For those wondering who, exactly, is buying the biggest big-ticket luxury fashion items, it’s pretty much no one. A recent trend analysis from Vogue Business found that the most expensive items from luxury houses exist mainly for marketing reasons.
“Products priced at the highest end primarily serve a promotional purpose,” the story says.
Reviewing the prices of 13 luxury brands, Vogue found that “the average difference between the most expensive and median-priced women’s product sold by luxury labels over the last year is £25,740.”
As shocking as that number is, remember, it’s just the average. There are instances where the difference is even larger, like with Louis Vuitton’s £140,000 malle coiffeuse vanity trunk – the most expensive thing sold online last year – which is “115 times more expensive than the median-priced item [in the] women’s collection… and 1,217 times pricier than the cheapest Louis Vuitton product, a silk bandeau scarf.”
That LV has the greatest discrepancy in pricing affirms another of the study’s finds: “established houses tend to be priciest.” After the LV trunk, the most expensive items sold were Dior’s “£46,500 rose de vents 18k bracelet set” and Tom Ford’s “£36,000 mirror embroidered column gown.”
“[A high price] is almost like a marketing tool,” one analyst said. “It’s headline-grabbing. It creates PR; it creates an impact on social media channels. Whether they actually make a lot of money out of [these products] is less important.”
So, don’t feel bad that you can’t afford the Virgil-designed DJ Trunk from Louis Vuitton — it wasn’t really made for you to buy it, anyways.
You can read more about it at Vogue Business.
