random fashion thoughts

[deadboy]

Ah it's OK, we've moved on to other things.

[haydn]

Meanwhile in my city, the main/only purveyor of mens Rick, BBS, ma+ etc. is catching heat for what I have to imagine seemed like a good idea at the time.

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/a-men...ck-friday-sale

Their advertising (which is limited to social media) has never been good. I'm surprised this gained so much traction considering how small of a following the store has.

To be honest - I hope it serves as a wakeup call. I avoid the store like the plague.. they're generally not friendly, rarely knowledgable and take all the excitement out of shopping for these brands in store (which is hard to do here in Canada). They don't seem to enjoy what they do. Oh how I wish we had a better option in Toronto!

Sadly the amount of negative comments they've received are coming from people outside the city or who can't afford to shop there. This will do nothing but motivate their small group of loyal customers to rally around them.

[blackdeath]

at what point are sales and deep discounts hurtful to retailers/designers? it seems, this season as well as the past few, items have sat on racks with buyers waiting to get things at a "better price" either due to not seeing the importance, budgetary restrictions, or seemingly "more bang for your buck". how does that create an incentive for the designer to keep product quality up when it's going to sit in sales until january? do you perhaps think fast fashion/outlets/third party sellers are to blame for what this occurrence?
this is piggybacking from a discussion on "cruvoir" and his approach to retail.

[PenguinBlubber]

I do not think fast fashion is to blame for this one. From my observations, the marketplace for high-end designer goods is bigger than ever. There are over a hundred brands that fit this forum's aesthetic and probably a thousand more that are in a similar price-point. The problem, from my perspective, is over-saturation. I think consumers posses all the power. There are too many labels and not enough buyers. And I don't think the would-be buyers are instead purchasing fast fashion. I think the population that predominantly buys fast fashion very seldom buys significant amounts of non-hype designer goods. And even then, this season, I've been even more weary of the idea that these consumers buy a few hype things since like a bajillion colorways of geobaskets have been on sale at ssense for close to $400 for over a month.

So, yeah, I think designers are kinda screwed on this one. There are too many labels now, and I don't see this changing. Even if some brands fail, people will still pump out new ones because, like restaurants, people get into the industry because it is a passion. And everyone thinks they are gonna be the 1% that makes it.

I think pandoras box has been opened. There is no going back, prices have already dropped to the point that consumers aren't willing to go back to a healthier model. Also, I am completely guilty of almost only buying things when deeply discounted. I don't have a solution and I am part of the problem.

[deadboy]

Two quick hits from Boxing Day 2016:

When did The Bay start selling DRKSHDW, and are Rick sneakers now the fashion standard for guys under 35?

[zamb]

at what point are sales and deep discounts hurtful to retailers/designers? it seems, this season as well as the past few, items have sat on racks with buyers waiting to get things at a "better price" either due to not seeing the importance, budgetary restrictions, or seemingly "more bang for your buck". how does that create an incentive for the designer to keep product quality up when it's going to sit in sales until january? do you perhaps think fast fashion/outlets/third party sellers are to blame for what this occurrence?
this is piggybacking from a discussion on "cruvoir" and his approach to retail.

this is a VERY important question ripe for discussion, and it comes from several factors. on the one hand consumers have become overly suspicious of the prices of designer clothing from both designers and stores. i as both a designer and a retailer posit that a big part of prices is the fact that people wait and wait and wait for items to go on sale, it creates a viscous cycle, and it has put many designers and stores out of business. some really good ones too. I think there is over the last several years a general lack of respect for the time effort and energy and the overall cost that it requires to create high quality products from designers. its a sad system to watch, a really sad one and one that has created a stagnant industry that everyone complains about but very few people want to do the right thing to correct.

[Faust]

at what point are sales and deep discounts hurtful to retailers/designers? it seems, this season as well as the past few, items have sat on racks with buyers waiting to get things at a "better price" either due to not seeing the importance, budgetary restrictions, or seemingly "more bang for your buck". how does that create an incentive for the designer to keep product quality up when it's going to sit in sales until january? do you perhaps think fast fashion/outlets/third party sellers are to blame for what this occurrence?
this is piggybacking from a discussion on "cruvoir" and his approach to retail.

At about 40% off a store is breaking even on the cost of items + cost of running the store. For brands, it's not as straightforward, as there are short term and long term ramifications. The bigger the brand the less damage, but for the small brands sales are a bad thing. The short term the brand is fairly immune, because unless it's on consignment, the retailer has paid them the wholesale price, so sale or no sale, they get what they asked for. But in the long term a store will simply drop a brand if it does not have a good sell-through. There are also chargebacks, unsold merchandise returns, and so on. The bigger the store the more they will push the cost of sales/unsold goods onto the brands. It's always a tug of war between stores and brands, with the big fish dictating the terms to the little fish.

In the last ten years quality of designer goods has deteriorated pretty much across the board and the prices have gone through the roof. It's worked for some years when everyone has made serious money, but by now the consumers have caught onto this and it seems like every party (brands, stores, consumers) understands that most people will shop at the first markdown, except the people who don't care about prices at al, and it's kind of priced into the pricing model.

[haydn]

Two quick hits from Boxing Day 2016:

When did The Bay start selling DRKSHDW, and are Rick sneakers now the fashion standard for guys under 35?

The Bay started selling Drkshdw in Toronto about 6 years ago as part of their "white space" area in the Queen st store. They also currently carry Junya, Lemaire, Jil Sander (alongside Balmain, Moschino,JW Anderson and Versace). It actually sells in store - but nobody looks for it on their site so it's always on huge end of season sales. I've picked up great things in the past, including a soft wool drkshdw worker jacket for $120.

