Not for sale: Luxury groups ponder ways to get rid of their unsold inventory
economist.com
economist.com
If an item for sale could be counterfeited and sold to me at full price (or 5% of the real item's price), and I would never know the difference, I probably have no business buying the brand value of it.
If something's value can fluctuate so wildly, and even end up in a trash bin because it can't sell, I'm probably not going to believe that it's something worth me buying.
Maybe I never get to enjoy those luxury watches or backpacks that everyone's wearing (whose point only seems to be the white name patch in the corner), but equally, I never get pulled into buying something that I regret and wonder if it was worth it (or genuine) later.
Luxury typically today just means logo. Very rarely is a garment worth the 10x markup just because it has a LV or Gucci stamp.
I do think bespoke suits and certain fabrics are worth their ostentatious price points but to your average consumer they just want the brand.
To some extent it’s the same in all industries particularly the computer industry.
The nice thing about men's fashion is that there seem to be more staples that are timeless than there are in women's fashion. There are wide swings in women's fashion, but if I buy right, I can get away wearing something for years and it isn't dated.
Good staples to look for / own:
-denim trousers -white and blue dress, oxford, and tee shirts -deep navy blazer (no gold buttons) -mid or dark charcoal grey suit with some depth to it -dark brown cap-toe shoes (with a belt in the same color family) -navy, black, or grey wool sweater
https://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet/desert-hills/stores/pr...
Outside of generic items, you will rarely find any gems and also: the more expensive the brand, the more behind the season the outlet store is. They are really not the same as retail stores.
The outlet discount for those brands also rarely exceeds 50%. For some items, it doesn't even exceed 20-30%.
Edit: The garment producers are basically just paying for licensing of the brand name and slapping a label on them.
I frequent a thrift store chain called Value Village (aka Savers in USA) quite a bit. So much so that I regularly talk to a lot of the employees in the few that I visit more often. And I love looking at the hoards of books they have on hand at all times.
One day an employee was shuffling books around, taking the older books that hadn't sold in a few months off the shelf.
I asked her what was done with those books, and she admit that they end up in the trash.
Those books didn't cost them a penny. They were all donated for free.
Instead of giving them away or lowering the price below their $2/book minimum they choose to dispose of them at the dump.
That makes perfect sense from a business standpoint, and zero sense from a human standpoint.
There are hoards of extremely impoverished families where I live. The schools are rotting from the inside out.
I imagine either of those groups would gladly take a few free books for their children to read.
Other more human thrift stores in the area offer books for as little as 25 cents each, and they go in the "free" bin if they haven't sold at that price after a few months but at that price they go quickly no matter the book or condition so it's a moot point.
Machine learning has yet crack the code on what brand new high fashion style will sell best a season in advance when it is typically manufactured.
But fashion is ridiculously fickle. Not only is it seasonal and geographical but it can be weather-based, totally reactive to the news and trends that turn on a dime, and influenced by what that movie star wore at that huge party last night.
(I've advised on a couple startups that have tried to accomplish this. The large trends are relatively straightforward and predictable, it's the frothiness/immediacy within that that becomes a mess and wholly unpredictable.)
good luck
Also, so much of the clothing industry is so unsustainable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaGp5_Sfbss
Not like tech is any different: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeMlkGrYxJw
There are some luxury brands making high quality products, but most of them are smaller names that you don’t really hear on a daily basis.
Along with it, I bought a surplus Czech winter jacket. Olive drab canvas, furry lining, built like a tank. I have no doubt it will last for decades, and it was €30.
The value for money you get with military surplus or good reproductions is astounding. You won't have the fashion brand logos, but you'll have clothing that lasts for decades.
(I bought it from Varusteleka in Finland. They're a bit quirky, but the selection is outstanding and they ship worldwide)
Luxury brands have shot themselves in the foot. Because of this greed, people are now used to 70% (or more) off at sales. Heck, even Mr Porter is doing 80% now. When you know that in a couple of months there's another sale, why would you buy an item for full price? Then, of course, people forget and don't buy the item at all, or maybe their size is now unavailable, trends shift, etc.
It's going to backlash in other ways, too: since you can now get luxury goods for far cheaper, it's not as much a status symbol, so there's even less reason for buying it.
This is also why people go nuts for limited releases, but these luxury houses prioritize growth more than a sustainable business. That risk won't pay off.
As well, the items that do go on sale are generally not the most sought after items and are mostly the generic items since they have inventory left over.
The brands you are seeing that have 70% off sales are not on the same price class as a brand like Gucci.
There are generally 5 tiers of pricing for clothing brands (by T-Shirt pricing to keep it simple):
$10+, $50+, $100+, $400+, $800+ (Gucci)
... (and of course there are higher and in betweens, but if you look at clothing brands prices the tiers stand out clearly)
I think this whole article is specifically about how these brands don't discount in sales.