Balmain’s Pricing Meme
Balmain reprises its expensive ripped clothes meme with a slashed button down. The olive drab shirt hit Colette at over $5000, and this news stormed through the fashion blogosphere.
Designer Christophe Decarnin’s jackets usually go for $5,000, so perhaps he envisioned this shirt to be accepted as a jacket. It was layered on top of a tank at the spring summer 2010 presentation, after all.
Balmain‘s notoriously high pricing isn’t news. I guess $22,000 beaded dresses remind people of couture, and $1,400 jeans look like an investment, so they’re not as provocative as drab day wear with four digit price tags.
Last week, the slashed olive T-shirt started an outcry with its $1,625 price tag. The Huffington Post went existential with, “Why purchase a crisp, clean shirt when you can buy a Balmain tee that already has gaping holes in it?” The NY Daily News interviewed New Yorkers about this top and got quotes like “It’s crazy; it must just be for publicity” and “I think only millionaires can afford it.”
Thing is, most millionaires can’t really budget for these basics, either. When faced with Balmain, they’re more like Zara masses than Russian oligarchs. Balmain has a new take on democratic pricing since basically everyone can equally get sticker shock. Very few people can buy these clothes and be casual about it. Michael Jackson was a fan.
There’s always the $650 suede pump, though:
Or Ivoire de Balmain perfume for $14.99:
Or even the new, exclusive Ambre Gris scent for $135:
I wonder what’s the ideal price to set off an RSS storm. Seems that this price would optimize sales to crazy rich customers while maximizing hits/buzz/demand for duty free goods. It’s possible that Balmain could price that button down shirt at $3,000, move more units than it does at $5,000, and still circulate that pricing meme.
See more runway shots from the Balmain SS2010 presentation at NYMag
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