----- When Craft Justifies the Price Tag -----
Hermès, do you pronounce it "HER-MIES" or "HER-MEZ" or "HER-MESS"? I prefer "her mess" for the laughs. What's the first thing that pops into your head when you hear the name of this fashion powerhouse (more like powerpalace)? I usually wonder what it would be like to carry $20,000 on my arm. Will it fix my posture when I walk? Like a $20,000 stride walk? Sometimes it's hard for me to digest the costs of high fashion or even talking myself into spending a few hundred dollar on a bag. For example, the Philip Lim $700 bag, I found myself trying to justify the costs; oh the investment will pay off; good leather is hard to come by; quality lasts; etc. Maybe if I have a $XXX,XXX in my account, probably. People scoff at the belief that money pays for quality. Rarely true. Though, in this case, Hermes is believable.
At HonestlyWTF (honestly I wish I had their job, WTF), they visited the Hermes workshop and displayed how their scarves and bags are made. Every single scarf is screen-printed by hand, which to me, as someone who has taken a university course in screen-printing, understands the ridiculousness that comes with it. Albeit the fun and cool factor, when you're trying to get the perfect final print and mixing the right colours, holy shit it gets frustrating. So looking at the Hermes scarves, there are at least 30 colours per scarf. I only stayed at 3-4 colours for time efficiency at school. And every colour needs it's own screen. And every screen needs to be prepped. And every screen needs to be washed. How this is all done in details, I will need to tell you in person.
So, if i was making these scarves, after of course having designed the perfect pattern and going through sketches like a sick person goes through kleenex, plus, not forgetting the fashion bosses on your ass, to keep my sanity in tack, I'd charge $850 for these babies I'd call, wearable canvases. Hell ya. " Price. Tag. Justified."
No comments:
Post a Comment