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.

]]> http://www.thinkerbelle.me/2009/09/designers-meet-ebay/feed/ 0 http://www.thinkerbelle.me/2009/07/luxe-values/ http://www.thinkerbelle.me/2009/07/luxe-values/#comments Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:55:04 +0000 Thas http://www.adthoughtspot.com/?p=126 Louis Vuitton is virtually synonymous with classic French luxury goods.  The LVMH company has reinvented the way we look at luxury –making luxury a part of a greater lifestyle rather than a single entity or object. Last year’s campaign of family values brought to life with the beautiful imagery of the Coppola family (yes, this may be one of my favorite ads of all time), taking the focus off the logo splattered handbags, taking it to a place of good old fashioned family values-father daughter moments. Using one of the most glamourous families of the silver screen.

So why am I talking luxury in a time where luxury is in grave danger of losing all its appeal? Well it has everything to do with Apollo 11. Yet again, LVMH has found a way to speak and find it’s voice in a very culturally relevant way. Launching (ha!) their latest campaign today, the  40 year anniversary of Apollo 11 with the likes of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren. Shot by Annie Leibovitz and is featured in magazines’ July issues. The astronauts each donated part of their modeling monies to Al Gore’s non-profit, The Climate Project. It’s another way to speak about a luxury brand in a very simple, respectful and pure way.

See, it’s not all gratuitous consumption.

Right?

(Images via: NYTimes)

***WARNING: I’m going to indulge a bit into the fashion/luxury world for a minute. Forgive me if this bores you immensely, but I promise there’s more to it than Sex in the City-esque moment, where the ladies are oggling over “just another pair of shoes”***

Ladies, you know them. The sultry red soled shoes. Dorothy had NO idea what she was missing out with her sparkly red shoes-can you imagine if she had the Louboutin equivalent? Who knows WHERE she would’ve ended up. Not Kansas.

That red sole makes many a woman’s heart aflutter (this woman is included). The heels teeter high above ground and look nearly impossible to walk in, but yet, totally worth it. I was brought back into this world of whimsy as I gazed at a pair of these from afar in Barneys in Beverly Hills yesterday. It was a world where things were just a bit better: judging by how everyone shopped there, there was no recession. Only beautiful shoes. Ah, alternate reality.

Escape. With the red soles. How did a red sole come to mean so much? It’s become this fixed idea in our psyche that we just need them. They make you more beautiful. More desirable. More intelligent. You can think it, it will do it for you. Now before you think I’ve completely lost my mind (and sold my soul to the fashion devil), it’s all about making a person FEEL something. And ad can make you feel something. As can a song, a book or a pair of shoes with cultural meaning planted in the sole of the shoe in the most daring red known to (wo)man.

Indulge yourself if Mr. Louboutin’s most luxuriously, quirky world on their new website:

http://www.christianlouboutin.com/

PS. Anyone out there who wants to help sponsor some market research–I am in love with a pair of turquoise 5 inch pumps. I don’t know if I could walk in them…help me research people. In the name of cultural anthropology…

An article in today’s NY Times article referenced, almost giddily, Alexander McQueen’s latest Paris show. McQueen, the renegade designer, used his latest show to make a statement. Literally thumbing his nose at fashion houses like Dior and Givenchy with over the top renditions of their designs (Little Black Dress anyone?). Some of his fashions were created from recycling his OWN couture collections. He was said to be “calling fashion’s bluff”, juxtaposing his grandiose fashions on the runway dotted with heaps of fashions in trash bags.

” “This whole situation is such a cliché,” Mr. McQueen said before his show. “The turnover of fashion is just so quick and so throwaway, and I think that is a big part of the problem. There is no longevity.” “

So what do we learn from Mr. McQueen? Fashion is disposable, but our pocketbooks are not. Make decisions based on what YOU love, not what fashion dictates because chances are they are just as clueless as you are.

Image Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/fashion/12MCQUEEN.html?partner=rss&emc=rss