Fashion Star May Have Style And Not Just Celebrity And Sales

Posted: April 5th, 2012 | Author: artintolife | Filed under: fashion | Tags: designers, fabric, fashion, fast fashion, h&m, mass market, popular culture, shopping

Fashion Star may prove me wrong yet. Love this dress!

Nikki's High End Maxi Dress - Episode 4 - Bought by H&M

The episode four challenge involved design both a high and a low end version of the same product. Nikki’s Low End Maxi Dress is pretty cute too.

Nikki's Low End Maxi Dress - Episode 4

I rather like Nikki’s week one Kimono Sleeve Maxi Caftan as well.

Nikki's Kimono Sleeve Maxi Caftan - Episode 1

Admittedly, Nikki seems to suffer a bit from the same syndrome that Uli did on Season Three of Project Runway, wherein week after week she designs iterations of more or less the exact same dress which just so happens to be more or less the dress that she wears all of the time.

What Nikki does seem to have, which is invaluable, is an eye for fabrics. Which seems to confirm my own sense that the key to making affordable clothing that is appealing, sophisticated, stands out — however you want to put it — is in picking great prints. Kara’s Plaid Bow-Back Shift Dress, while based on a much simpler fabric design, is cut just so in a way that makes it a great little dress. How it is selling for $325 at Saks is another story altogether and more than a little confusing to me. Why this dress should retail for $325 while Nikki’s episode one dress retails for $89 at Macy’s and her episode four dress — the high end one mind you — although now sold out, was available at H&M for $34.95, seems to me to demonstrate that pricing is more about the branding of the store itself and a perception about the price range which corresponds with the intended use of the dress, than it is about any value intrinsic to the dress itself.