Most Overpriced Designer? #3

[jeanclaude]

I love checking the prices of the CHANEL stuff that gets released after a new collection launch.
Cruise 2025 is HERE!
Shein looking dress: 5400 euro
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Ugly tweed jacket with neoprene hoodie: 9600 euro
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Worst one so far is this one. Who wants to spend 19k to look like little prairie girl?
-Top: 8700 euro
- Skirt: 10500 euro


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The explanation for those prices is easy: they are part of a history of fashion collection. The collection that put Virginie out of Chanel for good!!

 

[Monsieur Cristobal]

I have Karl on a marble pedestal, but since the supermarket collection, the fashion at Chanel is like James Cameron: travelling to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

 

[Lola701]

I have Karl on a marble pedestal, but since the supermarket collection, the fashion at Chanel is like James Cameron: travelling to the bottom of the Mariana Trench.

The brasserie, the space age and even the Greek collections were superior in terms of clothes even if the supermarket was super fun!

 

[FashionPower]

Oh Demna...trash bag couture extravaganza gone wrong

 

[yslforever]

Oh Demna...trash bag couture extravaganza gone wrong

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And it's Nylon:

• Matière principale 1 : 100 % polyamide
  Revêtement : polyuréthane
  Matière principale 2 : 100 % soie
  Doublure 1 : 100 % coton
  Doublure 2 : 85 % polyamide, 15 % élasthanne

Product ID: 816779TNO231000

 

[tourbillions]

he really thinks he is doing something and unfortunately he does impress some so-called fashion business experts here.

 

[JohannesL]

Oh Demna...trash bag couture extravaganza gone wrong

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I saw similar and better DIY Halloween costume with same concept last month, but how the atelier at Balenciaga manages to drape this terrible fabric is beyond my comprehension. This trash bag dress will look good when pairing with its iconic IKEA bag seaons ago.

 

[JohannesL]

source: the cut
Even this Moschino Spring 1994 dress made of real trash bags is looks better than the 50k one.

 

[Mrs.T]

Moschino all along!

 

[Frederic01]

50 million people have stopped buying luxury brands like Dior and Burberry after ‘broken promises’ to customers​

“You need to constantly meet consumers at a new angle and surprise and delight them,” an equity analyst told Fortune. · Fortune · Mike Kemp - Getty Images
Jane Thier
Updated Wed, November 20, 2024 at 7:30 AM GMT+11 4 min read

Nothing gold can stay. Despite years of strong performance, the market for personal luxury goods is set to slow down this year for the first time since the 2009 Great Recession. Now, 50 million luxury consumers have either ditched buying designer bags, scarves, watches, and more—or have been priced out, Bain & Company’s new annual luxury report warns.

Only a third of luxury brands will end the year with positive growth, Bain posited, down from two-thirds last year.

Looking ahead, it said that to stay alive, brands need to reevaluate their value proposition—mainly for Gen Zers—and keep meeting their growing expectations.

As for how? Marie Driscoll, an equity analyst focused on luxury retail, told Fortune that reinvention is key.

“Get back to books, make products more inspirational, make the shopping experience marvelous,” Driscoll said. “You need to constantly meet consumers at a new angle and surprise and delight them.”

“A fabulous ice cream sundae is boring by the time you have it the fifth time,” Driscoll added.

Broken promises to shoppers​

On some level, brands have broken their promises to consumers, Driscoll said.

“Since 2019, there’s been a high price increase across luxury without a corresponding increase in innovation, service, quality, or appeal that a luxury brand should provide,” Driscoll added. “This year, that really hit consumers, and we felt the full impact.”

It perhaps explains why the luxury powerhouses, including LVMH (which owns Dior and Louis Vuitton), Burberry, and Kering (owner of YSL and Gucci), missed revenue targets this year. In fact, LVMH was dethroned as Europe’s most valuable company in September 2023 by Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic.

Customers—beyond being hamstrung by eye-popping prices with which their salaries rarely keep pace—are likely growing unimpressed by the products these high-end brands have to offer.

Some more than others. Michael Kors, founder of his namesake brand, said during New York Fashion Week in September that he’s struggling with “brand fatigue” in an effort to explain 14% year-over-year revenue drops, pointing his finger at fast fashion and social media influencers keeping up with trends much, much faster.

"The luxury consumer wants something that is rare, unique, bespoke, beautiful, and specifically theirs,” Hitha Herzog, a retail analyst, told Fortune. “While some luxury brands offer basic customization, almost all luxury brands have no way to make one-off pieces for their VIP clients, or create something so aspirational customers can strive to eventually own.”

One major exception: Hermès, which has skyrocketed in growth this year while its industry peers have struggled. Herzog said this is largely thanks to its Birkin bag, which amasses “long wait-lists and requirements and benchmarks of how much money a customer spends before they can talk to the store about purchasing a bag.” That exclusivity, Herzog said, “creates a mystique around owning something rare, and gives it a sense of worth when you look at the price tag."

