Most Overpriced Designer?

[Monsieur Cristobal]

For me, nothing can beat the Balenciaga "Rivoli necklace", made in BRASS, using of course "savoir-faire de Haute Joaillerie", for 20.000€.
Since when galvanizing brass is a high jewellery technique?

 

[blueorchid]

I know more expensive bag charms exist, but I'm posting these Gucci ones for the simple fact that you can tell they're just using scraps. The Panda one isn't even centered.


gucci

 

[reese06]

I’m more offended by how immature the finished product is. They’re more dull, than playful.

 

[GIVENCHYlover]

^^ Wait a minute?! What brings you to the Gucci website this holiday shopping season?



giphy.com

 

[blueorchid]

^^ Wait a minute?! What brings you to the Gucci website this holiday shopping season?

You could ask anyone who posts in this thread the same question...

 

[Deleted member 170196]

The discussion of why some brands can "make it" and others don't in another thread make me look at some offerings from promising young designers. Here is a selection from Aaron Esh, whose whole stick is to be the new Helmut Lang with a very "serious" NewYorkLate90sConcreteAndLeather-offering. Well, I don't about you, but I personally don't find it very "sexy" or "modern" to have a pair of 600€ trousers that makes it look like my *** is stuffed with two Nokia phones because the pocket facing is pushing through the fabric (among many, many, many other construction AND production errors). Same goes for the chestpocket on a 900€ waistcoat. And that lapel on this 1000€ blazer... If on the e-com sites the pieces already look like they were made this horribly (and I don't use that lightly, but this really looks like amateur work), you really have to wonder what they would look like worn, you know, like you do with clothes usually... But maybe that's his idea of sexy? That the clothes look so bad that you want to rip them off immediately? Sorry, but having Katy England on your team does not a fashion brand make...

 

[jeanclaude]

The discussion of why some brands can "make it" and others don't in another thread make me look at some offerings from promising young designers. Here is a selection from Aaron Esh, whose whole stick is to be the new Helmut Lang with a very "serious" NewYorkLate90sConcreteAndLeather-offering. Well, I don't about you, but I personally don't find it very "sexy" or "modern" to have a pair of 600€ trousers that makes it look like my *** is stuffed with two Nokia phones because the pocket facing is pushing through the fabric (among many, many, many other construction AND production errors). Same goes for the chestpocket on a 900€ waistcoat. And that lapel on this 1000€ blazer... If on the e-com sites the pieces already look like they were made this horribly (and I don't use that lightly, but this really looks like amateur work), you really have to wonder what they would look like worn, you know, like you do with clothes usually... But maybe that's his idea of sexy? That the clothes look so bad that you want to rip them off immediately? Sorry, but having Katy England on your team does not a fashion brand make...

View attachment 1332129 View attachment 1332130 View attachment 1332131

OMG! Those lapels with fusible interfacing so shiny (to the point of being scorched) are what quality controller nightmares are made of!

 

[Frederic01]

BOF

 

[GivenchyHomme]

Here's an interesting read from The New York Times

Obscene Prices, Declining Quality: Luxury Is in a Death Spiral​

By Katharine K. Zarrella
Ms. Zarrella is a longtime fashion editor and lecturer.

