Fashion is evolving. It’s evolving this minute, this second. It’s evolving toward the future and into its own past.
But being in vogue isn’t exclusively for the wealthy anymore.
Brands and designers are not only changing their images, some are also redlining their price tags by creating separate lines for “discounter” stores.
Isaac Mizrahi for Target is one such venture, according to Helmut Hergeth, an associate professor of textile and apparel technology and management.
Mizrahi, who has a collection at the upscale Bergdorf Goodman — a department store owned by Neiman Marcus and based in New York City — where his clothes sell from $150 to $3,300, was commissioned by Target to create a cheaper line.
And this line sells, Hergeth said.
“In order to make a profit, you need to seem exclusive but be accessible to more people,” he said. “It’s all about making profits. [Mizrahi] took the quite daring step of trying to maintain his extremely expensive line. He was at an extremely high price point up there with the best of them at very exclusive stores. He still has his contracts with [Bergdorf Goodman], he just keeps a separate line for Target.”
Taking collections to the public creates not only a new fashion market — high fashion for low prices — but also gives designers a chance to branch out from their “furiously competitive” market and create innovate designs for new, varying audiences.
“Designers have two issues,” he said. “One, they want to make money. Two, they want to be known for their designs. At Bergdorf Goodman, Mizrahi was one of the couple dozen designers who are competing for the same handful of customers. It seems like this [Target collection] is working for him. If you have good designs and you can make it accessible to people, you will be better known.”
And though Hergeth said he can’t project how Mizrahi’s Target line will fare in 10 years, he said Mizrahi does have the chance to drop the line if it becomes unsuccessful or lowers the price point at which he values his original collection.
“Brand name companies do this all the time, initially at different price points to see if it will help or hurt business,” he said. “They may end up linking them if successful, or they will disown it if it doesn’t work.”
Take Ralph Lauren’s brand Chaps, which Hergeth said was started in the 70s to target high school and college students. However, the brand never caught on. And thought it is now sold in Kohl’s, it is not attached to the Ralph Lauren brand.
“You never see it mentioned in Polo commercials,” he said. “They disowned it. At Kohl’s you can buy it like Ralph Lauren, but they don’t sell it with other products. [Ralph Lauren] keeps it separate, afraid it will hurt their market.”
The risk these designers take in pursuing a larger market does pay off, according to Moriah Underhill, a sophomore in fashion and textile management, who said she purchases Isaac Mizrahi for Target items.
“It’s great because it doesn’t limit high fashion to a certain social class,” she said. “It opens up a whole new demographic and makes high fashion available to everybody.”
But Blaire Davidowitz, a freshman in First Year College, said though collections such as Simply Vera — Vera Wang’s collection for Kohl’s — and Isaac Mizrahi for Target are beneficial for her, she worries the new customers and prices will tarnish the designers’ names.
“I feel bad for people who do afford an expensive purse, and then someone comes up to them and says that they got the same one for $20,” she said. “It’s good for me, but it sucks for them.”
Although these designers’ mainstream collections may appear similar in design to their original collections, the lower quality of materials and craftsmanship provides customers with a cheaper product. High fashion designers tend to value extremely expensive materials, Hergeth said.
And sometimes it’s not so hard to discern one line from the other, Davidowitz said.
Gap Inc. owns four brands – Banana Republic, the Gap, Old Navy and Piperlime — that Hergeth said sell clothes with similar looks but different material qualities.
“I’m a big Gap fan,” Davidowitz said. “Old Navy stuff easily lasts one season and then it completely breaks on me. It doesn’t last long at all.”
Davidowitz’s favorite pair of Old Navy shorts, she said, broke at the seam soon after she bought them. But refusing to throw them away, she decided to perform a quick at-home remedy: her favorite shorts now sport safety pins on the side.
But fashion continues to grow, change and expand despite flaws or price differences. According to Hergeth, fashionable clothes allow for both self-expression and for wearers to feel good about themselves.
“Nobody wears clothes just to keep [himself or herself] warm,” he said. “Especially for people who live in North Carolina, where it’s cold for two months. … All fashion is just a form is expression.”
And this expression isn’t just to indicate social standing anymore — Hergeth indicated a certain type of hat that, in the 1800s, only merchants were allowed to wear.
Though the price of haute couture hasn’t gone down, Hergeth said, designers’ decisions to make their lines available to almost every stratum of society suggests a universal desire for such expression.
“The need to express oneself through apparel is penetrating all levels of society, independent of income,” he said. “People who don’t have the income still want to express themselves through clothes.”
