What Makes Designer Brands "Better" and What Determines Their Price?

SOURCE: NSS Magazine

The economic principle I’m exploring is “Because of scarcity people choose. All choices have an opportunity cost.”

My research question to help me study the economic principle is “How Does Scarcity in the Fashion Industry Affect People’s Choices”

The article published in Styled titled “Why Designer Clothes Are So Expensive” demonstrates this economic principle by showing what factors such as more time to develop, better materials and where they manufacture leads certain brands to be “higher quality” than other brands.

First, designer brands require more time and energy in order to make it compared to other brands which increases the price. In her article, Westling states that “Luxury designers such as Alber Elbaz spend months slaving over the design of one dress, trying to perfect the design. The difference in designer clothes is that these clothes are more than just clothes, they are art.” This greatly increases the price because more time, labor, and energy is put into these pieces of art than other clothing like Nike which can be mass produced in factories.

Second, compared to other brands, designer brands use better materials to make their clothes. Westling said that “top quality materials cost a lot more money, so of course the clothing is going to have a higher price tag.” In addition, her article stated that “[The] clothing quality is better and it is going to last a long time. Many people love buying designer times because each piece will last them years and be a token item in their closet.” Designer brands use expensive and hard to get materials such as calfskin leather, snake skin, shearling, etc. These materials are much harder to obtain and are greater quality than most mass produced items that are made out of synthetic materials.

Finally, it costs designer brands more to produce their products from their homeland. High end designer brands produce their products in their homeland country instead of getting it mass produced in China in order to keep the product exclusive and quantities low. Moreover, Westling says that “Taxes in France, for instance, where many luxury brands are designed and produced are very high. It takes a lot of money to produce these exclusive clothing pieces and ship them throughout Europe or the United States."

In my next blog post I will research the question: What alternatives can be made instead of buying expensive designer clothing?