Love this thread. Have so many thoughts on this topic. Just thought I'd share my 2 cents, some thoughts that go through my head quite often when considering new designer purchases.
One thing that always drives me nuts about luxury shopping online is shipping times. One brand that comes to mind for me is Bottega Veneta. It takes a full 7-day week for me to receive my online purchases when I shop directly with them. In my opinion, luxury fashion houses should all provide overnight shipping, especially when you're spending thousands on an item that they're cutting costs to produce anyway. Louis Vuitton is another one that for me has taken longer to deliver items than I think they should. This probably will have some negative impact on the environment (I'm uneducated in this regard but I'm also very pro-sustainability, so would be interested in any information on this) but it doesn't seem that these brands are all that concerned about sustainability anyway so I don't see that as being a significant counter argument. I believe Net-a-porter provides overnight shipping on almost all purchases, at least in my experience I've been able to have them overnighted, which places them high on my priority list for where I want to shop from. Maybe this is just me but I think if I'm looking to spend $2k-$3k on a bag, it being overnighted to me should be a given.
Additionally, the absolute decline in quality of these items is abhorrent to me. I've had to fix my bags with super glue (so unluxurious!!!), repair stitching myself with my own sewing kit, and re-finish cracked piping with leather edge-paint more times than I can count. Most recently, the tab on my LV mini pochette that I bought a few weeks ago already started separating on the corner. The keyring clochette on my Prada re-edition 2005 also started separating where it loops through itself to attach to the bag. I fixed both of these with super glue.
(I'm too impatient to bring my bag to a cobbler to repair and then wait for turnaround time, and also love crafts, so I figure I'll just fix them myself!) And I am EXTREMELY easy on my bags, have a large collection and switch out often. I fall in love with the beautiful designs, but knowing how terrible the quality tends to be has really put me off spending my hard-earned money on these bags. I also had a Fendi mini Peekaboo with black matte hardware that chipped off to show cheap-looking tinny silver underneath within a couple hours, and the stitching on the strap just came loose and the bag fell off my shoulder. This is all in the first DAY of me wearing the bag. Also, knowing that almost all these brands are owned by one massive conglomerate, either LVMH or Kering, feels gross to me. They just slap on different labels and present them to us as "individual luxury fashion houses" when all the profits actually go to the same place.
Currently I'm admiring The Row and find their quality to be superb so far. Hopefully they don't disappoint like so many other houses have done for me. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk
One thing that always drives me nuts about luxury shopping online is shipping times. One brand that comes to mind for me is Bottega Veneta. It takes a full 7-day week for me to receive my online purchases when I shop directly with them. In my opinion, luxury fashion houses should all provide overnight shipping, especially when you're spending thousands on an item that they're cutting costs to produce anyway. Louis Vuitton is another one that for me has taken longer to deliver items than I think they should. This probably will have some negative impact on the environment (I'm uneducated in this regard but I'm also very pro-sustainability, so would be interested in any information on this) but it doesn't seem that these brands are all that concerned about sustainability anyway so I don't see that as being a significant counter argument. I believe Net-a-porter provides overnight shipping on almost all purchases, at least in my experience I've been able to have them overnighted, which places them high on my priority list for where I want to shop from. Maybe this is just me but I think if I'm looking to spend $2k-$3k on a bag, it being overnighted to me should be a given.
Additionally, the absolute decline in quality of these items is abhorrent to me. I've had to fix my bags with super glue (so unluxurious!!!), repair stitching myself with my own sewing kit, and re-finish cracked piping with leather edge-paint more times than I can count. Most recently, the tab on my LV mini pochette that I bought a few weeks ago already started separating on the corner. The keyring clochette on my Prada re-edition 2005 also started separating where it loops through itself to attach to the bag. I fixed both of these with super glue.
(I'm too impatient to bring my bag to a cobbler to repair and then wait for turnaround time, and also love crafts, so I figure I'll just fix them myself!) And I am EXTREMELY easy on my bags, have a large collection and switch out often. I fall in love with the beautiful designs, but knowing how terrible the quality tends to be has really put me off spending my hard-earned money on these bags. I also had a Fendi mini Peekaboo with black matte hardware that chipped off to show cheap-looking tinny silver underneath within a couple hours, and the stitching on the strap just came loose and the bag fell off my shoulder. This is all in the first DAY of me wearing the bag. Also, knowing that almost all these brands are owned by one massive conglomerate, either LVMH or Kering, feels gross to me. They just slap on different labels and present them to us as "individual luxury fashion houses" when all the profits actually go to the same place.Currently I'm admiring The Row and find their quality to be superb so far. Hopefully they don't disappoint like so many other houses have done for me. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk
