Today I would like to reflect on the value of things. But don't expect any philosophical elaboration on the vanity of fashion. That's not where I'm going. Rather, we'll look at what you get for your money when you buy an expensive piece of clothing.
Since the 90s, the trend of large brand inscriptions has been returning at regular intervals. A regular sweatshirt made in Asia or Eastern Europe is suddenly worth several hundred. Of course, we all understand that this price includes, above all, the prestige of the brand and all the costs of trade, marketing or PR.
I also understand that if a person is greedy, they will buy a designer piece. Even if it is something that will only be interesting for one season. They feel good for a while, they show that they have what it takes and are a master. However, I don't understand it if you are an ordinary man, let's say someone like me, or an ordinary woman buys basic pieces of clothing with minimal real value for a lot of money. And that's just because there is a logo printed on them.
This is not to say that I myself am not at all subject to the brand phenomenon. I also like to buy something expensive for my circumstances from a prestigious foreign brand from time to time.
I also never owned anything cashmere because I considered this material to be in a completely different price category compared to classic wool. Which it is, but it's not as extreme as I thought.
What I hate the most are the aforementioned sweatshirts or T-shirts with the inscription across half of the body. Every time I see someone in such clothes, I feel like it says "I just spent half my paycheck on a T-shirt". In my opinion, it's not okay. Unless you're a rapper and showing "love" is not part of your business plan.
Fashion and style are also about how you feel in a certain outfit or how you feel when others perceive you. However, I think that sacrificing a significant part of your income just for this feeling, with the risk that it will disappear in a few days or weeks, is, to put it politely, unreasonable.
However, I always try to find out if a given piece of clothing also has some more sophisticated value.I pay attention to the material. I examine the quality. I try to estimate timelessness. This means that I think about whether I will wear the item for at least a few years, whether it will fall apart right away or become completely out of date after a while. However, lately I have also started to pay attention to where the clothing was made. This is clearly not just about me. I have noticed this trend among most knowledgeable people. More and more influencers, bloggers and YouTubers are promoting Slovak design. For now, most of it is actually produced in Slovakia.
I started to notice where, but also what the products of our traditional and newer Slovak or Czech manufacturers are made of.
That's why I was really pleased when I found this nice cashmere coat at Alain Delon. It's not the price of generic fashion from mass producers, but it won't cost you a penny. Moreover, I immediately realized what I was getting for my money. First of all, it's high-quality material. There's nothing wrong with that.
Cashmere, with its fine and soft texture, is the best thing you can have. Honestly, I wouldn't have expected this particular brand to come to us with this material, for which I give them great respect and praise. They simply know how to make coats .
The most important thing for me is durability and timelessness, which lies precisely in an elegant, classic cut.Of course, I don't expect you to wear it every day, but if you wear it twice a week during the season, it will be just right and will last you for several years. And last but not least, it is sewn in Slovakia. So you can have a good feeling that it was sewn by some skilled Slovak seamstress, who has normal working conditions and is paid for her work on time and adequately. She has a coffee here and there at work and at 4:30 p.m. she goes home to her family. It is not sewn by teenage children somewhere in Asia, who are exploited for practically slave labor in all kinds of sweatshops, where, due to the catastrophic hygiene or the terrible static, their lives are often at stake. With our pursuit of cheap and non-permanent fashion, we are also partly responsible for them.
More expensive, but high-quality and timeless items stand out the most when you combine them with a completely simple outfit.At first I wanted to combine the coat with a suit for the photo, but then I thought, why not? Such a classic thing as a coat can also be worn more casually and less formal. Even a man who is just approaching middle age can look cool in it. All you need is jeans, a turtleneck and boots. So it doesn't matter which manufacturer the coat is from. It's more about what you can get for the price of a one-season sweatshirt with hyped marketing. If you want something real and tangible for your hard-earned dollars, always think holistically.
Look at the quality, workmanship and materials, simply good craftsmanship and, at a higher level, also the origin and conditions under which the clothing is produced.
