For centuries, we have accepted the idea that luxury applied to certain brands and not others. This idea is solely based on elitism but can luxury be found in mid priced brand?
There is no sense covering the fact that I am a budding fashion designer but unlike other designers now, I wanted more people to wear my pieces. Like Betsey Johnson, who said her pieces were met to be worn, I wanted to see my pieces on everyone.
However, my pricing my accessories as affordable, I have doomed myself into not being considered a luxury brand. But what is a luxury brand?
If you took a look at the Met Gala 2 weeks ago, you would definately see that celebrities do not think American brands are luxury and are certainly not fit for the red carpet but why is that?
Basically, by appealing to the masses and going for a more defined brand (i.e. having goals, standing for something and not just being all hype); we have forgone the elitism engrained into the fashion industry. That elitism is the heart of luxury and it is probably the biggest marketing scam because it isn’t tied to quality of the products but rather to scarcity of these products. The scarcity is created only through pricing and that is it. In fact, these products are just has overproduced just not at the pace of fast fashion.
If you ask anyone what it means to be a Gucci Girl or a Chanel-ian, you probably would get words like exclusive, iconic, fun or elite but not anything of substance. It would not be Van’s skater culture, Hot Topics’ Alternative culture or Victoria Secret’s Pink College girl culture.
Fact is people are tired of elitism as a marketing ideal and it is also a fragile one. We see this by what happened to Gucci, they are now every where and hence are no longer a luxury brand. They must define the Gucci girl if they want to get back to the sales they had before.
So can a mid priced brand be luxury, no, not has it is defined now but the products can be luxurious. The idea of quality products at an affordable price is still a hard concept for the American consumer. It is not just Shein or Chanel, there are things in between.
So as a sit here drawing my fall collection and planning my next photoshoot, I have to ponder rather to rise prices to become more relavent to the fashion industry or just stick to unique affordable designs and risk being knocked off by Shein?
Only time will tell..
