Luxury label and how they blow any exclusivity

Oliver Fischer

3.6.2022

Translation: machine translated

I was window-shopping in Paris on one of the most exclusive fashion miles in Europe. The so-called high-fashion brands, however, present a partly rather unglamorous picture there. A very personal polemic.

I was in Paris for the Ascension. Yes, yes, don't say anything. It's your own fault if you go to Paris on Ascension Day. Especially when the French Open AND the Champions League Final are taking place there. But that's not what this is about. It's about fashion. Or more precisely: about certain fashion brands. After all, Paris is the fashion capital of Europe - at least outside Italy, right. Anyway, I have walked several times over the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré - THE fashion shopping street of Paris. Everything that has rank and name is represented there: Gucci, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Hermès, Dior, Burberry - you name it.

In front of some of these stores, people queued up at almost any time of day to be let into the oh-so-exclusive premises of the fashion elite by strict bouncers. At the same time, the said premises were by no means overcrowded. It was also noticeable that the people in these shops were young across the board (by which I mean 20 to 30 at the most).

While I was making these observations, thinking about them and discussing them with my wife, we came to an absolute and guaranteed correct realization: Brands that create queues in front of their stores through artificial scarcity have lost all credibility and exclusivity, although they want to emphasize precisely this exclusivity. Or precisely because they pretend to be exclusive. And by the way: No, I couldn't afford to buy anything in any of these stores, but that's totally okay.

No more exclusive or high fashion

If you as a "luxury brand" need to create artificial scarcity, then you have simply become so mainstream and no longer exclusive enough for your clientele to radiate something like an aura of exclusivity. If, to put it bluntly, teenagers think they have to have a part of you to save their lives, you can forget about the real elite as customers. They would never deign to wait in line in front of your store with the common rabble for the mercy of a bouncer. But: I really have no sympathy for the people who play the game and stand in line.

And while I'm at it: If you as a brand find it necessary to print your name or logo larger than life on bags, t-shirts or jackets, so that even the last person in line can see that you are being worn, then in my eyes you have sacrificed any attraction to maximum averageness - price tag or not.

Oh yes, when you as a (so-called) high-fashion brand sell white t-shirts with your name on them for almost 600 francs (so that teenagers can perhaps also save at least a part of you from their sack, Christmas and birthday money or apprentice wages), I find you a bit pathetic.

In minimal defense of these absurdities of the brands, however, I must also say: If it works and people go along with the games, buy the 600-franc shirts and feel comfortable in the high price mainstream, they have it no better deserve.

Oliver Fischer

Teamleader Editorial

Oliver.Fischer@digitecgalaxus.ch

Globetrotter, hiker, wok world champion (not in the ice channel), word acrobat and photo enthusiast.

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