What If Fashion Went for Real Luxury?

It's definitely not unusual in Summer to stumble upon colourful images of fun accessories when browsing the Internet: fashionistas may be showing their purchases or posting their wish lists on social networks, while professional bloggers may be sharing links to pieces that may (or may not…) earn them some money through affiliation programmes.

It can be visually rewarding going through their suggestions, but, at times, when you check out specific links to an e-commerce site where you can buy designer clothes, you feel utterly disappointed, especially when, clicking on the "Details" section to a designer item you discover where it was made and start wondering about quality and materials.

For example, Rachel Comey's "Dahl mules" have been quite popular on sites such as Instagram or Pinterest, and you can clearly understand why with their tufted and colourful motifs embellishing them. Yet, the moment you check one of the sites selling them and click on the dreaded "Deatils" section, you discover they are actually made in China and that's where you start wondering if the price you should be paying for them ($449) is actually fair and if they actually cost much less to make (as many other items manufactured in China).

The final point of this post, though, is not to accuse one specific design or doubting about the quality of made in China pieces, but to ponder about something else: these particular mules feature a technique – tufting – usually applied to carpets and rugs, but rediscovered in fashion a few years ago.

Profit comes first and foremost in the fashion industry, but why isn't it possible to develop garments and accessories that incoporate specific techniques with ateliers or workshops where they still make them rather than mass produce them? In this case a tapestry or carpet-making company may have developed even more exclusive shoes.

The results would have been too expensive, you say? But then again luxury items are expensive and at least, if they were made in collaboration with a proper atelier, there would be a reason to pay a lot of money to get them and consumers could actually see and feel the difference between designer fashion and fast fashion, don't you think so?