So fashionable

The Prahran Town Hall has these “designer” fashion sales once a month or so. The hall area is filled up with tables, bending under the weight of name brand apparel. This month, it’s Calvin Klein – or, as he’s been rebranded, cK. In 20 years, we’ll laugh at such sentences as “I heard J.Lo is wearing cK”. But I digress.

So I went to this thing and looked around. Ordinary cotton t-shirts that one could buy for $15 or so at any cheap-crap store, marked up to $30 because they’ve got a big big cK on the front. And they were marked as being originally $60. People actually pay these prices? Wow. If I’m going to wear a shirt with brand advertising on it, they should be paying me , not the other way around.

There were a bunch of okay looking jeans, for $30. Now that’s an okay deal. However, they were all ruined by this huge cK patch on the ass. I looked at ways of ripping off the patch, but it looked pretty complicated. I might go back there and buy one if I have time and inclination tomorrow. Lots of dress shirts in ugly colours too. Pink! I have the wrong colour skin to look good in a pink shirt. I’ll look like a broiled prawn.

I found one pair of pants that I liked enough to seriously consider trying on. $30. Nice cotton pants, but they were cut really oddly, and for $30 I could get the no-name variety, made side by side in the same Asian sweatshop, without the cK advertising. There was also a really nice sweater, a wool/cotton blend, marked down to $30 from $200 (!) A very good sweater for $30, total rip off at $200. I was just about to buy it and keep it for next winter, but it was a small. Again, might go back tomorrow and see if they’ve added any more like it, but bigger.

Is there something I don’t get about this fashion thing? People who pay to be billboards for cK and other brands befuddle me. What’s the point of paying more than double for a silkscreened logo? The quality’s not any better, and they’re probably made in the same sweatshop as the unbranded ones anyway.