If I confessed to buying this Gucci jacket for $3,500 you might be horrified, but you might also feel envious and a little impressed.
It’s so cute! It’s sporty but luxurious, classic but quirky, it’s ineffably Gucci.
Actually it’s a cheap $35 fake that’s available at my local mall, in a shop that appears to cater to prostitutes and would-be prostitutes. Everything is sparkly and hideous, in a good way.
So now you’re probably disgusted by this jacket because, ew, it’s not real Gucci, it’s just worthless crap.
See how you are?
Here’s the real Gucci:
Why is it worth $3,465 more?
You could say it’s the quality but we know that’s not true.
In order to gain and to hold the esteem of men it is not sufficient merely to possess wealth or power. The wealth or power must be put in evidence, for esteem is awarded only on evidence.
—?Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1934 ed.), p. 36
Our clothes are still signifiers of wealth and class, even though any idiot with a credit card can own high-end consumer goods. And yet Gucci continues to exert its allure even though I know intellectually it’s just an overpriced brand with a brilliant ‘aspirational’ marketing campaign.
A million street-style pictures of girls decked out in Gucci have not been sufficient to ruin the allure, but it could happen.
I once longed for Chanel, and now it’s dead to me.
Is it better to want Gucci than to want Yeezy? Do brands have to matter? Don’t we know better?
Let me put it another way: Would you rather carry your shit in a paper bag than a bag by Michael Kors?
I hope we can all agree on that one!
I would only ever carry shit in a Michael Kors bag because it would be the perfect match! My blog once came under bombardment from Michael Kors bag retailers, God knows how or why! I began a counter-bombardment of e-mails to every executive at Kors’ HQ warning them that I was a grumpy old man with all the time in the world to fill their in-boxes with e-mails if they did not ‘cease and desist’. And they did!
I forgot to say, I prefer the model in the top picture, she, er, fills her jacket beautifully!
You make a sound point.
I care for neither jacket; too sporty-jacket-potato waiting to be baked. Though, I’d have loved it when I was 16. I am a little in love with Gucci’s freak aesthetic and the commitment one must display in order to pull off the full look. I get a Carrie (Horror Movie) goes to Studio 54 vibe which works for me.
Where I live, Michael Kors bags are very big with the unfavourable. We’re talking bellies, velour, bad hair dye and the scent of desperation.
Please tell us why Chanel is dead to you? It’s been dead to me too, for quite some time. I used to buy my wife jewellery every once in a while but the quality was never great. The decider was really just reading about what an immoral junky bitch Gabrielle was. I have no problem with immoral junky bitches in general, just ones that sells refinement and prestige to people who would generally step over said immoral junky bitches when they needed a hand up. There’s a hypocrisy that I find uncomfortable to swallow. I hate manipulated back stories too. White washing is cunty.
Suspended – Ha, the potato image has destroyed any leftover sense of desire, THANK YOU! Now if you could just ruin every other thing on their website. As for Chanel, same reasons – poor quality, Nazi heritage.
David Duff – I love that you have a personal animosity toward Michael Kors. I will take care of the aesthetic end. We are Stronger Together, like America!
One of the best moments on TV was the pervasive and obvious disappointment when it was revealed to the contestants on “Project Runway” the the flagship store of a ‘top designer’ that they would be visiting was Michael Kors’s.
I’d rather wear a soiled Depends undergarment than wear anything by Michael Kors.
Marky – Hahahahahahahahaha!
I’m with you on the paper bag, sadly many in my community LOVE them some MK. But, why? Seriously, where is the mass appeal coming from? It seems that MK is the new coach?? Back in middle school you weren’t shit if you didn’t have a Liz Claiborne bag, now they have been demoted to granny bags. Rise above the psychology of advertising! Who’s with me!
Emily – YES, maybe the new Coach, circa when Coach starting putting an ugly logo on their stuff. Is it like somehow people think Michael Kors is a swanky name? I don’t get the popularity but I’d like myself better if I didn’t instinctively recoil from MK handbags.
I don’t get the Michael Kors thing either. It came out of nowhere. He’s a moderately obscure name in the UK, yet, he has stores opening everywhere and I see these ‘ugly ass bags’ on women who are probably called Grizelda.
Before MK, everyone here was buying Mulberry bags. Boy, did that shit get common.
Guess what brand is the most inexplicably desired in my postcode? Stella M might get away with that synthetic shit but charging €500 + for a plastic handbag without vegan ideals is outrageous. Personally if a docile grass munching future hamburger (or kebab) didn’t play a part in making my handbag then I’m not interested; but only if it was thrifted. Those plastic Guess bags are just landfill. My €2,000 Balenziaga found a new life with me in a credit crunch resale store. I would be shamed on the Malls of Dubai for being out of season, but I love it like a 3rd adopted foster child. It even carries groceries.
The only “major” designer item I have purchased at retail price were some Chanel sunglasses 7 or 8 years ago. For some strange reason we were at the mall, and my husband demanded that this be the year that I “let” him buy a birthday present for me.
So I strolled into Sunglass Hut, thought the brown/black lace pattern on the Chanel glasses was cool and liked that the logo was very modest. Blowing $300 gave me a bungee-jump thrill as I’m typically irritatingly frugal. I thought it was cute, too, to see my young son and husband go into the store to “pick them out” after I had already told the salesperson the pair I had my eye on. Can’t go all crazy and let my guy buy something that pricey w/o my input!
Well, not long after, the three of us snuggled up for 60 minutes and watched an episode about how Luxxotica makes almost ALL sunglasses, designer or not. I threw my shades in the trash in protest. I hate being had. Dug them out later and gave them to Goodwill, b/c shit. I’m frugal and hate to waste;)
Story, here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704518904575365362932852610
I don’t know luxury design that well, but admire design houses like Missoni who seem to have been the first to start something unique, like their zig-zag weave. I love it. I would feel bad purchasing a knock-off, yet cannot afford the real deal, except for the socks I scored at Target.
And yeah, that jacket is much better on you:)
MK is for sure the new Coach. Neither of which is a designer purse.
If a purse is less than a months worth of rent, the odds are good is isnt a “real” designer.
I do like you in the top jacket. After the baked potato analogy, however, I wouldnt be able to wear it either.
I am disallusioned with the things that are coming off the assembly lines that are designer that I can “afford”. Shoes are now commonly $800+, purses $950+ and so on. I can no longer even pretend that it isnt ridiculous. I pre-ordered a JCrew pink faux fur coat. At $400, it is a fraction of the Gucci pink fox fur one ($19,000.00) and will likely make me just as happy. I hope.
“Luxxotica makes almost ALL sunglasses, designer or not. I threw my shades in the trash in protest.”
Seriously?? They were a gift. That was a super cunty way to react to the fact that Luxottica made your glasses. So what? You liked them. Did you picture some artisanal old ladies sitting in a room at Chanel, bending and branding plastic for $300? Were they suddenly rendered undesirable by the fact they weren’t? Fucking hell.