Designer Labels Fall Off Their Pedestal
As department stores across the country slash the prices of designer clothes—much to the dismay of both fashion houses and smaller boutiques who can't compete with the discounts—a shocking epiphany is flashing across the minds of label-whores everywhere: Could it be true that a high-end designer dress or pair of pants isn't intrinsically worth its astronomical full-ticket price?
Even designers are now admitting that their clothes are only worth whatever customers are dumb enough to pay for them. Eileen Fisher, who's so annoyed by the discounting of her line by retailers like Bloomingdales that she's considering taking control of the brand by renting space in the stores, says that before the recession, she "sort of let the prices go up because business was so good."
And when business was good, people weren't questioning the value of the most coveted labels, but suddenly the blinders are off. After buying a current-season Piazza Sempione dress, reduced from $1,200 to $300, at Saks in LA, the Wall Street Journal's Christina Binkley wonders: "Was my Piazza dress ever really worth $1,200?" Fashionistas: Consider this question your very own "one hand clapping"-style path to enlightenment!
