SSENSE: Luxury fashion & independent designers

“Damn,” I said. I thought about how Megan and I, according to the lifestyle marketing biographies the sales team had invented, were “Style Eccentrics,” meaning that they could not predict our shopping habits. One day we would buy a coat at the Goodwill and the next day a Chanel blouse. We were unfavorable as consumers, impossible to pin down, and I

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Sartorial weirdness is luxury as affirmation of power - the power of luxury as an aesthetic system and also the power of individual designers within the industry.

Commercially, this season of Helmut Lang may sell better than it ever has for Fast Retailing. Walking out of the show, I asked a store owner if she planned on buying the collection, and she seemed keen on the blazers and jeans, which are reasonably priced. (Reasonable, in this case, means between $300 and $600.) And then, a shop-and-copy master (wh... See more

This is space that multi brand retailers like department stores should own. They should have the credibility of the high taste of their merchant team (see Barney’s circa 2005) combined with the best staff dying to find you that perfect black tote.