Saturday, February 4, 2012

Trading cheap accessories for good quality

Check out this Jane Lamerton dress in this season's hot colour of kelly green.





FYI - Jane Lamerton is an Australian brand aimed at 20 - 50s. It has a tailored focus and is exclusive to Myer. Now, check out the self belt on this Jane Lamerton dress........


Now check out the standard logo from the Italian design house Salvatore Farragamo.


Anything look familiar? Just another example of inspiration from an uber design house - this time Salvatore Ferragamo.



How manufacturers work behind the scenes

The more accessories an item of clothing comes with, the cheaper the item of clothing is likely to be. Accessories can include a self belt, buttons and any trim you can think of.

Further, manufacturers tend to use as cheap as possible accessories to keep the overall cost of the garment down.

Even though the quality of the clasp looks OK in this case, look at the fabric of the self belt & how it is stitched......eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww


Really poor quality self belt.



My style tip:

Remove the self belt - after all, do you really want to be inspired by? or would you prefer to be original?


Then insert an all leather belt that will look classier and you can also wear it with other outfits (so its cost per wear (CPW) will go down).....



Remember, you dont have to restrict yourself to matchy-matchy....try contrast colours, interesting prints...



eg: Witchery $50


eg: Witchery $40

2 comments:

  1. Wow I love your blog! I just found it via Sally's (Styled by Sally) facebook post and your comment re white pants suit (eek!). I love how you manage to keep across all of the 'inspired by' collections in our local stores!
    Delia
    www.whatshouldiwear.com.au
    Australia's #1 style advice site & App

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  2. Delia - Welcome aboard - now more than ever before, anything on the Aust high street is a copy - its cheaper and everything is available - no more going o/s & photographing garments in changerooms (seriously, they used to do that pre on line access). So for us, the trick is to find the best made copy, oops, "inspired" version.... Unfortunately, even the Aussie designers are being inspired...ones that come to mind are Josh Goot, Lisa Ho, Carla Z/Bianca S, Zimmerman, Alice McCall...its rampant....If I am going to buy Au designer I'd rather scour ebay for an original than buy the Aussie inspired....you've reminded me actually, there are a few other "inspirations" I was meaning to post photos of - must get cracking on that....Thanks for following & posting, Val

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