The Weekly Shop Report
Luxury leans on their legacy.
1Every week our Weekly Shop Report runs through the a week’s worth of stock winners and losers. The same names (Bon Ton, Joe’s Jeans, Phoenix Footwear, French Connection) fly high or sink low. Having recently emerged from retail’s notoriously slowest month, we’re feeling tired of the same ‘ol routine. Anna Wintour tried to spice up the month by proposing a Fashion’s Night Out reality show – posing the ode to retail as some kind of charity. Sundance then Paris Fashion Week held out interest for five seconds before we sank into our stuck-on-this-island-in-the-middle-of-winter depression. Mocking our island misery, NBC aired the premiere of the last season of Lost.
That was a good hour.
Rather than run through the same spiel, we decided to discuss the sad, lonely and struggling life of luxury. While we love websites like Gilt, Rue La La and ideeli, we cannot help but wonder: Is all of the accessible designer wear making it feel a little less…well, designer? Luxury forefathers are feeling the same way, and to combat the mundane direction of luxury are turning back the hands of time. The grand daddy’s – Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Dior, and Prada – strategically plan to pump prestige into their label by focusing on their heritage. In spring, Dior will re-market their 1950’s perfumes. Hermes is planning a competitive equestrian extravaganza for April, and Prada recently published a 700-something page ode to their birth story. Old is the new new.
If you have money to travel in twenty ten (and you will, if you date a Goldman banker), make your purchases wisely because the take home message here is that you can’t mess with tradition. Do you really want to pass down to your grandchildren a graffiti print L.A.M.B. shoulder bag? No, no you don’t.
Emma Dinzebach
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Posted by Emma Dinzebach at 12:00 AM
APPAREL , Bargain Hunting , bargain news , STYLE/BEAUTY , TRENDS |
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February 20, 2010 @ 9:47 pm
Thank you Emma. You are right on 100%. Being of the certain age that I am, I have watched fashion trends come and go. Luxury goods trend just like everything else. Labels on the outside or labels on the inside or no labels at all?
For some of us, luxury goods are as close to heaven on earth as one can get. Once you own a LV or Chanel bag and understand why you pay the big bucks you are addicted. But like the Oreos or Swedish fish we crave, this addiction is vest fed in small doses..
We were all so busy defining ourselves by our designs and flexing our financeial muscles by building custom closets out of rooms to house our addictions that we failed to see why its worth it to own a $3,000 purse. One, maybe two and a classic to pass on to your girls are worth so much more than 85 lesser quality throw away bags.
Come out of the closet and enjoy quality like the old school customers for whom it was created. Buy 1 great bag and use it everyday until it fails. Enjoy the beauty of the patina it has earned. Leather darkens in response to your body oils. Over time, you have become a part of your bag. It’s a beautiful thing.
Thank you again for reminding all of us about what luxury is, why we desire it and the impact it has on our lives. Great art lives for centuries in our museums. A great bag can experience you life with you for years and if you are lucky, enjoyed and appreciated by future generations.
Oh and dating the Goldman banker….is there a choice?