The holiday shopping season is hitting its apex. And do you know what I, a longtime fashion editor, will not be buying my loved ones this year? Big-name luxury fashion. I’d sooner set my eyebrows on fire. Why am I betraying the industry to which I’ve dedicated the better part of the past 20 years of my life, you might wonder? Let me tell you a story.
When, for the fall 2023 season, Marc Jacobs reissued the runway-show version of his Kiki boots — a sought-after, supple-leather style that I’d been lusting after since their 2016 debut — I found a way to squeeze them into my budget. I’d had a tumultuous few months, and I figured I’d treat myself to something I’d treasure forever. Something that would last.
They did not.
The right heel cap fell off after a handful of wears, revealing a flimsy plastic cavern. I got it replaced, only to have a four-inch platform base snap off like a rotting tree limb days later. Timber! Two passers-by heaved me up, and I limped home, barefoot. In February, I demanded a refund, which I promptly put toward much-needed physical therapy.
My experience sums up everything that’s gone wrong with what once served as semiotic shorthand for the good life. In recent years, luxury of all kinds has become obscenely, disgracefully, inconceivably costly. And the price hikes we’ve seen are steeper than what inflation would dictate. What’s worse? As costs climb, quality hasn’t. In fact, it’s largely declined.
“Luxury is in chaos,” said Gill Linton, a fashion and marketing expert and a co-founder of luxury vintage platform Byronesque.
I’d go a step further. Luxury is in a death spiral. After a decade of nearly unfettered growth, the sector is bombing across the globe. Analysts point to less-affluent buyers reining in their spending and slowing demand in China. I believe there’s another culprit: a growing realization that many luxury houses have broken the principles that made them so successful. These hoity-toity brands, which cheapened their essence and eviscerated their desirability with down-market celebrity partnerships, licensing deals and influencer advertising, have no one to blame but themselves.
This started at the source of so many modern woes: social media. For those not glued to TikTok or “The Kardashians,” social media, helped along by reality TV, has instigated a frenetic game of one-upmanship in which top social-media content makers aim to project wealth while outdoing themselves and their competition. This means flaunting luxury goods in posts that are then spread widely by algorithms. Kyle Richards, a cast member of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” has become infamous for hitting the gym with a difficult-to-get Hermès Birkin bag — which costs anywhere from five figures to hundreds of thousands of dollars — dangling from her arm.
At the same time, the rich were getting richer — and more people were joining them. According to Swiss bank UBS, there were 7.64 million millionaires in the United States in 2000. By 2023, we saw that number nearly triple.
For those who aren’t comfortably in the millionaire class, technology offers a solution. The exploding popularity of financing apps such as Klarna and Afterpay — online lending services that allow users to break payments up into installments — has ushered in a whole new era of buy now, pay later. It’s stigma-free layaway for nearly any item. Nobody has to know, and you get the product upfront.
Suddenly, brands accustomed to catering to a select few found themselves pursued by a surfeit of less discerning customers — some literally children — seeking a status boost for their social media profiles. Meanwhile, the platforms continue to both stoke class anxieties and offer a seemingly unlimited amount of data on what to want next. Confronted by hordes, companies tried preserving their images the one way they knew how: jacking up prices. In doing so, they followed the longstanding Veblen goods principle. Derived from the economist Thorstein Veblen’s “The Theory of the Leisure Class,” written in 1899, it states that demand for luxury goods will actually increase as their prices increase, because such hikes thin the herds and make scarce goods that much more desirable.
Which prices have skyrocketed? The better question is which haven’t.
From October 2019 to April 2024, the cost of Prada’s popular Galleria Saffiano bag increased 111 percent. In the same period, the cost of Louis Vuitton’s canvas Speedy bag doubled, and Gucci’s Marmont small matelassé shoulder bag went up by 75 percent. Chanel is particularly notorious: Its iconic medium 2.55 leather flap bag, which cost $5,800 in 2019, will now set you back $10,800 — and is increasingly the subject of quality complaints.
What about that perfect exotic backdrop to show off your new goods? A thousand bucks for a night in a normal hotel room, once unheard-of, is surprisingly common. Rooms at the sought-after Amangiri resort in Utah started at around $1,800 a night in 2018. Now they start at $3,509. Jaclyn Sienna India, the founder of a travel and lifestyle company that caters to individuals and families with a minimum net worth of $100 million, notes that the prix fixe menu at the exclusive Ibiza restaurant Sublimotion was about $1,675 a head in 2022. Today, she said, it’s $2,380.
Under the Veblen goods principle, shoppers should view luxury brands’ higher prices as a sign that the goods are precious and hard to obtain. The problem is that neither of those is the case.
Luxury has become nearly ubiquitous. Open Instagram, and everyone has a Louis Vuitton Speedy or a Chanel Boy Bag or some other instantly recognizable four-figure-plus purse from a mainstream luxury label. Some of that comes from the rise of resale (people disposing of their used luxury wares, usually at deep discounts) or dupes (similar-looking copies that trade for far less). And a growing number are superfakes — highly convincing counterfeits that seemingly offer similar quality for a fraction of the cost.
