STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

sephorablue · Marc Jacobs

I'm not a smug twat

lynnie · Chanel

sephorablue wrote:

I find this kind of hilarious. I guess the Anya Hindmarch "I'm not a plastic bag" bags were revealed to be made in China by cheap labor, using non-organic materials, with non fair-trade practices, etc. Of course she and Sainsbury's are taking the stance of, "well we never said it was perfect, it was just to start a dialogue, etc.," but I still think it undercuts the point they were trying to make. Anyway, somebody has taken it upon herself to create a spoof:

http://jezebel.com/gossip/fight-the-power/accessories-speak-louder-than-words-263651.php

Not sure how i feel about that above bag. For $15 though, I wouldn't expect Anya's bags to be made in a different way. thats the problem with the apparel industry- we hate how its made, but we still shop at cheap clothing stores. Prices would have to go way up if we wanted anything to *really* change.

sephorablue · Marc Jacobs

I don't know, I kind of wish she had gone the extra mile and made a bag that cost more but was UK-made, or used organic materials, or both. I don't know anything about sourcing & materials in fashion/accessories so obviously I could be totally wrong, but I can't imagine it would have been THAT much more expensive... even if it cost twice as much it would still only be 20 or 30 bucks; even if it were $50 or $100 tons of people would have bought it. Because let's not fool ourselves, no one who bought it did so thinking "oh this is a cute bag I can use for groceries," it had cachet because it was produced by Anya Hindmarch, so in that sense I can't believe the super-low price was a deciding factor for anyone. I guess I'm also just looking at it in comparison to the architectural industry, which right now is obsessed with green products and technologies, it's a huge, huge presence. I wish fashion was as interested.

jaymiek · Coach

lynnie wrote:

sephorablue wrote:

I find this kind of hilarious. I guess the Anya Hindmarch "I'm not a plastic bag" bags were revealed to be made in China by cheap labor, using non-organic materials, with non fair-trade practices, etc. Of course she and Sainsbury's are taking the stance of, "well we never said it was perfect, it was just to start a dialogue, etc.," but I still think it undercuts the point they were trying to make. Anyway, somebody has taken it upon herself to create a spoof:

http://jezebel.com/gossip/fight-the-power/accessories-speak-louder-than-words-263651.php

Not sure how i feel about that above bag. For $15 though, I wouldn't expect Anya's bags to be made in a different way. thats the problem with the apparel industry- we hate how its made, but we still shop at cheap clothing stores. Prices would have to go way up if we wanted anything to *really* change.

I totally agree. Plenty of people shop at Forever 21, Wet Seal, etc. and the products they sell are sewn by poor immigrants in sweatshops. I should know because my bf's mom is one of these women. She works long hours and gets paid under the table. I've seen the Wet Seal labels that have yet to be sewn on the clothes she brings home. So yes, I agree that the bag should have been produced under better terms to fit in with the whole pc/ environmental image it's projecting, but it probably would have had to sell for way more than $15 and no one would be willing to shell out serious $ for a canvas bag. As someone who purchased the bag, I can say that I didn't purchase the bag just because anya hindmarch designed it. I would have bought it if it had been at Target or Kmart, regardless of the designer. I'm probably just going to use it as a beach bag/grocery bag anyway.

lynnie · Chanel

sephorablue wrote:

I don't know, I kind of wish she had gone the extra mile and made a bag that cost more but was UK-made, or used organic materials, or both. I don't know anything about sourcing & materials in fashion/accessories so obviously I could be totally wrong, but I can't imagine it would have been THAT much more expensive... even if it cost twice as much it would still only be 20 or 30 bucks; even if it were $50 or $100 tons of people would have bought it. Because let's not fool ourselves, no one who bought it did so thinking "oh this is a cute bag I can use for groceries," it had cachet because it was produced by Anya Hindmarch, so in that sense I can't believe the super-low price was a deciding factor for anyone. I guess I'm also just looking at it in comparison to the architectural industry, which right now is obsessed with green products and technologies, it's a huge, huge presence. I wish fashion was as interested.

if we were to make the bag here- it would probably cost us about $30. So even if we decided to not make money on it and put it in showroom for like $40 (to cover fees), it would still retail for like $85. If we had our own store, it could be cheaper but then we'd have other costs to cover while pricing. And that wouldnt even necessarily be organic. And lets face it, even decent factories aren't that decent. You are sewing alllll day in a hot room, lined up, while people yell at you. I go to the New York ones everyday and I have no idea how they do it- I doubt they make all that much money. A lot of the workers send money home to their families in Mexico/Central America/South America. Its not that I don't think fashion is interested- i think its a big movement in fashion. I just dont necessarily *trust* the designers (H + M has an eco line for example with organic materials- though I have no idea about the sewing..) when they say it. I wonder if its spin. I know Lutz and Patmos is apparently eco-friendly- but those are like $800 sweaters.
I'm not saying this because I think its right- SB. I agree that it sucks. But I think if AH priced that bag so low- she DID want people to buy it as a grocery bag. I don't think she was trying to make money or anything. If she's had known the craze it started, she surely could have made them better and more expensive, because people are paying like $200 on eBay. But she probably had no idea everyone would want one.

XtinaStyles · Marc Jacobs

jaymiek wrote:

So yes, I agree that the bag should have been produced under better terms to fit in with the whole pc/ environmental image it's projecting, but it probably would have had to sell for way more than $15 and no one would be willing to shell out serious $ for a canvas bag. As someone who purchased the bag, I can say that I didn't purchase the bag just because anya hindmarch designed it. I would have bought it if it had been at Target or Kmart, regardless of the designer. I'm probably just going to use it as a beach bag/grocery bag anyway.

I disagree - I think the simple fact that it has been in every magazine imaginable and there is so much hype behind this bag would garner a higher price point, especially when we are being told its good for the environment. I have seen Louis Vuitton canvas bags sell for thousands and Anya's bags are usually close to a thousand dollars regularly any way. It sorta baffled me why she was selling these bags at $15. I never really understood it. Seems like a lot of people are trying to profit from this "green trend" while bypassing the whole idea of doing good for the environment.

sephorablue · Marc Jacobs

lynnie wrote:
I don't think she was trying to make money or anything. If she's had known the craze it started, she surely could have made them better and more expensive, because people are paying like $200 on eBay. But she probably had no idea everyone would want one.

no I think you're right... I read somewhere that the company is selling them at cost. But I know nothing's perfect... my boyfriend read an article somewhere that analyzed the total carbon footprint of the prius and found that over its life cycle it used way more energy than a hummer, because of all the power & transportation energy that went into its manufacturing, combined with its shorter total life cycle. But I think that's the way any new technology starts out, it's expensive and inefficient, and only greater demand forces it to be refined to be cheaper and streamlined.

jaymiek · Coach

XtinaStyles wrote:

jaymiek wrote:

So yes, I agree that the bag should have been produced under better terms to fit in with the whole pc/ environmental image it's projecting, but it probably would have had to sell for way more than $15 and no one would be willing to shell out serious $ for a canvas bag. As someone who purchased the bag, I can say that I didn't purchase the bag just because anya hindmarch designed it. I would have bought it if it had been at Target or Kmart, regardless of the designer. I'm probably just going to use it as a beach bag/grocery bag anyway.

I disagree - I think the simple fact that it has been in every magazine imaginable and there is so much hype behind this bag would garner a higher price point, especially when we are being told its good for the environment. I have seen Louis Vuitton canvas bags sell for thousands and Anya's bags are usually close to a thousand dollars regularly any way. It sorta baffled me why she was selling these bags at $15. I never really understood it. Seems like a lot of people are trying to profit from this "green trend" while bypassing the whole idea of doing good for the environment.

well like lynnie said, I don't think AH realized how popular the bag would become. My point was that the average person in the U.S. has probably never heard of Anya Hindmarch, while Louis Vuitton is virtually a household name here, so people would shell out more for an LV canvas bag than for a designer they didn't know. I mean, it's not like Anya Hindmarch knockoffs are regularly seen on the streets.

honey · Gucci

i think AH's heart was in the right place, though i love the smug twat bag. for me the humor is in the fact that a lot of people bought the bag b/c it was an it item and didn't really think about AH's intention, which imho weren't necessarily to create an it bag. so the idea of a tote making fun of some of the fashion lemmings out there is hilarious.

that being said i think there is a lot of good that came out of the bag, especially in terms of consciuos raising. since seeing the tote i've been trying to make an effort to reduce the number of plastic bags i use. specifically i have a ton of canvas totes that i got as part of promotional stuff from school. i try to keep one with me at all times and use it as a grocery bag. this is not to point out my own moral superiority (i still shop at f21) but i think there are a number of people out there doing the same thing, and i probably wouldn't have thought about re-using canvas bags if i hadn't seen the AH tote.

daisycardoso · BCBG

I am in total agreement with honey!!

Because of all the AH hype and all the talk about going green everywhere, unfortunately for me, thats what it took to get me to be more earth-friendly and more conscious about my decision making. Just like honey, I'm still the same as I was before, but just trying to be a tad more conscious about what I can do or stop doing to help the environment in a more positive way....

Like I said, its just a shame it took a handbag to get me here, but hey, whatever works!