchange rate between two countries should be equal to the ratio of the two countries' price level of a fixed basket of goods and services. and vice versa. obviously there has to be a time lag in adjusting prices, but generally you pay the relative price that takes into account your exchange rate.

even the title of the thread sort of requires you to consider the relative price... yes milk and rent and all other costs keep increasing, but so does the minimum wage and all the wages above that. only when you adjust the prices of bags and shoes for the constant (though low, historically) level of inflation, can you really work out how much worse off you are, if at all... and how much advantage they are taking of consumers.

 

[seanutbutter]

if it really goes up too much,...
then no one will buy anything and it will all go on sale...

and we will get it all for 1/2 price......

I like the way you think.

 

[softgrey]

this is almost always the case though... sterling being stronger than the euro does not make topshop, etc. clothes more expensive in ireland. it's usually standard procedure to price the goods using 'purchasing power parity' theory, stating that exchange rates between currencies are in equilibrium when their purchasing power is the same in each of the two countries... it means that the exchange rate between two countries should be equal to the ratio of the two countries' price level of a fixed basket of goods and services. and vice versa. obviously there has to be a time lag in adjusting prices, but generally you pay the relative price that takes into account your exchange rate.

even the title of the thread sort of requires you to consider the relative price... yes milk and rent and all other costs keep increasing, but so does the minimum wage and all the wages above that. only when you adjust the prices of bags and shoes for the constant (though low, historically) level of inflation, can you really work out how much worse off you are, if at all... and how much advantage they are taking of consumers.

uh... that sounds like it might involve some math.....

 

[Yanka]

ok well, how come AMERICAN clothes are all at least double-priced here???
A ralph lauren sweater that cost $80 costs the equivalent of $250 ib Germany. HELLOooo??? And it's made in Macau or something - nothing to do with dollar rate.
Abercrombie doubles its prices in europe. The same with all other americans - MJ, Calvin Klein, BCBG. Everything is way more expensive. I think it probably has more to do with the company's pricing policy than weak dollar.

 

[aris]

Definitely prices have gone up, I remember getting a Gucci purse in the 90s for something like $200-300. A large one too! I'm getting a little tired of it myself. Recently I bought a bunch of vintage and independent designer things while traveling. It felt good to have something special for a reasonable price.

def. I remember buying Gucci shoes in Horrods for 200 dollars in the mid 90s!
I saw in Prada this fall boots for 12000 euro!!!!!!!!1

 

[tourist10]

This is slightly off topic, but as I was browsing monamoore.com, I realized that the US dollar is worth just about equivalent to the Canadian dollar now, making the prices so much higher than at US stores. It truly no longer makes sense to purchase items at non-US online stores with US currency. I'm curious to see what effects we'll see in the spring.

 

[katieo]

The US dollar has been weak for a while but it's getting worse, I work retail and we've had a lot more Canadians and Europeans shopping than usual. I was talking to a canadian who said people there are starting to just come to the US to do any major shopping because they save major $$, especially on things like cars. Another English woman was laughing that basically, everything for her was about half price!


Time for me to move.

 

[emma peel]

NYC is full of Europeans buying like crazy because of the weak dollar, but though the prices might be comparable for luxury goods, Europeans have more buying power because generally things are cheaper for them here.

 

[ApertureRomance]

Just before Christmas I threw in the bin two Zara little black dresses. No charity shop would have taken either of them. The fabric had faded and bobbled, the zip on one had gone wonky, the stitching at the waistband had rotted, the seams were gaping and the lining had turned from black to grey. Each dress was less than two years old. I replaced the two with one, another black dress by Vanessa Bruno at double the price.

A day or two later I was talking to a man who has worked all his life in the fashion industry. The reason my Zara dresses had fallen to pieces, he told me, was because I had machine-washed them. But that was what the label said, I told him, crossly. And what does the label say on the Vanessa Bruno? I was wearing it, so I had a look. Dry clean only. No one is going to buy a dress for £49.99 that has to be dry cleaned, he pointed out, patiently, but of course when you put it in the machine it will destroy it. The plastic on the zip will pull away. The stitching can't withstand the spin cycle. The Vanessa Bruno dress probably could be machine-washed, but if you buy a designer dress, you don't want to see machine-washable on the label, it sounds cheap.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2248487,00.html

 

[UNiQFashionista]

prices are getting crazy....wow...a christopher kane dress is almost 4000 dollars- that is crazy....cute short zac posen dresses are 2000+, its all soo shocking how expensive things are becoming...how expensive fashion is becoming...

 

[SirSunday]

inflation and the falling of the dollar make fashion that much more expensive in the U.S. even when clothing prices are reduced at the end of the season, the sale prices don't drop like they used to (speaking as a professional season sale consumer, I know.) at least the increasing cost should prompt us to reconsider quality vs. quantity, and functionality vs. form. my wardrobe needs a diet about now anyway

 

[chloehandbags]

i read in the ny times that luxury handbags and accessories are marked up 10 times...

so if it cost $140 to make...they sell it at $1400......

not acceptable......

i think one would be a fool to pay retail for one at this point...

ITA.

I think that's what the luxury goods companies are forgetting.

Just because they can afford to pay high amounts, doesn't mean that the well-off/wealthy won't object to being taken advantage of, over something that simply isn't worth anywhere near the price that is being charged. After all, they (or their ancestors) didn't become rich by squandering their cash.

As I mentioned on another forum, I think one looks more like a fool than a fashionista, these days (not that the two are mutually exclusive, of course! ) if one carries a current season R-T-W designer bag.

Other designer goods prices have risen way out of line with inflation, too; but bag price rises really are absolutely obscene.

The quality's generally down, too.

 

[chloehandbags]

as an american who has recenlty returned from europe..
i found it interesting to note that the higher end luxury goods are priced about the same here as overseas....
in other words the designershave made some sort of sprice adjustment depending on the market...

ie- something costing 600 euros will wind up costing you $1200 if you buy it in Europe...
but if you buy it in NY...it will still cost $1200...

Yes, exactly.

Before the dollar weakened, most European R-T-W designer goods were significantly less expensive in the states, than they were in the UK (kind of insulting, really, as the UK's in Europe, after all! ); now they are not.

Due to the ridiculous price hikes, most designer goods are much more expensive than they were, everywhere (including in the UK); but in the states, the prices have gone up even more, as they've also gone up due to the weak dollar.

This must be the first time, in decades, that we've had comparable prices and typically, it's because your prices have gone up, rather than our prices going down to a more geographically-appropriate level.

I understand that the US has larger buying power, due to a larger population, so that partially explains the, previously, lower prices; but that still never explained why we were expected to pay so much more, when we were, supposedly, so much closer to the sites of production...

Of course, if it's really all made in Asia, that would explain things; as Asia's closer to the US, of course.

 

[Caffeine]

I also noticed that Marc Jacobs started making collection clothes in the USA with imported fabrics. As a result, I found his price point nowadays not as ridiculous as his European counterparts.