On top of all of this, some luxury purveyors also began expanding their product categories and selling overstock via off-price outlets. Boutiques that were once decadent salons offering fittings to clients when they sipped champagne are now tourist destinations for the rich and the upper middle class, trading in wallets and key chains, which, despite their comical price tags, are among the cheapest options. We are mere minutes away from a Chanel- and Gucci-packed outlet store popping up in a midtier strip mall near you.
For a while, it worked. After the pandemic, newly minted millionaires were eager to spend and show off. The Chanels and Vuittons jacked up prices “so the ‘wrong’ people stop buying,” said Erez Yoeli, a research scientist at M.I.T.’s Sloan School of Management. But part “of the pressure in the marketplace comes from the fact that you do have to be legitimately better,” he said. “And if you’re not, you’re going to suffer the consequences.”
They weren’t better. Ms. India found that service at many top-tier hotels nose-dived during the pandemic, partly from staffing shortages, and has yet to recover. And how about those $10,000 handbags? Taleen Akopyan, who with her husband has worked as a cobbler and a leather restoration expert for the past four decades, said her business has shifted from bags that are 50 years old and still in good shape to brand-new Chanels, Louis Vuittons and Guccis that need help after a few wears. “There’s definitely a quality deterioration across the board,” she said.
It had to end. By many measures, the luxury market is in free-fall.
LVMH and Kering, which owns brands including Gucci, Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent, reported losses this year. Same goes for Burberry; Richemont, which owns Alaïa, Cartier and Chloé; and Capri Holdings, owner of Michael Kors, Versace and Jimmy Choo. A fall study from the management consulting company Bain predicted that 2024 would be the first year of luxury slowdown since the 2008 financial crisis (excluding the pandemic). Certainly the luxury sector tends to be one of the first hit by a slowing economy. But many of the reasons for today’s problems the companies brought on themselves.
Some brands are responding by dropping prices, which risks turning a luxury label into a line that’s carried by outlet malls and desired by virtually no one. Investors shouldn’t have lauded Burberry’s new C.E.O., Joshua Schulman, when in November he announced that among other adjustments, the brand would be reducing the prices of its handbags.
Perhaps the most egregious sign of the problem is the fact that luxury goods are winding up on the shelves of discount outlet stores. Dumping excess product in less-than-glamorous locations can be so destructive to a brand’s perception that some companies used to set excess product on fire to avoid such a fate. And yet, according to Bain, at the end of 2023, that’s exactly where about 13 percentof all luxury goods were purchased, compared with 5 percent a decade earlier.
Some brands are trying to hold the line. In a July interview, LVMH’s chief financial officer, Jean-Jacques Guiony, implied that price increases won’t “end just because the aspirational customers are a little under pressure.” Fun fact: LVMH’s fashion and leather-goods sales did a 5 percent belly flop in 2024’s third quarter. So perhaps pressure isn’t so much the problem as subpar, overpriced goods, like the $2,816 Christian Dior bags that were discovered to have been made in an Italian sweatshop for around $57.
What happened to these once-prestigious bastions of craftsmanship and fabulousness? The eponymous founder of Louis Vuitton was born into a family of artisans in 1821 and dedicated his life to studying and perfecting trunk making. Chanel was founded by Coco Chanel in the early 20th century and brilliantly designed sporty wares for women that freed them from corsets. Christian Dior invented the New Look in 1947, an immaculately designed, hyperfeminine silhouette that was a return to belle epoque glamour after the austerity of World War II. These brands and their peers long upheld the traditions and standards of their founders — until they didn’t. When short-term bottom lines matter more than history and heritage, corners get cut, the soul gets snuffed out, and the product becomes trash in a fancy box.
An exception is Hermès. The company has raised the cost of its Birkin 30 bag in Togo leather just 15 percent from 2019 to 2024, taking it from $10,900 to $12,500. That said, many claim you may have to spend a great amount on other Hermès items to “earn” the privilege of buying one.
Like my sad Kiki boots, much of old-school luxury — the kind that was so glamorous, lush and exquisite that everyone understood it, many craved it and few could have it — is beyond repair. Once-revered establishments that prided themselves on craftsmanship, service and cultivating a discerning and loyal customer base have become mass-marketing machines that are about as elegant and exclusive as the Times Square M&M’s store.
Today, instant gratification, profit and appearances are more desirable than substance, depth or intrinsic worth. And while the decline of “luxury” might not seem like the end of the world (especially with so many apocalypse-adjacent events unfolding), its fall represents a deeper decay that’s gnawing at so much of our existence — from education, media and literature to interpersonal relationships and quality of life.
But back to shopping. Now is the perfect time to seek skilled, independent craftspeople and designers who remain uncompromised by the luxury conglomerates’ production quotas and politics.
If something is obviously awful and obscenely expensive, don’t buy it. Don’t tout it on Instagram. Tell the manager you know it was mid. I certainly won’t be dipping my toes into any Marc Jacobs platforms again. One bruised tailbone was terrible enough. I’ll happily tell you all about it.

