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How Premium Mediocre Fashion Conquered the World

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  • Faust
    kitsch killer
    • Sep 2006
    • 37852

    How Premium Mediocre Fashion Conquered the World

    Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

    StyleZeitgeist Magazine
  • Sombre
    Senior Member
    • Jan 2009
    • 1291

    #2
    Great article. A few years ago the premium mediocre sector was occupied by high street labels and diffusion lines. Brands like G-Star and lines like D&G, Burberry Brit, and Marc by Marc in association with Marc for Marc Jacobs come to mind. These had the effect of the mass market licensing you mention (though to a lesser extent), and the labels got rid of them (or appeared to). It looks like what they really did was have the mainline cannibalise the diffusion line and just mark up the prices on previous diffusion stuff (see J Crew for a current downmarket example).

    I've been waiting for the premium mediocre trend to lose steam, but with every passing year I think it's less trend and more new norm. I hope it doesn't come to avant garde on a widespread scale. But Raf gave in years ago, and recently Julius has done the same. The temptation is great. There's a lot of profit to be made. And I imagine a designer doing genuinely good and groundbreaking work must be insulted when they see garbage being rewarded when they're just treading water.

    I think at its core this whole thing is the result of a generation that came of age in difficult times and has had not only its spending power hamstrung (the Fed had an interesting study on this), but also its maturity stunted, partly due to the 2008 recession, partly due to parental coddling, and partly due to changing social norms regarding widespread internet use that we're still coming to grips with. All this is to say that for those reasons I sincerely hope premium mediocre will have its day and then we'll move on. But like I said, I find myself becoming more jaded as time passes and it gains yet more traction.
    An artist is not paid for his labor, but for his vision. - James Whistler

    Originally posted by BBSCCP
    I order 1 in every size, please, for every occasion

    Comment

    • zamb
      Senior Member
      • Nov 2006
      • 5834

      #3
      I have thought long and hard about this and I honestly don't even know anymore.
      Good products are difficult to make and take time, a big problem often is that
      1. Sometimes stores are reluctant to stock the most complex and expensive products from a brand because of fear of taking risks
      2. I see more and more middle brow brands being stocked by stores than one making a really good product
      3. point 1 and 2 is not entirely on the stores, its also on the consumer, because stores are business who will direct their budget and stock inventory that customers are looking to buy.

      An interesting experiment was done recently, where payless set up a fake store with its $20 shoes, some of which were being sold for over $600 USD, under a fake name. customers went to this store and bought these shoes while extolling how great a quality they were...............it shows that the average consumer today does not seem to know what a good product really is and will spend huge amounts of money on rubbish presented to them as long as said rubbish is marketed and packaged right............
      HYPE and good photography are the order of the day now. people are not interested in good products on a whole. intagram is winning
      “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
      .................................................. .......................


      Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

      Comment

      • tornaremavencer
        Member
        • Aug 2012
        • 54

        #4
        That experiment was a fake promotional skit - all those people were actors, and nobody really bought these shoes for that much, they just wanted to sell them for the actual price. Very well played though, apparently a lot of people believed it.

        Comment

        • nyarkies
          Member
          • Feb 2012
          • 69

          #5
          Originally posted by tornaremavencer View Post
          That experiment was a fake promotional skit - all those people were actors, and nobody really bought these shoes for that much, they just wanted to sell them for the actual price. Very well played though, apparently a lot of people believed it.
          I'd like a source on this because I couldn't find it myself. So far, what Zam listed is all what I can find. Payless sets up fake upscale shoe event, invites social media influencers, charges high prices for cheap shoes, they pay then payless tells them what they really are, refunds money and lets them keep their shoes for free. It is a stunt either way.

          Comment

          • tornaremavencer
            Member
            • Aug 2012
            • 54

            #6
            Here it is, so fake its painfull:

            Comment

            • nyarkies
              Member
              • Feb 2012
              • 69

              #7
              Originally posted by tornaremavencer View Post
              It is as what I read elsewhere. It is a promotional thing for payless but those that did buy into it were real and not actors. Unless, we're talking about those selling the products, sure. It's not a skit where the influencers were in it knowing they were payless.

