I won’t mention the brand by name, but I suppose it’s more than common knowledge now that a certain designer fashion brand retailer ordered to have a certain line of their clothes burned because it was out of trend and there were quite a few un-bought items leftover in store. The official story is that they only did this to ‘protect the exclusiveness and value of the brand,’ which I suppose is true enough, but does this bring to the fore a relationship between cost and quality?
There is indeed a relationship between cost and quality and it transcends the clothing and fashion industry, however it is a rather subjective which is largely defined by those who are in control of the narrative as well as the retail channels.
Where costs are directly proportional to quality
It’s perhaps not so much about the trendiness of the garments, but with the likes of replica sports jerseys and the likes that’s where you see a direct proportionality between the cost and quality. Football jerseys are indeed easy on the eye in many occasions, but buy one and it’ll probably last you long.
When it’s all about brand names and their associated quality
With regards to some designer brand names, particularly sports brands, the quality you get is implied as something to be expected of and associated with certain brands. Of course by ‘quality’ I’m referring to the durability as well as the trend-appeal, in which case there is indeed a relationship between cost and quality. If you buy a Hugo Boss t-shirt for example, you know that it’s going to last a long time, but you also know that you’re going to stay in style for a decent enough amount of time as well.
When all logic goes right out the window
As is consistent with the previous sub-heading, sometimes it’s all about brand names and all which is associated with those brand names, like quality which exists both in the form of durability and in the design. On some other occasions though all logic seems to go right out the window and there appears to be no relationship at all between the cost of what you buy and the quality you get. I’ll make reference to a very popular brand of lingerie as an example in Victoria’s Secret.
This line of lingerie doesn’t seem to be about anything else other than buying the brand name, because of the quality or lack thereof you get by way of durability. The pieces are flimsy to say the least and I suppose that’s what it’s all about. They don’t last long and seem to be ‘consumable.’
I guess it’s about looking sexy for that one special occasion and then you’d probably have to purchase a different design.
When considering other industries like those which you’d entertain when playing around with wedding gift basket ideas, it becomes apparent that in the fashion industry when it comes to what constitutes quality and value, sometimes all logic really goes out the window.
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