 

[JohannesL]

I think the problem with most brands nowadays is they offer products that don't involve that much technique process to justify their ridiculous price. I remember @yslforever commented about the technical side of Vaccarello's sheer silk knitted pieces that are only produced in small volumes due to technical difficulties, and I think it is actually a good sign of the industry because it is the true luxury that most brands fail us. With the quiet luxury trend championing minimalism and simplicity, designers and brands become more lazy and disillusioned to charge for a simple garment (the main production cost is probably the fabric) that the OG Jil Sander would never have. In general, the audacity to lower production costs as a result of simplified designs (also easily copied and produced by other brands) with less construction and sewing techniques along with the declining quality is definitely leading to the bursting of the luxury bubble now.

 

[Frederic01]

In a July interview, LVMH’s chief financial officer, Jean-Jacques Guiony, implied that price increases won’t “end just because the aspirational customers are a little under pressure.”

LOL x 100000000000.

That doesn't hurt anyone except LVMH, who will inevitably seek further measures in terms of cost-cutting and quality-cutting for their products to make up for increasing losses. Meaning this hurts them in the long run; because not only do the products stop selling, the ones that will be produced and will sell from now on will be of reduced quality. Which will in turn drive customers away and into the arms of other brands ie. Hermes and Chanel., due to the low perception of the LVMH quality and value-for-money.

 

[Frederic01]

Does anyone have access to this article mentioned above?

Reality Check: Luxury’s Price Hikes Are Unsustainable​

Luxury brands need a broader pricing architecture that delivers meaningful value for all customers, writes Imran Amed.

businessoffashion.com/opinions/luxury/reality-check-luxurys-price-hikes-are-unsustainable/

 

[LadyJunon]

I think the problem with most brands nowadays is they offer products that don't involve that much technique process to justify their ridiculous price. I remember @yslforever commented about the technical side of Vaccarello's sheer silk knitted pieces that are only produced in small volumes due to technical difficulties, and I think it is actually a good sign of the industry because it is the true luxury that most brands fail us. With the quiet luxury trend championing minimalism and simplicity, designers and brands become more lazy and disillusioned to charge for a simple garment (the main production cost is probably the fabric) that the OG Jil Sander would never have. In general, the audacity to lower production costs as a result of simplified designs (also easily copied and produced by other brands) with less construction and sewing techniques along with the declining quality is definitely leading to the bursting of the luxury bubble now.

I'll argue that the normalisation of oversimplified design and construction originated from the streetwear movement that came immediately before it. It was to the point that runway collections were dominated by high-margin t-shirts, hoodies and sweatpants. All quiet luxury did was apply the aesthetic of bourgeois good taste to that oversimplified design philosophy.

I'll also argue that quiet luxury is aided by the fact that their main influence is the perfect designer to copy. Philo's Celine fits perfectly within the Venn Diagram of luxurious, trendy, and most importantly of all, very easy to copy. It probably doesn't require much in terms of technical knowledge to semi-convincingly recreate those oversized shapes, especially compared to the mass copying of Ghesquiere's Balenciaga before it.

 

[Monsieur Cristobal]

Here's an interesting read from The New York Times

Give Ms. Zarrella the Pulitzer, this article is so spot-on.

But prices won't drop and quality won't improve.
This business is run by people who consider you a loser, if your growth is below the two digits.
Most probably they will come up with a brilliant plan of cutting budgets internally, like firing employés or readjusting salaries.

I am very pessimistic.
Fasten your seatbelts for 2025.

