The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Yeah, I think that’s right. But I guess the two things are quite closely intertwined.

Muse? You haven’t reduced your love of pomp much have you?!

i have probably disqualified myself with my comment last night 😉 and no one is around anymore…

but i still cant believe women are that eager to outdo other women. or is it to drive attention to the shoes or bag to get a compliment? but then having the label on it, or specific design/style, other women (at least the peers or so) would see what they are wearing. so it comes down to provoking jealousy, because it was oh so expensive? i dont get it. if 3k is the usual you spend for a handbag then its not expensive, of course. and being protected. from what? being seen as the person you might be? or being protected from others, the normal folk? thats all interesting. and rob… i am jealous you are seeing muse tonight 🙂 hope its good though!

thats not good for the brand in the long term, i bet. even more so if there is not that much more which differentiates it, except product design and the price, i think. especially with not only other (ready to wear and premium mass market, or whatever it is called) fashion brands, but all the real replica around. but thats no news…

ill include visa in my prayers.

With hindsight, I agree with you Lauren … and what’s worse is that I should never of even thought the ‘sample’ idea was valid [though in my pathetic defense I would say it was taking what they already had done and trying to extract some value from it] because one of the factors driving brands like Gucci’s “aspirational status” is the fact that they actively have ensured they’re not something everyone should be able to get their hands on … however thanks to material obsession, corporate greed and increased credit, not only has the meaning of luxury changed [it’s more now about a price point than exclusivity or quality] but society has changed so we now live in a time of massperation – where it no longer is necessary to have limited supply of an item to represent aspirational status, simply the acknowledgement of the masses that the item is ‘worthy’ of such praise.

However the reason I bow to Lauren’s view most is that the work we’ve done for Prada is all about psychological intimidation – where the whole premise is to make people feel they’ve had to work hard for their ‘label’ as opposed to letting any Tom, Dick & Harriette get their dirty little hands on it … and for that alone, I was stupid for not mentioning/thinking about that in this post. It’s also why Lauren is a better thinker than most planners. And of course I include me in that.

Saying that, one thing I don’t totally agree with is that these labels are continuing their focus on quality.

Let me rephrase that … quality of materials is still there … but in their haste to leverage the profit potential of the ‘wannabe’, some high-end brands have allowed certain elements of their process/product line to be diluted so as to ensure they can drive short terms profits.

Like Apple and the iPOD, many brands are exploiting their ‘moment in the sun’ to make as much hay as they can – and whilst the products they make are still good, in their haste to maximise every penny possible, attention to detail and innovation is starting to slip. Hey, I don’t blame them – but if you continue in this fashion, the ‘credits’ your brand has built up over the years can start to empty pretty quickly and so remembering what earnt you that right in the first place isn’t a lesson of history, but a lesson for the future too.

Great point Lauren … though as a final note, the aspirational qualities in countries does vary and so an extra guard might not always be the best way – however in this Gucci example – I wholeheartedly agree.

What an interesting thread … what’s wrong with you people 😉

isnt it just the ‘dream’ of the gucci bag thats made more accessible? after all, the price issue is still there. i dont know what they had in mind with the missing glass, but that is what it says to me – they wanted to make the dream accessible. (while keeping a certain distance with the guards, so you dont get the wrong idea. of course the guards are there to have a look the stuff doesnt get stolen or to have a disparaging word for the one or the other? lol)

to me, making the dream more accessible makes sense. first, because i assumed before andy said it (or didnt say, ha) that most people who buy premium fashion brands dont just pay it with their pocket money. and because people who maybe could afford that a year or two ago, are now not that easy on cash anymore (economy and all).

i, for one, dont think gucci etc. are renowned for their quality and longevity. if people would just buy quality for a premium price, they could go to a tailor or shoemaker or buy haute couture… but then ‘quality’ has many layers…

im waiting to get grilled.

Running for a plane so can’t comment properly … and before I say anything, I think I should point out I’m generalising here as it’s certainly not the case with all women nor all women who own/aspire to Gucci bags … but in my experience, for the ‘wannabe-set’, owning a Gucci bag only represents a part of the ‘dream’ because it either helps them believe they are either ‘on the way up’ or now ‘belong’ to a certain group in society they admire and aspire to.

That doesn’t mean the easier accessibility to these brands is bad from a cred/image sense – but it does mean they have to be more ‘careful’, especially as so many of these products are copied and sold on markets in Asia for a fraction of the cost – which ultimately makes them seen far too often and possibly undermines their appeal and value in the eyes of the masses.

Again, not always … but it’s becoming more so … which is why I think Tiffany’s are addressing the issue much more cleverly [even though it’s a different category at different price points] than many of the handbag fashion brands because they ‘ease’ people into their brand and move them up rather than try and get them to buy at a premium level from the off.

[As an aside, there are shops in Tokyo that buy high-end bags for resale because the desire/pressire to ‘belong’ and/or been seen as ‘elite’ is so high that young Japanese girls will “entertain” dirty old perverts if they simply go to the shop and purchase one. Tragic eh!]

I think I’m contradicting myself from my previous comments but I can’t be arsed to go back and read them, so apologies and maybe we should touch on this subject later on as it obviously has generated some top comments, even if mine aren’t among them, ha!

Have fun and Peggy, is that interview in English?

um, andy, dear.. can you do some work on those backhanded compliments please?

Since when have you commented properly Rob? Or indeed run?

what are you recovering from peggy? illness or alcohol?

you went out, didnt drink alcohol andyou use the term “recovering”? fuck me, it better of been some s&m hardcore club or you need to get out more. lol.

you sound like a night out with campbell. including the gay boys.