Power Of Branding In High-End Fashion

You can Sell anything: Power of Branding in Fashion

Branding is at the core of the fashion industry. If you get this one thing right, everything else can be pretty much a cakewalk. People often seek out their favorite brands and do not hesitate to buy from them, no matter the quality or price. To put it in simple words, the power of a brand is such that, if done right, has the potential of boosting your business as nothing else can.

Luxury is something frivolous but pleasant in its frivolity. It can be pointless, impractical, and weird, but above all, it is always joyful. The cost of luxury goods has risen almost 60% in the last 10 years. It’s like buying your first pair of expensive sneakers, or a designer bag; it comes down to a simple human desire to own ‘something nice’. To put it simply: ‘why are designer items so expensive? because we want them to be.’

In the honor of fashion day on 9th June, let’s do a quick rundown of our personal favorites of how designer brands leverage their name-value to get people to buy absolutely anything

1. Rick Owens’ Oversized Coat; The Alien ‘Chic’

Rick Owens is an American fashion designer, known for his mind boggling and often impractical designs, such as "alien chic" looks, tent-like clothing. His designs usually feature bold sculptural elements and evocative draping, folding and wrapping

In 2022, he came out with is $5,000 ‘Oversize Down Cape Coat’. It featured awkwardly long puffer sleeves coming out of the jacket, giving it a freaky alien look. Despite the controversy, the brand's jacket quickly became low in stock, with only a few pearl and black versions remaining at their website.

If you probably see someone wear something like this: you’d probably think, ‘what a freak’ and in the same instant also go ‘damn, they’re probably filthy rich to be wasting their money on THAT’.

That’s the thing about high value brands, People will seek them out and buy them, they require close to no product centered marketing to sell something, which is precisely why they can sell ANYTHING.

2. Hermes Bucket: The Luxury Utility

Our personal favorite, without a question, is Hermes selling a simple ‘baalti’ (bucket) for the whopping price of $1,000 - a basic item designed to serve a straightforward purpose; transformed into luxury, divorced from its functional roots. The exclusivity associated with the Hermes brand allows them to charge an astronomical markup on the intrinsic value of the item, because they’re no longer selling you a container, but rather the Hermes name and prestige.

It is rooted in the idea that certain section of people can be so obsessed with the fact that they are absurdly rich, that they can simply afford to throw a thousand dollars on a basic household item available at your local Walmart. This absurd disparity in its market price highlights the power of branding to manufacture demand and transform the perception of everyday items.

So the next time you’re planning on sweeping the floor, think how some people probably store their cleaner in this luxury-utilitarian French rarity.

3. Balenciaga X Lays: It’s just Bad Taste.

To conclude our list, we will be discussing the Spanish luxury designer brand Balenciaga and their infamous collab with PepsiCo to launch their L.O.L bag collection (yup it’s actually called that), back in 2022, Balenciaga launched its highly controversial ‘Lays inspired Balenciaga Bag’ for a total of approx. 1.4 Lakhs INR. The design mirrored the chip bags' signature crinkled texture, color scheme, and graphics. This unexpected pairing sparked heated discussions online and grabbed headlines. While some saw it as a playful wink at pop culture and consumerism, others weren't convinced. The practicality of the design – was it really something you'd wear, a crumpled chips packet?

What we can gauge from these trends is that, designer pieces are not always meant to be practical, wearable items but are rather branded as, ‘expressions’ ‘piece of art’ that comment on the state of society, culture, and our collective values.

Yet, for those who are captivated by these fashion-as-art pieces and choose to acquire them, the financial investment required can be pretty hefty. High-end, conceptual fashion items are frequently produced in limited quantities by renowned designers, and their exclusivity and association with luxury brands drives prices to absurd levels.

All thanks to the carefully crafted brand image that allows them to sell anything from potato chip-inspired clothing to a blank canvas at a premium price. The brand name becomes synonymous with exclusivity, rebellion, or artistic merit, depending on the message they cultivate. It's the brand story, the image they project, that allows these outrageous pieces to command so much attention.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments? Any outrageous pieces that we missed?