Most overrated brands

[Astérix]

fuuma im surprised by your observations of quality. while i wont endorse balmain as a creative entity, all the jackets i have tried which were made in france exhibited stellar quality, both in terms of fabric and craftsmanship.

however, with balenciaga i have experienced horrible quality. i ordered a suit last year which turned out to be worse than h&m. my sister even had the lining fall out of her cocoon coat after only a few wears.

although i will concur with your thoughts on lanvin. i recently received some wool trousers which were supposedly made in italy, but actually turned out to be made in romania. they were average at best, but surely not on par with what lanvin should be.

i guess the word luxury has become meaningless.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Astérix

[okonomi]

-Visvim: Good designers would take a traditional fabric and uniform and get inspired by it to create something new and not evidently linked to their inspiration, they'd pepper parts of their various inspirations on various pieces of the collection. The Visvim guy sees something he likes and makes a repro, then turns around and sells it for 2K to suckers (love seeing white boys wearing that japanese denim thing, looks as funny as a bad Asian character tattoo). He's not even a bad designer, he's not a designer at all.

Like most I'm pretty sick of Visvim of late, but I disagree with this. You can't quite make a hard and fast rule that a good designer must obscure their influences, although it often is the most effective approach in art. Visvim has come up with some amazing pieces over the years. From the virgils and the older outerwear, the elmendorf and even some of the newer stuff like those denim jackets - they're fucking perfectly executed items. Whether some of them are too repro-ish isn't as important when they're just that nice. People who wear head to toe Visvim - the newer, extra-fetishy Noragis and stuff in particular - do generally look stupid. The 'peppering' is up to the wearer, I think.

Addendum: What's up with the Deckhand hype though? Looks like a pussified Topman item to me.

[PRC.]

fuuma im surprised by your observations of quality. while i wont endorse balmain as a creative entity, all the jackets i have tried which were made in france exhibited stellar quality, both in terms of fabric and craftsmanship.

I've always wanted to try their jackets. However, the prices for their jackets are...

Balmain in general is pretty ok, imo. I kinda' like how the brand is "against the grain" of fashion without trying to be Dsquared

[Fuuma]

fuuma im surprised by your observations of quality. while i wont endorse balmain as a creative entity, all the jackets i have tried which were made in france exhibited stellar quality, both in terms of fabric and craftsmanship.

however, with balenciaga i have experienced horrible quality. i ordered a suit last year which turned out to be worse than h&m. my sister even had the lining fall out of her cocoon coat after only a few wears.

although i will concur with your thoughts on lanvin. i recently received some wool trousers which were supposedly made in italy, but actually turned out to be made in romania. they were average at best, but surely not on par with what lanvin should be.

i guess the word luxury has become meaningless.

Balenciaga is about Margiela's price level while Balmain is 2-3 times that, it's not badly made in the absolute but for 5K their leather jackets are a little bit weak. I'm not an expert on their manufacturing process though, just saw the stuff in stores and wasn't impressed. This is more of a rant...

Like most I'm pretty sick of Visvim of late, but I disagree with this. You can't quite make a hard and fast rule that a good designer must obscure their influences, although it often is the most effective approach in art. Visvim has come up with some amazing pieces over the years. From the virgils and the older outerwear, the elmendorf and even some of the newer stuff like those denim jackets - they're fucking perfectly executed items. Whether some of them are too repro-ish isn't as important when they're just that nice. People who wear head to toe Visvim - the newer, extra-fetishy Noragis and stuff in particular - do generally look stupid. The 'peppering' is up to the wearer, I think.

Addendum: What's up with the Deckhand hype though? Looks like a pussified Topman item to me.

Almost every brand (and certainly every brand I have listed) offers some interesting items (hell I own pieces from Balenciaga, Lanvin, and Margiela), I must admit I had to google those you mentioned (Virgil etc.) and didn't exactly like the items and found their pricing to be worthy of high fashion when Visvim is streetwear/repro but that is beside the point. I have a friend who is into Visvim and there are a couple things I've liked over the years, including that McIntosh collab coat and some other sweet and well-made pieces. It's just not fashion/design to me. Oh and I'd say I am wary of brands that have too many "brand A X brand B" type of thing.

I also forgot to list Rick Owens, I mean wtf is up with the new collections + the quality drops is very noticeable for the leathers.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Fuuma

[hurricane08]

Well:

.......

Agrees in most of the brands ,everything you're writing is true in general.Lanvin moved to Portugal for most of the sneakers and Romania for the trousers and cotton/nylon jackets etc so the quality wasn't the same after 2009,but i still love their runaway shows. On the other hand Balenciaga with Barnabe Hardy and also Nicolas Ghesquiere made some top notch pieces and the house is still good in outerwear even if they moved in another direction,it's the design and the lack of inspiration that people hated the last seasons. With that way of thinking ,Dior Homme will be on my list as well,but imo "overpriced" and "overrated" are two different kind of things.

