Sunday, July 19, 2009

Twelve Hunderd... that's reasonable..




You've seen it on 60 Minutes (which, by the way, is the only TV program I watch on CBS besides Big Bang Theory....) - how Morley Safer grilled nuclear Anna Wintour. How everybody from Karl (my Daughter's God..) to John Galiano bows to Anna Wintour. People may not know Anna Wintour but probably know Miranda Priestly aka Meryl Streep.

During the interview, Anna Wintour comments to Alex Wang that $1,200 is very reasonable for a dress - which, of course, shocked Mr. Safer. This made me think.

If you go to the Barneys and the Bergdorf, $1,200 for a designer dress is not just reasonable - it's a darn bargain - especially by a designer who puts out runway shows every season - where each show costs at least around $50,000 (for a 30 min show with no fancy special effects or goody bags!). Any one of those Prada skirts will cost around $1,500-2,000 and that covers only 1/2 the body!
Some of the pieces (uhmmm especially by Alber Elbaz aka Lanvin) can make some sense - the way some of those clothes are cut, designed, embellished.. makes you believe it is a piece of art that happen to function as clothing.

Because I see these "designer" pieces and their "retail" price tags frequently (my Daughter even creates her own "look-book" by cutting out her favorite clothes and accessaries out of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar) I am getting immuned to these numbers.

The way I see numbers - if a person believes that a certain piece of designer clothes is worth how many hours of your labour which is shown on the tag at full retail.... go for it! Because without them, I don't get to see unreasonably beautiful clothes and accessories - just to appreciate!

For me... I wait until after the Second Markdown--- those 75% off from the Barneys and the Bergdorf - the Last Call from the Neiman. Then if those numbers that used to look really sad at the full-retail, suddenly start to smile at me - then I will contribute to lift our sad retail environment!

How many hours do I have to work.... to get my Zang kilt... and Cucinelli coat..... I need to concentrate.....