[TheInformalGenius]

Does anyone know the reason behind the major sale prices of BBS sneakers on SSENSE? I've never known BBS to go on sale at such a high percentage off.

[Faust]

Does anyone know the reason behind the major sale prices of BBS sneakers on SSENSE? I've never known BBS to go on sale at such a high percentage off.

I imagine it's the last season we'll see BBS on Ssense, so they are clearing stock, the rules be damned. I could be wrong.

[Kuleshov]

there is no DRKSHDW anymore on LN-CC ?

[Joey]

there is no DRKSHDW anymore on LN-CC ?

http://www.ln-cc.com/en/brands/men/rick-owens-drkshdw/ :)

[ahn]

So I'm trying to rearrange and simplify my wardrobe at the moment. I'm at a point where I have a genuine fondness for everything I own but I know I don't wear a lot of it. I need to downsize because I have very minimal space. I have many garments I've owned for five or six years. A lot of them are brands that are not "sz approved"... things I purchased along the journey of discovering my sense of style - no resale value - but all of which served me very well. Maybe it's time to let go but the sentimental attachment makes it difficult. Some pieces I think "I would wear this again if the right circumstance presented itself" - fancy dresses, etc. I used to be quite a social butterfly! But these days I just work work work in my studio every weekend where I spill chemicals on myself. Dealing with this is causing me so much anxiety for some reason. I DO have a pile of garments I can admit I need to part with, but still unsure how to - too close to my heart to donate to the salvation army - not good enough to sell to anyone, nobody would want it. The rest I can't bring myself to take out of my wardrobe yet. At least I can succinctly identify what gaps I have left - if you can believe it. Hardly any, I just love sweaters and would like a more diverse selection of them. Anyway this ramble of thoughts is caused by some maximum stress and attempted catharsis through wardrobe purging that used to bring me relief and now does not! Apologies :)

On a slightly related but not topic, I dream of replacing all my hangers with matching velvet ones. I want my wardrobe to feel like a store! But for so many garments (mine and my boyfriend who has twice as much as me) it is a hefty expense. A

[haydn]

So I'm trying to rearrange and simplify my wardrobe at the moment. I'm at a point where I have a genuine fondness for everything I own but I know I don't wear a lot of it. I need to downsize because I have very minimal space. I have many garments I've owned for five or six years. A lot of them are brands that are not "sz approved"... things I purchased along the journey of discovering my sense of style - no resale value - but all of which served me very well. Maybe it's time to let go but the sentimental attachment makes it difficult. Some pieces I think "I would wear this again if the right circumstance presented itself" - fancy dresses, etc. I used to be quite a social butterfly! But these days I just work work work in my studio every weekend where I spill chemicals on myself. Dealing with this is causing me so much anxiety for some reason. I DO have a pile of garments I can admit I need to part with, but still unsure how to - too close to my heart to donate to the salvation army - not good enough to sell to anyone, nobody would want it. The rest I can't bring myself to take out of my wardrobe yet. At least I can succinctly identify what gaps I have left - if you can believe it. Hardly any, I just love sweaters and would like a more diverse selection of them. Anyway this ramble of thoughts is caused by some maximum stress and attempted catharsis through wardrobe purging that used to bring me relief and now does not! Apologies :)

On a slightly related but not topic, I dream of replacing all my hangers with matching velvet ones. I want my wardrobe to feel like a store! But for so many garments (mine and my boyfriend who has twice as much as me) it is a hefty expense. A

I perform maintenance on my wardrobe at-least twice a year. There is something incredibly satisfying with clearing out items which don't serve much purpose to me anymore. Everything you purchased had value - but as your style evolves or you've jus worn a piece so many times - the value to you diminishes. It may still serve value to others - so resell or repurpose if you can. Any financial value reclaimed can serve towards those new hangers!

Not to preach on minimalism, but the Marie Kondo Japanese tidying up book has some great principles on managing a wardrobe. It helped me narrow down my closet to half of what it was. For years I thought more was better, but it got to the state where I just had toooo much of everything. I now get much more wear out of pieces I love and enjoy spending a half our or so each week folding and maintaining the order of things in my closet.

[broken_chairs]

So I'm trying to rearrange and simplify my wardrobe at the moment. I'm at a point where I have a genuine fondness for everything I own but I know I don't wear a lot of it. I need to downsize because I have very minimal space. I have many garments I've owned for five or six years. A lot of them are brands that are not "sz approved"... things I purchased along the journey of discovering my sense of style - no resale value - but all of which served me very well. Maybe it's time to let go but the sentimental attachment makes it difficult. Some pieces I think "I would wear this again if the right circumstance presented itself" - fancy dresses, etc. I used to be quite a social butterfly! But these days I just work work work in my studio every weekend where I spill chemicals on myself. Dealing with this is causing me so much anxiety for some reason. I DO have a pile of garments I can admit I need to part with, but still unsure how to - too close to my heart to donate to the salvation army - not good enough to sell to anyone, nobody would want it. The rest I can't bring myself to take out of my wardrobe yet. At least I can succinctly identify what gaps I have left - if you can believe it. Hardly any, I just love sweaters and would like a more diverse selection of them. Anyway this ramble of thoughts is caused by some maximum stress and attempted catharsis through wardrobe purging that used to bring me relief and now does not! Apologies :)

I think you may be pleasantly surprised on the 'no resale value' front, I'm currently attempting a similar purge and I can't believe some of the crap people will pay for. Things of value gets lowballed on grailed, while everything else i throw up on ebay for 99c + shipping. Pretty much everything has gone, some things have ended up making me quite a bit of money, but even if it only sells for 99c at the very least it's not my problem anymore.