I encourage everyone to check out Clothing Cult! Her insights into the business end of things are really quite fascinating. She also has several excellent responses to other Black Friday Blogger’s posts. She unearthed an interesting post on fashion investing from Style Intelligence (another BFB participant) which while an older post is quite relevant to our discussion. The discussion of opportunity costs and return on investments give food for thought to the investment dressing issue. I personally am still a fan of investment dressing and classic pieces because I like to have fall back outfits whenever a fashion emergency arises and those are invariably my classic pieces. Still investment dressing does more than fill your closet with pieces you wear again and again, it keeps down clutter, prevents guilt inducing over consumption, and frankly it ensures that quality fashion is promoted. Go check out the posts!
Clothing Cult also pointed me towards this disturbing piece in WWD: Nothing But the Best: Pushing Price Limits For Quality, Distinction
In a buoyant luxury market, ultraexpensive items — from $6,000 Azzedine Alaïa shearling jackets to $21,000 Bottega Veneta handbags — have become a surprise hit, selling briskly to a superrich clientele in search of the exceptional.
I’ll tell you what, you want to get something exceptional? Fund me for an entire year! I can easily live off of $21,00 (live off of about $1,000 a month now and quite comfortably I miht add, not including the cost of my college tuition). For the cost of one of your hand bags you could send me to New York City so that I could have the resources to pursue my dream in the glossies. Or better yet fund some poor kid who just wants to go to college. I swear if I ever become rich I am just going to pick people off the street, interview them, and say hey I am going to be your patron. I mean whatever happened to being a patron of the arts? Can’t we have that again? I think the Medici family, as whack as they were, gave back to the world in extraordinary ways. So if anyone out there is reading this blog I would like a patron please! I promise to provide compelling articles, do valuable research, and add a needed dose of intellectualism to the fashion scene! Will you really miss the handbag?
Also go check out Coquette’s nice piece on knitting, everyone’s favorite new hobby! as a Black Friday event!
Please also go read Rachael at Fashion Tribes post on Identity in Fashion Great insights!
Interesting point, Almost Girl. The desire to own excessively expesive items has a place, but only if one is contributing tho the cultural fabric of society. You really don’t find many patrons of the arts. $21,000 could seriously mpact the life of an artist-it’s a shame that it is commonly becoming “Bag money.”
I Did another black friday post too:
http://fashiontribes.typepad.com/main/2005/11/blogettes_black_1.html
Cheers!
Rachel
Wow. I haven’t though of that one. Well, not really. Why is it that people have a need to own ultra-expensive items? Imagine if all the people didn’t spend all their money for the latest luxe item and used it for charity? It’s an interesting thought.
It is a thought isn’t it. Which is why whenever I see a charity event or a donation I think that it is probably just a drop in the bucket for them, good PR to justify a lifestyle. I don’t begrudge many people their livestyles but sometimes I wonder as I watch a big budget 100 million dollar hollywood film and think about where else the money could have gone.