The China effect​

China had been propelling luxury growth since 2000 all the way until the pandemic. “Luxury growth globally benefited from the growth of the Chinese middle class, the aspirational class, and the people that became millionaires,” Driscoll said.
LVMH, a bellwether for the larger luxury space, posted a 3% revenue drop last month, due in large part to the continued impacts of inflation on consumer behavior—especially in the crucial Chinese market. For its part, Kering reported a 15% year-over-year decline last month.

Bain said the sharp decrease in spending in China is due to “lackluster consumer confidence”—and they’re not alone.

Globally, the current economic environment has made many “aspirational” shoppers more conservative in their spending, Nicolas Llinas-Carrizosa, a BCG partner focused on luxury, told Fortune. “They’re prioritizing either financial investments or prioritizing spending in other categories they deem more important to them.”

All told, the entire luxury sector is set to drop by 2% over the 2024 full-year period, Bain said.

But that doesn’t mean consumers are pausing their spending altogether; the travel, fine wine and dining, and auto sectors both reported modest growth this year.

Plus a “gradual recovery” in late 2025 is nonetheless still likely in China, Europe, the U.S., and especially Japan—where shoppers are the lucky beneficiary of favorable currency exchange rates.

FORTUNE MAGAZINE

 

[Salvatore]

It's so true ! ^^

 

[Frederic01]

Yes and Yes!

“Get back to books, make products more inspirational, make the shopping experience marvelous,” Driscoll said. “You need to constantly meet consumers at a new angle and surprise and delight them.”

Customers—beyond being hamstrung by eye-popping prices with which their salaries rarely keep pace—are likely growing unimpressed by the products these high-end brands have to offer.

 

[Frederic01]

DIET PRADA

 

[Alquimista]

More money on marketing, more money on smoke and mirrors! Gotta sell those crappy designs.

 

[yslforever]

More money on marketing, more money on smoke and mirrors! Gotta sell those crappy designs.

It looks like current customers have learned to see through the smoke screens of marketing.

 

[mdmmxl]

Back again in my favorite thread with a few highlights from Jacquemus "contemporary pricing" strategy.
First: The Vela Top coming in at only 1890€ (55% Cotton - 45% Polyester), you really get what you pay for with this piece = a triangle bikini top with one dart and a circle skirt from the first page of a "how to sew for beginners" book. The sequins might look badly sewn on but thankfully you don't have to worry about loosing them as there are already only about 20 on each cup. Making the biggest stress-point of this piece a single (!) bra hook at the back ensures that you get to keep this piece for at least a month before it rips apart. Great investment for any fashion lover.

 

[mdmmxl]

But the wonders continue with the The Spezia Skirt. For 1590€ you'd be able to own a real feat of innovation, as it seems almost impossible to produce a 100% sheepskin skirt which can only be closed by the thinnest, flimsiest in-seam-zipper one can find, if it weren't sold out already. As this wonder of technique also features eight (!) whole straight seams, any savvy customer can excuse the huge gaping created from sloppy production and bad choice of materials, when faced with so much design-gull.

 

[mdmmxl]

Also: maybe just get the real deal instead of this...

 

[LadyJunon]

Back again in my favorite thread with a few highlights from Jacquemus "contemporary pricing" strategy.
First: The Vela Top coming in at only 1890€ (55% Cotton - 45% Polyester), you really get what you pay for with this piece = a triangle bikini top with one dart and a circle skirt from the first page of a "how to sew for beginners" book. The sequins might look badly sewn on but thankfully you don't have to worry about loosing them as there are already only about 20 on each cup. Making the biggest stress-point of this piece a single (!) bra hook at the back ensures that you get to keep this piece for at least a month before it rips apart. Great investment for any fashion lover.

But the wonders continue with the The Spezia Skirt. For 1590€ you'd be able to own a real feat of innovation, as it seems almost impossible to produce a 100% sheepskin skirt which can only be closed by the thinnest, flimsiest in-seam-zipper one can find, if it weren't sold out already. As this wonder of technique also features eight (!) whole straight seams, any savvy customer can excuse the huge gaping created from sloppy production and bad choice of materials, when faced with so much design-gull.

See? This man is the second coming of Vionnet, Balenciaga and Alaia!

 

[Cocteau Stone]

But the wonders continue with the The Spezia Skirt. For 1590€ you'd be able to own a real feat of innovation, as it seems almost impossible to produce a 100% sheepskin skirt which can only be closed by the thinnest, flimsiest in-seam-zipper one can find, if it weren't sold out already. As this wonder of technique also features eight (!) whole straight seams, any savvy customer can excuse the huge gaping created from sloppy production and bad choice of materials, when faced with so much design-gull.

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Now who's idea was it to take the zipper photo? Yes it shows the fastening, but at what cost! Frankly though, I'm baffled at how they managed to make an invisible zipper look so strained on a garment that looks so bulky and loose.

Funnily enough had they done the zipper along one of the straight seams rather than the curved hip seam, this could have been avoided. But that's expecting too much from Jacquemus. Its just too logical and obvious. Also would have cut down on resources (shorter zip, less labour, easier finishing...).