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Random Stella McCartney - Fashion

Designer-Chain Store Hybrids

April 11th 2007 03:57

The frenzy at Target, I wonder if she returned it? (courtesy of theage.com.au)

To quote the infamous Ms Hanson, “I don’t like it.”
And I assume I’m going to be pretty unpopular by saying this but as I will discuss, I really do believe that designer-chain store hybrids do fashion no favours.

There have been a plethora of these hybrids in the last year or two, from Alba Fan at Jeans West, Kit Willow for Portmans and (the big one) Stella McCartney for Target.

Now, I admit, whenever a new hybrid is announced, I get caught up in it. I was totally psyched about Alba Fan Club and I was there on the first day of Stella’s Target range. And you know what, every single time I have been utterly disappointed.

So, I have decided to look deeper into this phenomenon to work out why, in my opinion, it just does not work.

The first and probably most important thing is that I don’t actually like many of the clothes the designer ranges produce. Alba Fan Club had a very limited range with only a few pieces that caught my eye and I was uninspired by Stella McCartney’s pretty average range at Target. Kit Willow’s dresses at Portmans were very pretty, but just ridiculously expensive, which brings me to my second grievance.

The price. Now I know that designer clothing by nature is ridiculously expensive, but this isn’t real designer clothing. It’s not hand crafted by Stella McCartney’s personal team of seamstresses, it’s mass produced in average quality fabric and sold at Target, for god’s sake. Sure it may have Stella’s tag on it, but who are you kidding, you still bought it from Target (btw – I have nothing against Target normally, just in this respect). Personally I refuse to spend hundreds of dollars for something at Target or Jeans West. If I’m going to spend that kind of money on something, I want it to be unique and at least a little bit exclusive.

And here we come to the most fundamental criticism for the designer-chain store hybrid. Designer and chain store clothing serve totally different purposes. If I want cheap, uncomplicated basics or flash-in-the-pan-trend pieces that will be out of style in 2 weeks (*cough*fingerless gloves*cough*), then I’ll go to a chain store. If I want classic, exclusive, luxurious pieces that I will keep my entire life, then I go designer. Mixing the two does not reach a happy medium, but alienates them both. The Stella McCartney range is not cheap, so the chain store advantage is out the window, but it also has no mystery, everyone knows it’s from Target and everyone already owns it, therefore discounting the benefits of designer clothing.

Obviously, these hybrids do have their good points, such as democratising high fashion and creating interest in designer clothes in a wider audience. And if I believed people were actually buying these pieces because they saw them as superb pieces of tailoring, then I wouldn’t have so much of a problem. But I don’t think that is the case. It seems to me that people flocked out to buy them because of the hype, the advertising and because of Stella McCartney’s fame. This point is backed up by the fact that thousands of pieces from the collection were returned after the initial frenzy. Not a great sign.

And so ends my rant on designer-chain store hybrids, if you have any thoughts to the contrary, or if you agree with me, I’d love to hear what you think.