2008-10-13

FITTING ROOMS

SUNDAY #4
HAPPY THANKS GIVING CANADA!

I went to Winners (T.J. Maxx, for you living in America) today, and I came across these atrocious velvet coats. They came in all sorts of colors and I pretty much got dared to try it on. It actually wasn't as ugly on as I anticipated, but I would still never wear it in public. Can you believe it was 99$? This is Winners!


SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN....
I bought the top on the right when I was in Topshop in London a few weeks ago. Imagine my surprise when I went to Winners today and found practically the identical top. They were pretty much the same except the color. So here is my question...Does Topshop sell their designs? Do others copy them? Do they sell all their left over stock and other companies re-brand them? I found the same issue when I was living in Australia, I had bought this H & M dress in Montreal and I found the exact same dress re-branded in Myer in Australia. Also this happened with 2 Urban Outfitters tops that I had bought back home I found the identical one in Dotti in Australia and another at a Surf shop. What's the deal??? Does anybody have insight? Stuff like this makes me wonder how shady things can be in the fashion world.



I've become a tough shopper, nothing seems to please me anymore...I guess I need a break. I've been trying to focus on buying work clothes, but I've learned that I don't really like corporate business looking clothes. Everytime I buy something now I keep thinking, is this good for work? I hate it because it compromises my personal style. I'm lucky that it's pretty casual where I work, but it's not like I can walk around in leggings.


I also tried on this 'coat' at Winners, I loved it so much I bought it. I've already wore it tonight for Thanks Giving.


FITTING ROOM AT THE GAP

I bought this dress which I'm assuming is part of the Gap collection below. I actually ended up getting it a size smaller then in the picture that I am wearing in the fitting room. It's a size small and it's so huge, but still cute. Keep that in mind if you purchase it too.

PATRICK ROBINSON lead designer for Gap.


Source
I really really loved this skirt and top, but I left them behind. I always have a hard time buying stuff full price at the Gap. Having worked there, I know it's best to wait for a sale.

9 comments:

Diana Coronado said...

What a lovely scarfs

Bex said...

Hahah every time I hear velvet coats I immediately start thinking "moth-eaten". It's like one of those word-association tests.

alis said...

So you had a fairly well shopping day. I spent Sunday trying to shop but to my surprise zara, topshop, steve madden and nine west was filled with over priced junk.

Your question about idetical items in different stores:
In Turkey there is a lot of textile manufacturing so I hear things, there are big manufacturers who produce clothes for brands like Diesel, Jigsaw etc, but they have their own brands as well. Sometimes they produce something for a big brand but afterwards they produce it for their own brand also. So my point is maybe Topshop's producer made a second quality version of the item that Topshop ordered from them, and sold it to Winners. It's highly possible that they have the same producer considering everything is produced by major companies in Turkey, China, India or Bangladesh.

Other possibility is some companies are to lazy to do new design so they steal designs of other low-cost brands.

Melissa said...

You can find a bit out about Urban Outfitters here: http://urbncounterfeiters.blogspot.com/

peace_found (ebay profile) said...

i work in fashion in Asia. and pretty much this is how it goes. Almost all the big brands produce in China and I"m mean even brands u would never imagine- Alexander Wang is 100% pdced in CHina.

anyway, they outsource contracts to say Company A who then produces the a basic top- who by the way, often Company A comes up with tons of designs for the likes of Topshop. Company A then also shows the same designs to Myer in Australia and hence u get the same design.

No there's no counterfeiting by either Topshop or Myer nor is the quality different UNLESS one of them pays significantly less, choosing cheaper fabrics, buttons etc....

it all one big merry go round in the fashion world.

peace_found (ebay profile) said...

i work in fashion in Asia. and pretty much this is how it goes. Almost all the big brands produce in China and I"m mean even brands u would never imagine- Alexander Wang is 100% pdced in CHina.

anyway, they outsource contracts to say Company A who then produces the a basic top- who by the way, often Company A comes up with tons of designs for the likes of Topshop. Company A then also shows the same designs to Myer in Australia and hence u get the same design.

No there's no counterfeiting by either Topshop or Myer nor is the quality different UNLESS one of them pays significantly less, choosing cheaper fabrics, buttons etc....

it all one big merry go round in the fashion world.

Dane said...

I love the dress you got at the gap, it looks so comfortable!

kokostiletto said...

yeah sometimes winners is a joke! i've seen ugly "runway" for $500! please! sometimes i run into that problem as well re: topshop and other brands... but with other brands. i forget what it was. i think maybe they utilize the same production facility in a foreign country or something? does that make sense??

Eyeliah said...

They must sell their designs. Or Dex may rip off, I've seen them do copies before.