I have some Rick Owens Exploder and Creatch pieces and i can admit that weren't so durable. And yes Rick Owens is overpriced .Overrated?I guess not

Edited January 14, 2013 by hurricane08

[Astérix]

i think it is safe to say all designer clothing is overpriced. however, i would much rather pay a premium for something like a leather jacket as opposed a tee shirt. i find it quite amusing that givenchy has some tee shirts priced higher than their full suits. as far as being overrated, for me this is an irrelevant factor.

[SSchadenfreude]

patrik ervell

[polishmike]

patrik ervell

you have to be rated first to be overrated.

[SSchadenfreude]

you have to be rated first to be overrated.

seems to be many fanboys of his on this site

[PRC.]

Overpriced =/= Overrated

[ucvrsm]

Jeremy Scott

Gucci

Calvin Klein

It's funny seeing some of the comments made here about things being overpriced and quality of stuffs. I bet you these people, even when the designer him/herself work on the piece and try to sell it to these people, they will still say it's fucking expensive with no concept. This are the kind of people who would buy cheap stuffs and still complain about the quality.

Edited May 20, 2013 by ucvrsm

[Fuuma]

Jeremy Scott

Gucci

Calvin Klein

It's funny seeing some of the comments made here about things being overpriced and quality of stuffs. I bet you these people, even when the designer him/herself work on the piece and try to sell it to these people, they will still say it's fucking expensive with no concept. This are the kind of people who would buy cheap stuffs and still complain about the quality.

ROR!

[fobsquad]

that fucking expensive with no concept concept

Edited June 5, 2013 by fobsquad

[Romano_yeah]

I´m afraid I´ll get hated but I find Nike Air Max´s to be overrated.

A lot of people around me started wearing them, but they look so goofy with tight jeans or (even worse) leggings.

[bbours]

Common Projects

[leprechaunupindatree]

mmj

[shoreman]

I´m afraid I´ll get hated but I find Nike Air Max´s to be overrated.

A lot of people around me started wearing them, but they look so goofy with tight jeans or (even worse) leggings.

 

Don't wear tight jeans. Period. 

Edited July 4, 2013 by TresUnCool

[bocaburgler]

patrik ervell makes some of the highest quality clothing for designers in his league. If anything, underrated. His clothing must be seen in person to appreciate. 

[fashionclassicsetter]

Pyrex

 

[frasier oiseau]

patrik ervell makes some of the highest quality clothing for designers in his league. If anything, underrated. His clothing must be seen in person to appreciate. 

Coming back to this, I totally agree, handling and buying more and more Ervell (and really just immersing myself deeper in his work) has really deepened my appreciation of him, he's easily my favorite current designer.

 

Anyway, Boris Bidjan Saberi, and even though I quite like him and his work, Paul Harnden.

[CASSAVA PIECE]

nn and soloist

[frasier oiseau]

If you're going to mention Number (N)ine, I'll definitely throw in Undercover as well.

[Wekapipo]

2-axis chart of low value for money, high emotional appeal?

 

price anchoring, perceived quality [value for money]

scarcity (inc., creativity not just distribution), homophily popularity [emotional appeal]

 

*Supreme tops that, but I must like overated brands.

[PRC.]

Overpriced does not mean overrated

Noone here shittin their pants over Balmain shit. There isn't even a thread dedicated to the brand. So I'm pretty sure this brand wouldn't qualify as "overrated".

Edited March 28, 2014 by PRC.

[fatKARLOS]

beats by dre

[sunny D]

If you're going to mention Number (N)ine, I'll definitely throw in Undercover as well.

undercover as a brand u can fuck right off..

 

undercover post 2011 fine

[frasier oiseau]

undercover as a brand u can fuck right off..

 

undercover post 2011 fine

Not really

I'm not even saying in terms of timeline, I know people say "Oh, after SS10, everything's sucked", but honestly, almost all of Jun's output doesn't really thrill me that much, I feel the acclaim is undeserved. He's really just a deconstructionist who makes trendy clothes

[whitney]

http://supertalk.superfuture.com/index.php/topic/154091-good-finds-ebayyahooetc/?view=findpost&p=3055959

Yeah the one with my old Undercover Future Days parka

It was pretty bad, pants too big, poor posture.

Even though Sschad +repped it

I think he meant to neg 

[frasier oiseau]

I've sold all of my Undercover, for what it's worth, but I formed the opinion I put forward a few posts above a while after that. I post stuff I think people will like and hopefully buy: I don't wear Junya anymore, I've sold almost all of mine, but I still post worthwhile items in the thread - also posted editorials/interviews in the Undercover thread, for the same reason.

[Wekapipo]

The thing I like most about Undercover is thematic seasons and a wide gamut of 'personal'

cultural influences. Dieter Rams, Jan Svankmajer, Talking Heads, Cuban Poster Art…

N(N)/Soloist to a lesser degree. Thought 'My own Private Portland' (08AW) was a brilliant.