Reading List: Deluxe
This book was a delight to read and I recommend it to both those in the fashion industry and to the avid fashion consumer. Dana Thomas takes the reader on a journey through the history of luxury, what it meant in the first days of the aristocracy and how it evolved into the branded products we buy today. At some point, as a consumer, one has found oneself lusting after a particular item or even any item from a particular brand name. Why is that? Deluxe can provide some answers and perhaps even more questions. Why do certain things cost as much as they do? Where are they being made? How do we get hooked in brands for life? What does luxury mean today?
You will have to pick this book up to learn what Thomas has to say on those matters. I want to talk about the chapter on handbags (naturally!). Handbags have, arguably, lead the way in perpetuating the luxury brand market as we know it today. Thomas writes,
"Since the late 1990s, handbags and other small leather goods have joined perfume as 'entrance products' to a luxury brand...Today, when you walk into a luxury brand store anywhere in the world, you will find yourself surrounded by handbags. They are the easiest luxury item to sell because they don't require sizing or trying on: you look at it, and if you like it, you buy it. Done. They are easier to create and produce than perfumes, and the profit margin is astounding: for most luxury brands the profit is between ten and twelve times the cost to make them...Handbags are the engine that drives luxury brands today...A large share of those sales are 'It' bags..."
Everyone knows an 'It' bag, whether they realize it or not. Fendi's Baguette, Louis Vuitton's signature monogram and vachetta trimmed bags, Hermes's Birkin, Celine's Phantom tote, Chanel's quilted 2.55 bag... The list is endless. These bags are key to many a luxury brands success in the market because, as Thomas writes, the handbag is the introduction to the brand. Every year I work as a handbag designer, I become more and more steeped into the strategy and psychology of the handbag. What are the consumer behaviors driving the sales? What are the motives behind a customer buying a $25 bag or a $250 bag? It is endlessly fascinating. I imagine at just about every price point, everyone thinks they have the answers. Designers often have to parley with owners, sales managers, and other voices in their company's team just to get designs out. Buyer's don't disappoint either. Whatever you didn't include, they love to identify right away and point it out. Can you put a wristlet strap on this removable pouch? Can you add a crossbody strap to this shoulder bag? This needs to have a back zipper pocket for my customers car keys, she is a mom in middle America. (Everyone is a designer these days, especially at the lower price points. But I digress!)
What is truly interesting is how little customer's know about this process which governs the things they covet and buy. Design often gets the blame. When asked why fashion items cost so much, my friends and family often say. "It's the designer name!" This is true, but not for the reasons they have in mind.
"Today the luxury brand handbag is a study in globalization:hardware, like locks, come from Italy and China; the zipper comes from Japan; the lining comes from Korea;the embroidery is done in Italy, India, or northern China; the leather is from Korea or Italy; and the bag is assembled partly in China and partly in Italy, the sourcing is sometimes questionable as the true provenance of the bag: one manufacturer told me that one supplier claims his silk is British when in fact he buys it in China, stores it in the United Kingdom, and then sells it at European prices."
Even at lower price points, if retailers are buying from wholesalers, a bags cost must profit the 1)the factory, 2) the wholesaler, and 3) the retailer-AND go out at a sale price so the customer feels they got a great deal! Then think about how all the components for the bags come from all over the world; made here, stored there, leather from over there, shipped for sale here... Still think $100 is to much for a handbag? This is surprising to many people not in the industry know. This is also why the internet is changing the way people buy and sell. The internet has made direct to consumer sales available to many who would otherwise have to jump through some serious hoops to get into a big box retailer. All this has only whetted the publics appetite for more, even at the high end level, as Thomas writes:
"To meet the increasing demand for handbags they had created, luxury brands had to come up with innovative solutions...Major and minor luxury brands looked for ways to produce more goods faster and more efficiently. Louis Vuitton expanded its production, adding workshops in France and moving some manufacturing to the Loewe factory in Spain. When I visited the special order atelier in Ansiere, I got a glimpse of how Louis Vuitton makes its bags: seamstresses sat behind sewing machines, stitching together scores of the new denim monogram handbag. Unlike at Hermes, where bags were crafted by hand one at a time, at Vuitton, the workers were churning them out assembly-line style, in twenty-bag batches."
Luxury handbags are still the driving force behind many brands sales. A handbag, even one by a affordable luxury level brand, is that one item within a customer's reach that can send a message to their tribe: I have good taste, I look good, I can afford the best, I am part of those in the know about beautiful things, I wear what those powerful people you see on TV wear. Despite what Thomas reveals by the end of the chapter on handbags- about workers dying from exhaustion in China or how handbags are among some of the most counterfeited items sold, they still represent all that was best about the golden age of luxury. Made out of the best for the best. Who doesn't want to be associated with that?
