The Power of the Brand

I'm going to write an article about fashion, even though I don't hold with it much. But once upon a time, there was a girl and then a young woman called Rachel who was much more concerned with appearance and clothing and its pedigree, scouring the pages of teen magazines and Cosmopolitan for tips and articles to keep à la mode, as it were.

Now, I couldn't give two ticks about it but I am aware of clothing and in particular, labelled or branded clothing and how it holds sway over the younger generation in a bid to offer a way to impress and to project status. The "right" brand has an inordinate amount of influence.

I know this from previous experience but currently, it is being highlighted from two sources: a young male colleague from my workplace and my 14 year old son. It's a little different from the younger Rachel and her concerns as I was never a collector of anything with a sports brand or a logo but the principles are the same. As far as I can see, it is about "flexing" and fitting in.

For my colleague, he likes nice stuff. He has limited responsibilities, still living at home and so, has the desire to own branded products because, quite simply, he likes them and, he fully admits, they say a certain something about the person who wears them. He is often telling me about upcoming offers and an alarm goes off on his phone to intimate to him that an unmissable opportunity to own new items from that brand are coming up! It goes off like a klaxon and we are on tenterhooks waiting to see what, if anything, he has secured. For context, these are brands like Stüssy, Supreme and Palace.

It is a high stakes operation! Invariably, he misses out on items because he wasn't quick enough or there was lag. Sometimes, I think that this may be for the best.

Now, I'm not a skinflint but time has taught me that there are better things to spend your money on than expensive clothes. I know that this is relevant to the life that you live, e.g. your peers, the work situation, your position - clothes do indeed say something about your status - but I can't help but feel that buying labelled brands is a waste of money.

For instance, my colleague wanted a coat. A nice black coat. Nothing fancy from what I could see. Similar to the one in the picture below.

It had the brand on it - not emblazoned, a small logo on the left hand breast being the only thing that distinguished it from any other black puffer jacket - and yet, the power of the branding meant that this coat was going to cost my colleague 350 pounds.

350 pounds.

I'm just going to let that sit there.

Now, that may not seem like a lot of money for a coat. I've known people pay that in Canada, in dollars for a good winter coat. And the rest, I hear you say. That's a lot of money and to me, I could justify that as someone who's experienced a Canadian winter and I can say, categorically, that having a good coat is a necessity. No more persuasive argument needed.

But we're in Britain, where it is more wet than it is cold and really dressing yourself in a black bin bag would keep the water off better than a designer puffer jacket.

He could have bought a lesser brand for less money but equal outcome is my point. Practically speaking that is, not fashionably.

But when has fashion ever been about the practicality? Fashion houses have never had Pragmatism is our thing as a logo. Maybe there should be a brand called Pragma...you heard it here first.

It's all about the style. Or it's meant to be although I've seen some strange fashion in my time on the catwalk. See below. Extreme example but it does add credence to my practicality argument.

This is when you know you are getting older, when you look at things and think I'm not paying that. That's a waste of money. It's fair to say that your priorities shift and I will move onto that later.

But before that, I'd like to give another example to reiterate the point I'm making about branding at its power. Let's talk about socks. Yep, the things that you slip over your feet before you put your shoes on. That provide your feet with much needed warmth and protect them from the irritation of blisters. Socks.

I am partial to a nice pair of socks myself although I generally like them to be bright or festooned with the images of woodland creatures like foxes or birds or some such. Branding? Not important. It's a sock, for God's sake. How much of a statement can a sock make? In my opinion, only if you put your hand in it, give it some googly eyes and make it speak with some closed mouth projection of your own - only then might it be capable of making a statement.

Or if you were a clown. Then the garishness would accompany the statement being made by the whole of your ensemble.

You get my point.

But socks are important, especially Nike socks and especially if you are a 14 year old boy. They are highly desirable and why? Not because of their superior stitching. No. Not because of their snug fit. No. Not because of their shade of black. No.

The reason that they are desirable is because of a well-placed swoosh logo.

And that, from what I can see, is the only difference. No, that's wrong. It was the price as well. Overinflated - 3 pairs at 12.99 compared to 7 at 15.00 of another well-known sports' brand. Doesn't take a maths' genius to work out the hike that Nike has worked there.

Maybe with some closer inspection, I would have noticed a difference in the sock quality - who has time to inspect socks? Maybe they will have longevity and Nike socks will resist the repeated poke of the big toe with their more tightly knitted (and most likely) competitive fibres, fibres in other socks' brands unable to offer any defence, which has resulted in them being banished to the bin.

Personally, I doubt this but time and repeated sock-wearing will tell.

I relented on the socks and bought them. Not because I thought it was a good idea but because they were a gift and gifts should be something a little bit special. They also meant a lot to my son, more so than some of the other things that he opened on Christmas Day. This is testament, I think, to the power of the brand and the influence which it exerts over our youth.

Does this concern me? Not overly. My colleague is becoming less brand conscious and exercising a degree of control when deciding about items. I think that this is partly due to my influence but also his shifting of priorities to other things, like travelling and experiences.

For my son, I think that he is at that age where there is a lot of posturing, between him and his friends, like male birds preening themselves and doing those strange dances and chest puffing to attract a mate. Is wearing designer clothing, styling your hair, wearing cologne and going to parties any different? Less feathers, I suppose and the birds have better moves.

I think this is rites of passage, coming-of-age, finding your feet. Hopefully, it will pass with limited lasting effects.

And me? I will continue to be unaffected by brands. I buy the majority of my clothes from charity shops or thrift stores as they're known in North America. I do buy new clothes and I never have second-hand underwear, socks or swimwear. It's all got to be new then. Standards, you know.

But looking down at myself as I write this, I am wearing a long sleeved top, a tunic and a pair of jeans and they were all bought second hand. Ah, but are they good brands, I hear you ask? Well, the jeans are Jones New York so yes? The tunic is White Stuff, a fairly expensive high street brand and the long sleeved top is TU, the brand of a supermarket chain. So a bit of a mix. But I can tell you that I paid maybe about as much as I paid for 3 pairs of brand new Nike socks.

But how do I look? One of my husband's favourite sayings when talking about someone who looks like they've not taken care with their appearance nor what they're wearing is They look like a bag o' shit tied up which, I think, speaks for itself. Hardly the compliment.

I don't think I look bad in what I'm wearing. I like to take care of my appearance and I love to dress up. The reason? Because I like to. Simply that. It makes me feel good. Not for any other reason than that. I have some outfits that may not be to everyone's taste - a red velvet jumpsuit for one - but I like them.

The upshot is I like nice clothes but my buying them is not dependent on the brand. More important than that is not spending a lot of money on them. I do notice brands but that's not what it's about for me at all.

Anyway. Decide for yourself. This is me in an outfit which has not been swayed by brand power but purely by the look, the price and the randomness of finding them.

What do you think?

Please don't feel that you have to take that as an invitation to tell me. Unless you want to, in which case, I can take it.

But, my point is this:

1. Does it matter that I'm wearing second-hand clothes?
2. Is the branding important?

Personally, to both of these questions, I would say No but then I am not under the power of the brand.

What I do consider important is that I like this outfit, I like the way that I look in it and I'm not concerned with where it was bought from nor what that says about me.

I'm hoping that I can instil in my youngest an awareness that buying branded stuff is not the be all and end all; that there are more important considerations when it comes to appearance; to be money conscious as well as image conscious; and to be discerning and apply this to many situations, not just fashion.

And that charity shops/thrift stores hold brands just as much as other stores and that buying them this way will give you the look, kudos, status, whatever you're after but will not be as heavy on your pocket.