What are you wearing today?
Ever see the red carpet event of the Oscars or any other award ceremony. The anchors ask all the damsels in uncomfortable attire the same same question. “What are you wearing today?”. They mention some famous designer and talk in some language I’m not familiar with. Apparently there are some nouns and adjectives only a fashion conscious person would know. I’m out of dept here or if you can say – ‘Fashion unconscious’ person. Every year I wait to see if some celebrity would say ‘Duh! I’m wearing clothes’. But thus far it remains to be a dream of the unconscious mind.
Anyway, designers have their own brands and mostly named after them. They are not affordable to normal folks. For normal folks there is an entire lower range of respectable brands. In India, clothes were not bought ready made, they used to buy cloth and get it made stitched. But a lot of Indians of current age have moved on from this. They moved away from custom made clothing to mass produced clothing. Its kind of a statement to wear these branded clothes. They are more expensive even if they are mass produced. Funny, Cars actually have an inverse logic in pricing. Rolls Royce is way way expensive than a Volkswagen.
Where a I arriving at? I just wanted to put out some context for my thoughts.
Where a I arriving at? I just wanted to put out some context for my thoughts.
Every time I see Alia Bhatt showing off her Caprese handbag or Varun Dhawan sprinting around in his skyBags back pack. I wonder if they would have the same appeal if they had some other logo. Let’s say
What do you think? Well VIP is an Indian luggage manufacturer based in Mumbai, it had a lot of good will in previous generations for good quality. I think every middle class family owned a VIP suitcase and may be even its still there. As good as it was. Back to my question, would Alia Bhatt with a clutch branded with VIP logo have the same appeal as the Caprese logo? Its the same purse, same quality, only a different badge. Thought so!!
Ironically both Caprese and SkyBags are brands of VIP. Why would VIP do that?
There are a lot of Indian brands that aren’t marketed like Indian brands. How would you like Madras Rubber Factory tyres on your car? Fancy a Da Milano hand bag? Like a washing machine from Indian Fine Blanks limited. There are tons of brands like this. Flying Machine, Van Heusen, Monte Carlo, HiDesign, Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Peter England, Lakmé, Hawkins, Westside, Ching’s Secret, White Mischief, Raymond. The list goes on and on.
Let’s come back to the topic of the post. What’s in the name? Apparently everything.
Why do these Indian companies make their brands sound like foreign? This is because of US. Not the United States, I mean you and me.
Some kind of colonial hangover in us makes us believe that Videsi is better than Swadesi. Well, these brands are not per say cheating you, they never say ‘Made in Milan’ for Da Milano bags. That would be illegal. They just don’t say where they are made and count on us to assume they are Italian. Italy is famous for leather goods, Milan is in Italy, Da Milano sounds Italian. So the bag must be worth 12500. The similar bag I saw at street vendor for 250 is just a poor imitation. Well the last sentence is sort of correct but the ones before that may not be.
Apart from the colonial hangover, we also suffer from another problem. Showing off. Showing off is a primal behaviour. All animals do it – when they are looking to attract a mate. But for humans, 365 days are mating season. Add to that a fact that we associate value to Brands. Thus, a Levis T-shirt with nothing but Levis printed on it can be valued at 999 when its actual worth is not even 99. Last year, I bought one such shirt and after a couple of washes, I wear it at home now. Because it just isn’t good enough to wear out. I bought 3 t-shirts from a brand called Gritstones. Never heard of it? I too heard it only when I found them online. They are actually in a great condition even after a lot of washes. You may say that’s just a one off things. I’m not writing this post because I feel Levis ripped me off. If you feel so, you missed the point I;m trying to make. I love cars. Let me give you a car analogy. If a brand new Mercedes or BMW is available at half price and you can afford it, would you buy it? What if I say there won’t be any branding on it? Nowhere on the car will be a logo or a text saying which company it belonged to. Does the offer sound equally good to you now? I doubt it.
There is nothing wrong with buying a BMW for driving pleasure or Levis jeans because you like them. But before you buy something, don’t just go by the name. Look at your options, compare quality and then make a wise choice. Remember Shakespeare –
Random thoughts of a confused primate 