 

[yslforever]

I think the problem with most brands nowadays is they offer products that don't involve that much technique process to justify their ridiculous price. I remember @yslforever commented about the technical side of Vaccarello's sheer silk knitted pieces that are only produced in small volumes due to technical difficulties, and I think it is actually a good sign of the industry because it is the true luxury that most brands fail us. With the quiet luxury trend championing minimalism and simplicity, designers and brands become more lazy and disillusioned to charge for a simple garment (the main production cost is probably the fabric) that the OG Jil Sander would never have. In general, the audacity to lower production costs as a result of simplified designs (also easily copied and produced by other brands) with less construction and sewing techniques along with the declining quality is definitely leading to the bursting of the luxury bubble now.

On the topic of the sheer outfits from YSL, the garments were produced only as prototypes in Anthony's studio, who dgaf at all with production. It was painful for everyone, because of the fabrics chosen for the show and because his current atelier does not have a full couture know-how.
But the production issue started immediately after with the pattern-making, which was head scratching, and that they had to redo multiple times, because the fabric choice conficted with the patterns. Some fabrics were too soft, too thin, too sheer, etc etc they went through 3 cycles of production designs, but they only could find 3 suppliers able to produce, one in France, one in Italy, one in Madagascar. But even there, seamstresses had to leave the sewing machine and do everything my hand. Hence the very limited production of this RTW runway pieces and they decided to jack the prices on the easier-to-produce other runway pieces like the feather bags and coats.
Anthony was scolded.

I recall another issue at Chanel where the lining of the skirts was hand-painted silk, by an artist, it was just fine for the duration of the show (fitting, dressing, the show, 2 - 3 of wearing max), so they decided to launch production by a hundred. Nearly all the pieces were returned because the hand-painted silk started to taint the legs of the clients after 3 hours, which they did not notice at the show. Returned and destroyed.

But those are extreme cases, which can justify the production cost of some RTW and they are more the exceptions than the rule, and aren't totally reflected in store prices.

What I understand from those articles is that the brands in the last decades doubled the price of their bestsellers (+111% for the Galleria !!!) - and introduced mini-bags and wallets on chain at the price of the full-size bags were initially (the Mini Galleria is at the price where the big Galleria was) - but realistically they did not really raised the number of items sold, and certainly not the quality, which has nose-dived. And don't get me started on the Puzzle Loewe revamp.

They are just reaping what they sow.

 

[LadyJunon]

On the topic of the sheer outfits from YSL, the garments were produced only as prototypes in Anthony's studio, who dgaf at all with production. It was painful for everyone, because of the fabrics chosen for the show and because his current atelier does not have a full couture know-how.
But the production issue started immediately after with the pattern-making, which was head scratching, and that they had to redo multiple times, because the fabric choice conficted with the patterns. Some fabrics were too soft, too thin, too sheer, etc etc they went through 3 cycles of production designs, but they only could find 3 suppliers able to produce, one in France, one in Italy, one in Madagascar. But even there, seamstresses had to leave the sewing machine and do everything by hand. Hence the very limited production of this RTW runway pieces and they decided to jack the prices on the easier-to-produce other runway pieces like the feather bags and coats.
Anthony was scolded.

Unintentionally iconic.

 

[tourbillions]

interesting.. well atleast anthony tried something to challenge their atelier. not everyone is happy selling bags for thousands that costed 60$ to make. or maybe it was even lower for the book tote.

 

[blueorchid]

What I find fascinating about that YSL manufacturing story is that it seems to highlight Vacarello's misinterpretation of the YSL spirit, because if I look back at what Yves designed, even the couture, it was all so... I dunno... wearable?

 

[Mrs.T]

Give Ms. Zarrella the Pulitzer, this article is so spot-on.

But prices won't drop and quality won't improve.
This business is run by people who consider you a loser, if your growth is below the two digits.
Most probably they will come up with a brilliant plan of cutting budgets internally, like firing employés or readjusting salaries.

I am very pessimistic.
Fasten your seatbelts for 2025.

I don't like this at all that business people took over fashion world and they took away the creativity and try to earn more money while cutting the quality. They only see numbers and smelled the money.

 

[reese06]

interesting.. well atleast anthony tried something to challenge their atelier. not everyone is happy selling bags for thousands that costed 60$ to make. or maybe it was even lower for the book tote.

Funny thing is the book tote had a known manufacturing issue with the glue up until 2023. It would turn orange and yellow, even with proper storage so if contacted them during that period, you could return for a full refund or exchange.

So I would say manufacturing costs for the tote are minimal