              Comment

              • zamb
                Senior Member
                • Nov 2006
                • 5834

                #8
                Originally posted by tornaremavencer View Post
                if you read the article you posted it is clear the people doing the buying had no idea of what was happening. it was AFTER they bought the products (totally over 3K in a few hours) they were told what was going on and the money refunded.
                regardless it does not negate the point i am making. which is.........the average consumer today does not know shit about fit, quality of construction, what an actual product should cost or whatever.

                I often see the stupid statement that the value of a product is what the consumer is willing to pay for it and I laugh at such bullshit, because if that is the case, then those payless shoes were really valued at $640 then because someone decided to pay that amount for a pair.
                “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
                .................................................. .......................


                Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

                Comment

                • zamb
                  Senior Member
                  • Nov 2006
                  • 5834

                  #9
                  Originally posted by nyarkies View Post
                  It is as what I read elsewhere. It is a promotional thing for payless but those that did buy into it were real and not actors. Unless, we're talking about those selling the products, sure. It's not a skit where the influencers were in it knowing they were payless.
                  Exactly!
                  “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
                  .................................................. .......................


                  Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

                  Comment

                  • tornaremavencer
                    Member
                    • Aug 2012
                    • 54

                    #10
                    Of course they were actors, and this whole thing was staged, but apparently they did it very well that people believed it... People will buy whatever is hyped no doubt about it, but this particular case was just a smart commercial. And even smarter, because people are going to talk about whether it was fake or not. Actually it's a marketing masterpiece.

                    Comment

                    • Nickefuge
                      Senior Member
                      • Nov 2014
                      • 860

                      #11
                      It was obviously fake, because no real instagram influencer would buy a product that has no huge ass logo on it.

                      EDIT:
                      No real instagram influencer would buy a product.
                      "The only rule is don't be boring and dress cute wherever you go. Life is too short to blend in."
                      -Paris Hilton

                      Comment

                      • upsilonkng
                        Senior Member
                        • May 2010
                        • 874

                        #12
                        ive been saying this about art/music/films for years, mediocre is the world and now the world would rather celebrate its averageness than celebrate exceptionalism, its in everything, from McD to Rap to super hero movies from techno to things like dragon tattoo books being an all time best seller, mediocrity is what the world is and thats all that it wants to deal w/ because exceptional people and art makes the common seem .. well common and common dumb people are done w/ feeling that way. Popular culture has mostly been this way but there was a time when artist made art, painters painted, musicians could play actual music w/ an actual instrument, now everything is sampled, curated , creators aren't dead we're just creating for sample size audiences waiting to be stolen from and dumbed down.

                        Comment

                        • Soul Pill
                          Senior Member
                          • Feb 2011
                          • 124

                          #13
                          Originally posted by upsilonkng View Post
                          ...musicians could play actual music w/ an actual instrument...
                          \

                          I, for one, cannot wait for this to return.

                          Comment

                          • Nickefuge
                            Senior Member
                            • Nov 2014
                            • 860

                            #14
                            Let’s be real:
                            if the musicians y’ all like and want to see prosper actually became famous over night because of a miracle shift in mainstream taste, you’d lose your interest in them.
                            "The only rule is don't be boring and dress cute wherever you go. Life is too short to blend in."
                            -Paris Hilton

                            Comment

                            • zamb
                              Senior Member
                              • Nov 2006
                              • 5834

                              #15
                              Originally posted by Nickefuge View Post
                              Let’s be real:
                              if the musicians y’ all like and want to see prosper actually became famous over night because of a miracle shift in mainstream taste, you’d lose your interest in them.
                              this may be very true, but it is still a good thing if musicians are able to play actual instruments........same way I dont take "artists" seriously who cannot draw/ paint/ sculpt and do all kind of rubbish expecting to be taken seriously as artists
                              “You know,” he says, with a resilient smile, “it is a hard world for poets.”
                              .................................................. .......................


                              Zam Barrett Spring 2017 Now in stock

                              Comment

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