The pricing is crazy/justified thread

[Faust]

/\ lol. I wonder at what point this makes us stop giving a shit about designers work. Ownership is part of the process of appreciating fashion, and more and more people are getting priced out.

[cjbreed]

well i think we start to develop a resentment and start to move in the opposite direction. from attraction to repulsion. i am ok with expensive. and i can even go the extra mile and convince myself that the cost is justified. but when it becomes inexplicable AND a designer has a bold stance against any sort of sale or markdown then i get kinda pissed. (sales exist for a reason but thats a whole other topic.)

i mean i am a huge fan of ma+ but this is too much:



2200usd for jersey cotton pants. cut from a pattern he has been using for years.

[MikeN]

2200usd for jersey cotton pants. cut from a pattern he has been using for years.

Excellent choice of a words. "a pattern he's been using for years." is correct, as well as "a linea pattern he borrowed years ago"

[Fuuma]

The rich are back and shopping like crazy

The poor too:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/08/15/uk.riots/

[TheThief]

The poor too:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/08/15/uk.riots/

If there was rioting and total chaos in Paris would the Parisian SZ'rs loot L'eclaireur?

[cjbreed]

good point eternal. i was also thinking that if he wants to be more expensive then ccp, then lets see if the demand is the same. ccp sells out almost immediately and the anticipation is palpable, because the innovation and technical skill is extraordinary. lets see if ma+ experiences the same frenzy of buyers

also, if i were a retailer, i might start thinking, you know what i could drop ma+ and pick up 2 others (leu, devoa, IndiSent, L&F, FormeD, Zam B, whatever. maybe even PH or ccp who knows) that many smart people think are superior products, with the same amount of capital. after all, the guy is churning out the same pieces season after season and pissing off lots of his clients.

something to think about maurizio, or morgan, or whoever is monitoring SZ for the ma+ team. i have always been one of your biggest supporters, but now i am questioning my loyalty. why be loyal to you if you cannot be loyal to us?

also,

...Just to compare, L&F had some sick wool jersey pants with drop crotch and they retailed for 540 USD or so. Not comparable in the cut to those m.a+ ones, but the L&F ones sold out even before they did hit the webpage on Atelier for instance.

exactly. and yes the cut is amazing, but it can't be used to justify the price anymore because it has been around now for ages. the r&d and related costs on this were paid for long long ago, so why double the price from when it came out? and lets not forget, this garment is completely unfinished. there is not exactly a ton of skilled labor involved here anymore. put the pattern on the fabric, cut it, sew it all together like you've done a thousand times before, put on a tiny little silver clasp, bam...$2200.

edit - sorry guys but i've gotten myself kind of worked up over this lol

[Faust]

something to think about maurizio, or morgan, or whoever is monitoring SZ for the ma+ team.

[cjbreed]

also, i can admit that the material used on those pants is some of the sickest he has ever used. truly. and this season's carbon aviator in the same material may be one of the best aviators yet. length is good and, again, the material is amazing. but. $2350 usd. i have a very similar aviator from an earlier season that cost literally $1000 less than that. then a few seasons later i bought another one that was up to that point the most expensive yet at $1750. fast forward 2 seasons and now it is $2350?

[Fuuma]

If there was rioting and total chaos in Paris would the Parisian SZ'rs loot L'eclaireur?

I'd loot Arny's!

[cjbreed]

[Zenith]

I haven't been following the Viridi-anne that intently for the last year or so, when did the price points sky rocket to current levels?

[TheThief]

I haven't been following the Viridi-anne that intently for the last year or so, when did the price points sky rocket to current levels?

Well apparently everyones pricing went up about 20% across the boards this year or so I've been told. Not to mention the fact that The Viridi-Anne has been slowly increasing their prices bit by bit. Theyre just as expensive as Julius now.

[stadsvandringar]

Don't forget that the yen is at a high against the dollar. The poor conversion isn't helping things with any japanese brand...

As far as I can recall viridi-anne has been fairly expensive from the beginning, easily comparable to julius or kazuyuki kumagai in terms of pricing.

[darkbydesign]

Wow. Those M.A+ pants are ridiculous. Beautiful as all M.A+ garments, but still, that truly is expensive. You can buy a beautiful Julius leather jacket for that cash and it'll last since it's not jersey or cotton.

As for the Gareth Pugh neoprene and lamb leather garment, that piece is really great, but if it really did show up as PVC etc, I'd be pissed and that stitching truly does suck. Every time I see that piece it reminds me of a black on black version of the UV fluorescent UV Prohibition pieces that glow in a black light for raves. Sure, it's GP's take, but it's really no different in concept and costs 10X more. The GP jacket that you reconstructed looks MUCH MUCH better than the original!

I'm still all about designers who put love into their work and have a particular form or person they design for. I'll drop tons of cash on Julius, some Takahiro Miyashita pieces, some LUC pieces, InAisce, Obscur, and Devoa, but it's mainly because I look at the detailing on these pieces of work and they truly are special and well done. When something is out of place or unusual, you take another look and realize that it was totally done on purpose. Quirky but subtle, still within the design concept they had in mind....

These days you can find a hoard of brand spanking new articles of clothing for trade or sale online and I just go that route since it seems more reasonable. Seems like a lot of first hand owners don't ever actually wear their clothing, so if clothes are too expensive like those M.A+ pants, I'll just wait till some chump who doesn't even know who M.A+ is buys them retail or gets them gifted to them and resells them on Ebay at $250 or something silly and snag em right up. It's sad, but people do it all the time and I don't feel guilty when they are marked up out of my range.

[eat me]

^ just bare in mind that designers like MA+, and to a bit lesser extent Devoa are basically producing small collections with many pieces barely altered patterns from last season + new fabric; whereas GP has to produce 4 collections a year coming up constantly with new stuff.

You can't be reasonably expecting his quality to hold up to Devoa's finishing.