If one were to stroll down Bond Street in west London, the shops you would see are almost all selling luxury goods. From cars to clothes, almost everything has a price tag equal to the average persons yearly income! But why? Are these products actually worth the money or are you simply paying for a label?
There are key things to look out for when investing in a luxury purchase that will help you differentiate between an item worth the money, or just a company charging more for their label to be sewn into it. Such as:
1) FABRIC – Some luxury brands will use cheaper cloths but produce small numbers of a particular garment to make it seem more exclusive. The garment could cost less than £100 to produce but because a “luxury” company designed it, the price tag could easily exceed £1000.
If you were to purchase a vicuña coat however, you will be paying a very high price for good reason. Wool from vicuña is extremely rare as these wild animals live only in the remote Andes mountains, where few humans live. Furthermore, to protect the animals they are not shorn, but rather, the locals collect the hair as the animals shed naturally. The resulting cloth is one of the softest and warmest known to man. This is true luxury and, with great reason, the price tag will reflect it.
2) CUT – An off the peg suit cut and designed by a luxury company will not necessarily fit better than a cheaper off the peg suit. Spending several thousand pounds on a luxury brand off the peg suit is much like spending 100K on a Honda Civic, because it has a Rolls Royce badge on it! It just makes no sense.
The same several thousand pounds invested in a bespoke garment however, will mean you get a garment that fits YOU perfectly – in a style you want, cloth you choose and you’ll know exactly how and where the garment is made.
3) DURABILITY – As previously mentioned, sometimes luxury brands will minimise the amount of garments they produce to create exclusiveness. This raises the price, but doesn’t mean they’ve been hand-made. They could very well have been made in China in a single day at very little cost and, as with most cheap made products, they run the risk of having very limited durability.
In contrast, a bespoke garment will have been carefully and meticulously stitched by hand, with no shortcuts taken to reduce costs. Instead of gluing hidden parts, they are hand stitched – often with reinforcing like canvasing in the chest and crotch.
We’re not saying that all luxury companies are hell-bent on rinsing you of your hard earned cash – but it certainly pays to ask and research to make sure you’re getting your moneys worth.
