economizer: a quick report on luxury

the luxury industry seems to be doing poorly, with saks' sales down by a whopping $99 million, neiman marcus down an even more astonishing $509 million, barney's holding all orders for spring collections until their finances are sorted out, and tiffany's eliminating their pearl jewelry in stores.

lvmh and hermes, however, seem to be faring much better: both report higher sales this season. so how do they do it? according to marketwatch, handbags are still on-trend for the masses (even though most fashionistas confirm that the it-bag is no longer fashionable, and i agree). it's a bad time to be in retail.

i say this, yet the wsj declares that my beloved zara seems to doing juuust fine, reporting improved sales amongst young shoppers, and challenging the gap as a top retailer in the states. cheap and chic is in, and even tha kaiser agrees (to a point). more on him next.

the gap's charitable, apparently

remember these philip lim designs for gap? i miss them.

i wouldn't say gap stores are my ultimate go-to for basic threads. why would i when h&m and zara are basically 5 blocks away from my apartment and carry a more varied and well-designed stock of items? well, after making an of-the-whim contribution to CARE, inc. on the street, they provided me with a magazine on their causes and the benefits of donations. interesting read, but one article particularly caught my eye, titled "Gap Inc.: Sustaining a Commitment".

in the article, discussed is the beneficial garment trade between bangladesh and north america/europe under the terms of the multi-fiber agreement, and how, when the bill expired, bangladesh suffered a huge loss of jobs and revenue, as well as a dramatic decrease of exports to larger countries (like china and india) with less rigorous quotas on labor laws and limits on exported products.

because of this loss, gap inc. is "committed to maintaining a presence in bangladesh, and working with vendors to reinvest in infrastructure and community investment [there]". alongside CARE, gap is insistent on "reducing the vulnerability of of workers who are at risk to become unemployed within and beyond the garment industry".

although, in my opinion, outsourcing garment production is never as beneficial to our country as producing the garments here in the US, because of the high cost of production here, i understand the need. i'm very pleased to see a large company like gap aid in sustaining commerce and community in a struggling nation like bangladesh, and will probably feel more obliged to shop there. let's hope the employees manufacturing these clothes have a better quality of life because of this.