RECESSION BRINGS HIGH-END DESIGNERS TO THE LOW-END

For businesses struggling to conquer the deadly wrath of the economic recession, creativity is in high demand. Fortunately, for the fashion industry, a world that thrives on luxury, there is no shortage of this creative genius.

Now, more high-end designers than ever before have made the strategic business decision to produce clothing lines for lower-end retailers. To quote Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour, “you have to be wearing an Irving Penn sack on your head,” not to notice the recent overflow of high-end designer labels in lower-end clothing and department stores.

“Fashion mimics what’s going on in the world, so with the recession, it seems only natural for designers to keep America beautiful by designing a line for a store like Target,” said Anna Perrotta, the print coordinator and embellishment designer for A.H. Schreiber Co., a leading manufacturer and distributor of women’s swimwear.

In 2002, years before the recession was in sight, Target launched the Isaac Mizrahi for Target Collection. In times when the revenue is short, surges of retailers and designers have been taking tips from Target and Mizrahi and have chosen to follow their fashionable footsteps.

H&M has taken on projects with Matthew Williamson, Comme des Garcons, Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Roberto Cavalli, Jimmy Choo, and most currently, Sonia Rykiel. TopShop has partnered with Kate Moss and Jonathan Saunders, and Uniqlo with Jill Sander and Alexander Wang. Even The Gap has hopped on the high-end designer collaboration bandwagon, working with designers like Thakoon, Rodarte, and 3.1 Phillip Lim to produce affordable wardrobe options.

Photo: Rodarte for The Gap campaign (Designers:Laura and Kate Mulleavy; Model: Liya Kebede); Source: gap.com

Photo:Thakoon for The Gap campaign (Designer: Thakoon Panichgul; Model: Carmen Kass); Source: gap.com

But Target, the pioneer of the trend, has the longest list of collaborations to boast. Target’s high-end design partners include the following: Anna Sui, Loomstate, Zac Posen, Ashley Paige, Thakoon, Rodarte, Erickson Beamon, Anya Hindmarch, Jonathan Saunders, Liberty of London, and Alexander McQueen. On March 7, more than 250 Target stores across the country debuted the bold styles of Jean Paul Gaultier.

While many high-end designers have found refuge from the burdens of luxury garment production in lower-end retailers, others within the industry are struggling to produce anything of quality.

Lena Zajac, who was once the assistant manager of luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue in Short Hills, New Jersey, and a buyer for the store for over a decade, understands the origin of the challenges high-end designers are currently facing.

“This recession, although widespread, for the first time in a long time, has attacked the luxury customer, due to the financial impact of the stock market, Wall Street, retirement funds, real estate prices, etc,” she said. “Therefore, the designer orders were less than usual because their audience became more discriminating and their ‘play money’ was no longer there. Sales dropped dramatically at Saks, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom. People took a look around and relied on sale merchandise, which had become widely available, and found trend pieces at lower prices in chain stores.”

According to Taisa Veras, a stylist for jewelry design company Alex and Ani, “Ready-to-Wear designers who show their collections during Fashion Week are the ones feeling the effects of the recession the most because their clothes cost a lot to produce and their price point is very high.”

Many of those designers’ shortened budgets are visibly evident in the quality of the clothing they produce for their usual retailers.

“It’s awful,” said Perrotta. “When shopping the stores, you can see that designers are taking fewer risks with embellishments and techniques.”

Perrotta continued, “Trims and hardware are less than par these days. Buttons on a blazer that would commonly be a metal can be seen as a metallic coated plastic. Embroideries are becoming increasingly poor, with fewer stitches, which cheapen the price of the trim and cause it to unravel easily. Fabrics are thinner. More acrylic and man made yarns and fabrics are being used, which can account for the flimsy look of the garments on the hangers.”

Designers are not blind to the fact that right now, it is all-around easier to sell commercial mass marketed pieces than big-ticket one-of-a-kind items. For the designers who have filtered their creativity into lower-end clothing lines, they are reaping the benefits.

“Producing a line in stores like Target and H&M gives these high-end labels more exposure and the ability to reach consumers that very likely never heard of them before,” said Andrea Good, an assistant to the founder of the newly launched online shoe boutique Scarpasa.com.

Good also suspects that the low-end lines will create a new type of demand for the designer. “Consumers will continue to want to purchase from them even after their time in these stores are over, and they will do so with smaller ticket items like wristlets or sunglasses,” she said.

Sean Devlin, an International Business student at The College of New Jersey, also considers the recent decisions of designers to enter the low-end market to be a wise business move.

“It gives fashionistas who worship brands like Rodarte and Jimmy Choo an opportunity to be able to purchase their products,” he said. “It is also a way to generate more revenue, because logically, there are more customers willing to pay $50 for a Rodarte for Target dress than $3,450.00 for a Rodarte off-the-runway look.”

But sometimes, customers are not always impressed by what they see.

“When the designer collaborations hit the stores, a lot of people get disappointed with the quality and sizing of the garments, but that’s not the designer’s fault,” Veras said. “Retailers such as H&M and Target use lower quality production in order to sell the pieces at a lower price, otherwise it’s not lucrative for them.”

Designers have acknowledged that the lower quality clothing could ultimately tarnish their label’s image. For that, they have already devised another business tactic.

“Designers and retailers made the smart choice of having their guest collections available for a very short period of time, while also creating extensive advertising campaigns for each launch,” said Good. “This creates a lot of buzz and exposure for the designer and retailer, without making the collection too accessible, which could turn off the high-end customers and devalue the brand.”

While high-end designers may not be working with the same materials (or budgets) they once did, they continue to produce, and the customers continue to buy. Perrotta says, “Like a chef that can cook a delicious meal with anything but the kitchen sink, a great designer can create anything from what they have.”

Contributing Writer: Kristen Kubilus

Zac Posen’s collection for Target hits stores nationwide today!

Please view the complete collection below:

Photos: Zac Posen for Target Lookbook; Source: fashionista.com

Shop the collection: www.target.com