Most Overpriced Designer? #3

[blueorchid]

Extremely high prices also betray the principles of prêt-à-porter. At those price points, I sell couture, which caters to a completely different clientele.

I'm glad SOMEONE finally said it.

(yes yes, everyone on tFS is rich and part of the elite, etc. and on the internet no one knows you're a dog, etc.)

 

[TaylorBinque]

There is a reason why Prada stores are always empty in Bangkok

 

[FashionPower]

Increase of Prada has been such a joke!

It's funny cause everyone in the circle knows Saffiano "leather" is not even real conventional leather.
Anyway, if you notice, the material difference in most items is already included in the "fixed" production costs and retail price. Nowadays canvas bags have the same retail price of the leather ones, even if the former features a much cheaper in terms of raw material and overall lower quality material. They switched to this method to increase margins on canvas material, you're buying a PU bag for the price of a leather one...it's insane!

 

[FashionPower]

Genuine question, but why has the price of luxury shoes (and accessories to some extent) increased only slightly over the last ten years, but the price of the clothes has increased astronomically? It makes no sense to me.

The RTW of any major luxury brand is always the lowest performing and smallest margin of sales, yet instead of the brands making the pricing more alluring so that they can attract more clientele and drive sales, it keeps going up and up and up to the point now where RTW is almost impossible to sell, even to the top 1%.

And then you have these CEO's scratching their heads at why the RTW doesn't sell? Really?

The price point right now of RTW is ridiculous. I look at Dior Men for example and see this stuff and it makes me so sad that this is what Dior has become. And they have the AUDACITY to write something like this :

"Celebrating the House's heritage and inventiveness, the new creations by Kim Jones add touches of audacity to all looks. These objects of desire, combining elegance and functionality, reflect the timeless modernity of Dior style."

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

It's not that simple but it makes sense if you think about it.
Aspirational customers are only interested in bags, shoes and logo recognizable stuff: increasing prices of these does not harm the sells as most aspirational customers are not aware of how the high fashion world works and they are willing on spending to flex or to get an heirloom or a basic reward for an accomplishment. You would be shocked to know the amount of "dumb" delusional women who gets a Saint Laurent LouLou, a Louis Vuitton Neverfull, a Love Cartier bracelet or a Dior book tote only because they got a new job, bought a new home or closed an important deal...
This is why brands can get away with the constant prices increases: uber rich people (the top 1%) couldn't care less to splurge 10k on a Valentino gown or 10k on a basic CHANEL tweed jacket and wouldn't care even if the price skyrocketed to 20k. The aspirational customers are not interested in such items from the beginning and only focus on status symbol items, for such items the higher price is never a problem...and never will be

 

[tourbillions]

everyone on tFS is rich and part of the elite, etc. and on the internet no one knows you're a dog

what do you mean?? honey, we are the fashion circle.

 

[LadyJunon]

Extremely high prices also betray the principles of prêt-à-porter. At those price points, I sell couture, which caters to a completely different clientele.

@Lola701, do you have the link to the full article? I find this statement really interesting because it reveals how his age influences his mindset (in a good way). While he started his house later in life, he's the same age as that generation that created designer ready-to-wear where the original goal was making the ideas of Haute Couture more approachable and accessible for the every(wo)man. The model of RTW demanding thousands only emerged in the 80s when HC became a loss-leader and brands started depending more on licensed products to fund the HC operations.

 

[tourbillions]

blame the russians who are desperate to dispense their moneys so they would buy anything at any price

 

[blueorchid]

what do you mean?? honey, we are the fashion circle.

ooooooh, just certain things I've noticed about the claims certain users make 💅

 

[FashionPower]

What do you think the actual margins on a Prada Galleria in Saffiano are nowadays?
It's 3800 bucks for the medium size:
- Production:
-- I have no info on leather cutting / sewing operations, most probably not performed in Italy anyway
-- I assume all assembly operations (zippers, tags and such) are performed in China or Romania, so close to 0
-- I also assume not even a single operation is performed in Italy, hence they don't have the play that trick like Valentino and Dior does with the "made in Italy" claim
- Logistics & transportation: same as other brands I believe
- Raw materials:
-- Saffiano "leather": as basic as LV canvas or Fendi Zucca, maybe slightly more pricy
-- Hardware: I assume hardware is manufactured in China and then galvanized / plated in other countries? Or anything done in China?

If a Dior book tote manufactured in a chinese sweatshop in Italy is 50x, I expect a Galleria manufactured in Romania to be 40x (slightly higher price of raw material and labour), hence production cost of 95 euro, which makes totally sense as most medium sized leather goods are around 100ish in production costs.