Why even look at luxury fashion?

Why look at fabulous clothes that live outside your lifestyle and budget?

I ask myself every time I do it, or when I notice one such feature in a publication like the New York Times T Magazine, wondering, Why don't they show clothes more readers can buy? It's revealing that a recent feature on statement coats did not give prices.

Photo: New York Times T Magazine

The Fendi coat (right) is interesting; it's actually shearling processed to mimic fur; the price, $CAN 34,000 is not. The retro-influenced MiuMiu coat, left, is not on their site yet, but similar wool coats are around $CAN 6, 000.

Luxury clothes are expected to deliver elevated human creativity; I admire classic pieces given unexpected details, like this MiuiMiu embroidered suede jacket, a runway confection:  

Photo: MiuMiu

However, not all luxury is arresting; often it's similar to the the things in my closet, but made with better materials or construction. I'd wear the jeans, jacket and blazer below every day, if not for the price: 

From left, 

Toteme high-rise straight-leg jeans; price, $US 520
McQueen cotton-canvas leather trimmed jacket, $US 4, 183
Chloe checked-wool blazer, $US 3,290

The cost for the three pieces is equal to my annual income from my first full-time job many years ago!  Back then, I overspent on clothes, but as a young woman hoping to look professional amid colleagues twenty-five or more years older, I thought it necessary. 

Three reasons why I occasionally look at such things today:

1. To appreciate the craft. The Chloe blazer shows how a tailor matches a check so precisely that it could be used as a t-square. Horn buttons, silk lining! And the McQueen barn jacket: This is one posh farm!

2. To tune the eye, much like visiting a museum exhibition helps when buying an affordable print. I also notice how styles change; I wouldn't spend $US 525 for jeans, but am reassured that the cut is still in the mix. (I'd like to see these in person to gauge what you get for that price.) 

I can make better choices at my price point, and demand a pinch of that refinement. This is a version of the McQueen piece, the Bellerose "Jungle" jacket.

Photo; Bellerose

Impressive details: the pale yellow quilted placket, cord collar, belted sleeves, deeply-vented back, and (be still my heart), bellows pockets. And, it's washable! Bellrose, a Belgian company, consistently delivers little surprises in colour or construction. At €299, it's a confidently cool buy.

3. A more philosophical purpose: To ponder how these designers interpret contemporary women. 

From them, I expect a vision beyond the conventional; Elizabeth McGovern, in a Highgrove x Burberry campaign, releases us from any imperatives of coquettishness, cabbages optional, and shows us how to wear a straw sun hat with hiking boots: add. red socks!

Photo: Burberry

"Interpretation" includes fantasy. McQueen, now designed by Seán McGirr, continues the march of the marvellous. His fall collection was based on dandyism, which he calls "the ultimate personal adornment".  Intended for the runway, not real life (how do you get in a car in this?), a pouf of red with a deliberate dash of transgression:

Photo: www.alexandermcqueen.com  

 

I unfailingly check out Prada, though I have only owned a shirt and several pairs of their shoes. The Fall 2025 website asks, "What does femininity mean today? How can it be defined?"  I nod my approval: with hands in our pockets!

Photo: prada.com

The exact style may not entice you, but as ever, Mrs Prada asks us to consider what we intend to express through our clothes, how we move in them, what we're doing. The latest collection was deliberately based on an interplay between "'the done and the undone", with messy—even to some unkempt—hair and no makeup. 

You can read Brooke Bobb's summary of Mrs Prada's and Raf Simon's show here. I liked the phrase "femininity put through a paper shredder"; Prada's stock in trade has long been its off-kilter intelligence, and this collection is notably easy to wear, and therefore, given deep pockets, buy. As Mrs Prada said in a recent Interview magazine piece, they also are in commerce. 

Below these iconic designers are hundreds of talented colleagues making clothes at prices that range from a splurge to accessible—what I put in the window weekly. We can look or turn away from the high-fashion preoccupations, yet their attitudes will migrate to the mass market. 

As the Miranda Priestly character said in the well-known "cerulean speech" in "The Devil Wears Prada", "...you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room...from a pile of 'stuff'."    

The last word is from Iris, a retired banker friend who could buy these jaw-dropping pieces. She said, "When I worked, it was about dressing for the client. Now I can dress for me, and there's no point in buying Chanel jeans." She says luxury now is still having her shirts made.  

So, I look at these rarified clothes, much as my head is turned when someone zooms by in a magnificent vintage Citroën Maserati. Admiration, not aspiration. 

How about you?