Once upon a time, back when we Boomers were younger, there was a direct correlation in fashion between quality and price.
The same was true for our mothers’ and grandmothers’ generations, too, with a correlation in price and quality.
By this, we mean that if you paid a lot for a garment it was almost certainly in a good fabric and was well made; it had, perhaps, even been finished by hand.
Now, not so much…. Today, a garment for which you pay £50 could be almost identical to a garment for which you pay £500. Not identical, we concede, but often pretty similar. Why? Because for much of the Fashion Industry, it is no longer about quality and finish or ‘creativity,’ it is all about ‘brand positioning.’
Back in the day, a designer designed, or a fashion-house produced, beautiful clothes and women who could afford them bought them. Or, perhaps, a fashion entrepreneur identified a gap in the market for, say, chic casual clothes, and produced a range of chic casual clothes which were bought by women who wanted chic-casual clothes.
But then the marketers came along and said, oh no, the gap was not for chic casual clothes but for chic casual clothes in a very specific price band….hence terms such as ‘mass market’, ‘mid market’ and ‘high end’,
If you want a perfect example of how this ‘price-gap’ works, look no further than Cefinn, the new fashion collection from Samantha Cameron, the woman who put Smythson handbags on the wish-list of every chic woman with £1,000 to splurge on a handbag. Mrs Cameron, who is a big fan of both high end and mass-market – she has been seen in Roksanda and Reiss for official events – has created a fashion collection specifically for a market segment that she believes is not currently being served – that is the segment which thinks £900 for a dress is a bit rich, but which feels the High Street isn’t for her either with dresses at £50 or £60. Mrs Cameron, you should be looking at SoSensational…
These days in Fashion (and in Beauty), brands ‘position’ themselves in the market and then charge, package and market/advertise accordingly. So, if they are aiming at the prosperous Boomer market (that’s us, ladies) they will slap a higher price tag on a garment and market and advertise it in a way to appeal to us. They capitalise on two factors: rather too many of us 50-plus women are fearful of the High Street (they think it’s only for the young, so ignore it, like it has for years ignored we older consumers). Also, we feel that pricier ‘labels’ and brands have more kudos so give us more confidence…
Why are we sharing this industry insider knowledge with you? Why, because at SoSensational we cut right through all that brand positioning stuff. If there is a fabulous dress on the High Street at under £50 we will show it to you, and if there is a really special dress at over £500 we will let you know that, too.
Like you, we are ecstatic when we find the £45-jacket that looks like it cost £450… and that is a big part of our raison d’etre at SoSensational: to prove that the High Street, which you may think of as having nothing (or very little) for you, has lots…
The same is true of handbags and shoes. As we said recently, there was an old adage about ‘a lady always wearing good shoes’. Well, today’s shoes (and bags) often come from the same factories around the globe. Regardless of whether the price tag is £75 or £750, the shoes or bag may have been made on the same production line.
Do you believe that on the whole, fashion offers good value for money? We’d love to know what you think…
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