Pop Quiz: What Does Elle Know About Affordable Fashion?

Good morning, class! Please put your books away and take out a pen and a sheet of paper. I hope you’ve been doing your reading, because it’s time for a quiz on this week’s assignment, “Fashion Foolery,” from the February issue of Elle.

1.  The article’s subhead says “Mixing high and low is totally on trend.” This purported “trend” is:

a.  A good thing, because many women are reducing their clothing expenditures
b.  Irrelevant, because many women’s finances never allowed them the option of buying high-end clothing in the first place

2.  Author Joe Zee writes, “All other fashion outside this rarefied world was considered—good heavens!—mall clothes: the poorly dressed black sheep of a very chic family.” In this sentence, “mall clothes” refers to:

a.  Apparel from retailers such as J. Crew, Banana Republic, and Nordstrom
b.  Aesthetically bankrupt clothing whose sole virtue is protecting its wearers from the elements

3.  Zee claims that in 2004, “things went topsy-turvy.” Which of the following events does Zee say happened that year? (Choose all that apply.)

a.  Facebook was founded
b.  Karl Lagerfeld’s partnership with H&M “single-handedly ushered in a new fashion era”
c.  Edvard Munch’s The Scream was stolen from Oslo’s Munch Museum
d.  George W. Bush was elected to a second term as president of the United States
e.  Lagerfeld’s H&M collection, priced significantly higher than the retailer’s regular line, made it “cool to love cheap clothes”

4.  From a fashion magazine’s perspective, what would be a primary reason for promoting inexpensive clothing labels? (Again, choose all that apply.)

a.  Inexpensive clothes and pricy ones are often of similar quality
b.  In light of the current economic situation, Americans have reduced unnecessary expenditures
c.  Only a tiny fraction of people can afford the higher-end brands, so Elle is attempting to acknowledge its readers who have limited financial resources
d.  Photographic comparisons of high-low outfits give magazines yet another opportunity to push the designer brands that advertise 
e.  Belt-tightening stories are trendy right now—as soon as the economy recovers, Elle will revert to covering almost exclusively exorbitant apparel

5.  Zee showed 100 people high- and low-end versions of seven different outfits.  In four of those seven instances, the respondents correctly identified the more expensive ensemble. Thus, his contention that it can be “hard” to determine the difference is:

a.  Correct
b.  Incorrect
c.  A half-hearted endorsement of affordable apparel
d.  A hedge carefully designed not to alienate the luxury brand advertisers

Extra credit essay question: The author mentions that First Lady Michelle Obama has worn a $148 Donna Rico dress and a $420 Azzedine Alaia belt in public appearances. In your opinion, are these examples of high-end or low-end items? Leave your answers in the comments section below, and be sure to show your work!

Next week in class we’ll cover the latest editions of Cosmopolitan and Lucky. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Comments

[Sarah]

As others have said on previous posts, I'm so glad you are back! I hope you'll also take on Women's Health. I just did an online survey for it that asked in like 10 different ways that same question of whether I noticed and liked all the new celebrity coverage and increased emphasis on beauty and fashion. (UGH no I hate it all) I think it would be interesting to do a comparison between a recent WH and one from early 2008.

[wendy]

re: Michelle

$148 bucks for a dress is kinda expensive but I lot more affordable than what is usually featured in magazines. I just don't see how magazines can say that 148 for a dress is a steal when you can go to H&M and get one for 40. Granted the quality won't be the same but still. And $420 is on the low-end of high end if that makes sense.

Glad you are back!

[Jessica]

I love when fashion magazines have "budget" sections as that is normally very subjective.

[Heather]

I would just like to say that expensive does NOT mean high quality. A cotton dress from H&M is made with the same cotton that Donna Karan uses. The only items that are higher-quality that are priced higher are probably leather products and shoes (a $20 payless shoe will have significant differences in construction from a Prada one).

Anything else, and you are paying for the brand, or for a slighty eccentric cut that can be obtained from Simply Vera Wang (Kohl's) or any of the designers at Target, or something like H&M or Forever21. For some reason all of my "high end" items have gone bust long before Gap staples.

AND (just to vent one more thing) people who calculate value by "cost per wear" never wear their items more than once a month because they have lots of money to spend on clothing. So of COURSE my Gap shirt, worn weekly, will be worn out faster than their Prada one, which they wear every three months.

I wish people would use logic in calculating these matters. We've been poisoned far too long to think that more expensive means higher quality!

thanks for the fabulous post.

[Alize]

Interesting post.

Budget is indeed subjective. It really is a pity that some fashion editors and stylists are paid to do a job that most of us do much better: being fashion-savvy, and finding gorgeous clothes at bargain prices that don't necessarily have to be ugly and 'whose sole virtue is protecting its wearers from the elements' eg sample sales, vintage, and high-street treasures.

I appreciate Heather's comment, however I 'm not sure I entirely agree: most people I know have hundreds of cheap items from H&M and don't even wear half of the regularly, whether when you get a fabulous designer quality bag or perfectly-cut dress, you actually invest in an item that you fall for and are thus much more likely to wear because you know you love it and it looks good.

Best from London! Alizé x