The price isn’t the price
I was in Paris during Fashion Week – I know, I know – and the whole town, unshockingly, was popping. I poured myself out of an airplane into my Airbnb, walked two blocks, got some desperately-needed coffee, looked up, and saw a Kaptain Sunshine popup. That, over and over, for a week.
And so obviously I’m in Paris and obviously I’m going to some boutiques. Didn’t really buy anything on that trip because of the liminal space that fashion week provides, where everything is either extremely full price or extremely out of stock. But I learned a fun thing at one of them.
There was a rack of clothes in the front and a rack of clothes in the back, behind a curtain that was half open. Went through the front rack, poked through the curtain, and started going through the other rack when I realized the price tags were different. The advertised price was half as much as it should be, and the retail price, smaller, was printed below. Oh. I realized just as a clerk caught me, gently informed me that these were pieces for trade partners to stock in their stores, and that the full selection of retail-available clothing was in front.
One cannot unsee the $200 jacket. The constant sales suddenly make sense, as do the exhortations to buy used. Later, you see the $200 jacket for $450 and feel ripped off, correctly. Where does the rest go? Surely not the maker, unless you happen to buy direct from them. You think of Evan Kinori, who sells for e.g. $450, never runs sales, and sells everything out of his studio. It’s a good gig if you can find it.
You think well, I’ve paid $450 for a piece before. So clearly the price is viewed as “fair” by at least one person who backed it up. But where does the money go? Really, you just want some form of right relationship to be restored along the supply chain. Boutiques are great, but are their edits worth the rent? You feel, at times, like the person who buys a $20 bag of coffee, 50¢ of which goes to the farmer who does 90% of the work. Coffee is a more drastic form of this, and you don’t feel great about buying that, either.
There is no good answer, other than to avoid buying full price, ever. Used is good – and it’s never been better, now that there are solid marketplaces and lots of people overbuying. Sales, as aforelinked, can be dicey, because their mere existence causes a price race. And there are some designers, like Kinori, for which full price is essentially the only option.
In short, I looked at a price tag so you don’t have to, and eight months later I’m still a little upset about it. You’re welcome?