Designer Fashion Gets Increasingly Expensive as it Delivers Diminishing Returns

A couple of years ago, a small Japanese brand called A. Presse debuted at Paris Fashion Week. It wasn’t a runway show — they had a pop-up showroom nearby — but theirs was the most impressive display of the season. The style was classic Japanese with Americana influences, and the standout piece was a black leather jacket: slightly boxy, with front pleats inspired by vintage Levi’s jackets, made from calf leather aged three to six months and lined in silk-nylon taffeta. It’s a lovely, perfect jacket.The only problem was the price. A. Presse — a 5-year-old brand with no heritage, no established reputation for quality — was asking $4,500 for the jacket. This wasn’t some outlier, as not a single item they sold was under $500. Their rather plain wool trousers started around $1,300.A. Presse clothing. InstagramThe brand has done well as a successful niche brand among the affluent fashion fanatics, but had it priced its items more reasonably, it could have become far more than that. And to be clear, they could afford to sell it with a healthy profit at a much lower price. This item should break even, all costs considered, at under $1,000. If that doesn’t turn out to be the case, they have some bigger problems.But overpricing is not solely a A. Presse problem. More and more fashion brands have oriented their entire pricing around super-VIP customers — the kind who go on brand cruises and spend an average of several hundred thousand dollars a year. Because of this, prices across high-end fashion have crept up relentlessly to the point of absurdity.Over the past few decades, the material and construction quality of designer garments has generally declined, and yet the prices have dramatically increased, as they sell to a smaller and smaller clientele. Balenciaga items. Courtesy of GucciRecently, walking around Selfridges in London, I came across a Saint Laurent tank top — lightweight, unremarkable, with some stitching issues, and a small YSL logo embroidered on the front — for $550. Items like this exist for the uber-VIPs for which $550 is not even spare change, but ultimately they harm the value of the brand. Saint Laurent should be aspirational, desirable. But this is detestable; a sign that the brand thinks it’s customers are fools to be exploited.Designer brands are harmed by these ever-increasing prices in other ways. Versace and Gucci are chic and sexy, but rightfully don’t have a reputation for top-of-the-market craftsmanship, like Hermès and Tom Ford. But their prices aren’t far off now, which makes them a far harder sell.The only company to benefit from this has been Ralph Lauren — in all its various lines, from main line, to Polo, and RRL — which has become a leading brand for Gen Z. The Ivy League look helps, but Ralph Lauren also remains a premium luxury brand that has not jacked its prices up the way everyone else has, making it far more shoppable than the alternatives. It’s special, it’s expensive, and it’s well made — and you don’t feel like a fool by shopping there. Other brands should learn from Ralph Lauren.

Designer Fashion Gets Increasingly Expensive as it Delivers Diminishing Returns

Designer Fashion Gets Increasingly Expensive as it Delivers Diminishing Returns

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