Pink Rock Candy – Top fashion trends, news and shopping of 2010

As a college student, with a very limited income, the words luxury and clothing don’t often find their way into the same sentence. I may swoon over a pair, or ten, of Christian Louboutin shoes or the entire Chloe ready-to-wear clothing line, but in all actuality my acquisition of luxury clothing is confined to birthdays and holidays when I receive presents from people who are much older, wiser, and monetarily secure than I. This brings me to the term, affordable luxury.

When I think of luxury, I think, “out of my reach”; so, when the word affordable is place in front of luxury, I get a bit confused. Does this mean the Balenciaga military jackets are on major sale? In my dreams!

Affordable luxury clothing is the term given to brands like Coach, DKNY, Baby Phat, etc. This is pretty much the major brands you can buy at stores like Macy’s and Nordstrom’s. According to the Wall Street Journal, the once booming industry of affordable luxury clothing, is plunging into the pit of doom. No longer are middle class buyers spending all of their extra money on these affordable designer duds, and even more interesting, the luxury clothing industry is feeling no negative effects because of the lack of consumers. In fact that industry is blossoming, but why?

Obviously, there are economic difficulties in the United States and around the world for that matter. This is definitely having a giant effect on the spending habits of middle and lower class people. Also, it can be noted that people in the upper class may be losing money, but most times this loss of money means less to the wealthy than to the people living from paycheck to paycheck. When you have money to blow, you usually do.

There is also the access factor. When everyone has the same Louis Vuitton bag, it isn’t worth spending the money to buy it; so, what do you do? Save a little bit more money and buy a higher end bag (a more luxurious bag). To me many brands have become so accessible and such a ‘status symbol’ it is an annoyance. We’ve all seen the person who looks exactly like this model in the Coach perfume ad. Why is it necessary to be a walking Coach billboard? Many brands are trying to distance themselves from this affordable luxury category in an attempt to save face and continue making money.

Perhaps this is a lesson learned. Every other day there is a new celebrity clothing line coming out at Macy’s or a new capsule collection at Target or H&M. Not to say I don’t adore the options, “Do I want to go to H&M and shop the Roberto Cavalli for H&M line or do I want to head to Target and get that white and purple Erin Fertherston dress I’ve been fawning over,” but often when people have too many choices they become overwhelmed and tend to choose to abstain. Its all celeb-line fun and capsule-collection games until the fashion industry gets hurt!

[via The Wall Street Journal]