designers. meet ebay.

Well, designer collaborations are nothing new. Anna Sui just launched hers with Target. Fashionistas everywhere await the Jimmy Choo and H&M collab as though it was the second coming. These collaborations are almost always sell-outs. Many of those who aren’t willing to camp out and get first dibs are forced to go to Ebay and pay 10-100X the amount that they would in the store. It’s the fashion world’s equivalent of ticket scalpers.  Designers try to fight it, but really is helpless to try and combat it (if anything it just illustrates how in DEMAND these pieces are!)  Well, finally, ebay along with a few very wise designers are gearing up to cut out the middle man.

Norma Kamali partnered with Wal Mart last year for very wallet friendly fashions. Now, she’s also on ebay. Selling at fixed prices (“Buy it Now” feature) Both collections were unveiled at her Spring show last week at the Apple store in SoHo. In the ultimate in tech-trend goodness, she ALSO unveiled her new iPhone app (let’s call this Fashion 3.0). The ebay collection is a bit more expensive, but reflects the prices that she was seeing her Wal Mart pieces (which maxed out in price at ~$40) being sold at online. It was her way of taking back a bit of control.

Following suit Narcisco Rodriguez is also launching an ebay store. For spring 2010, he’s going to offer a new 8-piece limited edition collection will be available only thru the Narciso Rodriguez for eBay page. Each piece will be offered at fixed prices ranging from $75 to $350.

Stay tuned for more.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 4:59 am and is filed under DESIGN and tagged with couture, fashion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.