Would you prefer a Scotch tape bracelet or a potato chip luxury handbag as your fashion accessory? This is what luxury fashion house Balenciaga showed at Paris Fashion Week as part of its Autumn/Winter 2024 collection.
Fashion is very subjective and in an age of experimentation and innovation, fashion eccentricities can arise as designers and brands stun the world with unconventional trends. The pricing of such products can also become absurd.
Luxury fashion house Balenciaga is known for making waves with its quirky fashion and accessories. Some of the brand’s interesting and quirky lineup over the years include tape bracelets that cost a reported $4,000 and towel skirts for $1,000. A leather pouch that looks like a garbage bag full is made of subtly logoed calfskin leather in four colors (black, yellow, white, and blue) for $1,790, and a Kim Kardashian-esque handbag wrapped in bright yellow and black tape for $3,100. The brand’s website even goes so far as to say of its “hourglass boots” with their elongated, pointed toes and curved heels, “These boots are made for chatter.”
The message is clear: fashion is never simple. Whether online or offline, designers are always looking for the most unique ideas, flashy embellishments and bold colours to boost sales and grab customer attention.
New York-based fashion label Area’s Spring/Summer 2024 collection, for example, is all about the eyes. The collection explores the dynamics of the essential and the extraordinary, reframing the interrelationship between fashion and those who observe it, with outfits playing between notions of “seeing and being seen.” Inspired by 1920s cartoon eyes and vibrant pop art, designs include dalmatian spots, blooming flowers, large crystal details and delicate crystal eyelets.
According to Balenciaga’s official website, the terry cotton towel skirt is part of the brand’s Spring ’24 collection. It’s a unisex, regular-fit skirt. Additionally, it has an adjustable belt with an internal buckle and features the brand’s tonal logo embroidered on the front. It retails for $925 on the brand’s website.
A French baguette-shaped clutch bag, part of Silvia Venturini Fendi’s Fall/Winter 2023 men’s collection, and a pair of distressed stockings from Gucci, priced at a whopping $190, sold out online within hours of going on sale.
In 2020, Italian fashion brand Moschino designed a baguette bag made of leather and gold-plated plates, a maxi clutch for $1,170. Gucci launched grass-stained jeans for $750. Bottega Veneta’s noodle shoes resemble raw instant ramen and cost $1,200. Gucci also launched upside-down cat-eye sunglasses in 2020 for $755. The KFC x Crocs Bucket Clog, a limited edition shoe with a fried chicken print, cost about $60.
Luxury brand Prada created a viscose turtleneck sweater with a cheese block openwork pattern that retailed for $1,232, Givenchy also lit up the internet with its three-toed sandals, and Louis Vuitton is selling an airline bag for $39,000 in its fall/winter 2021 collection.
Balenciaga also drew a lot of criticism for its $1,500 leather Lay’s Chips bag and its ripped sneakers, which cost between $625 and $1,850. Internet users accused the brand of trying to use everyday household items as designer accessories, while others criticized it for not projecting luxury enough. Regarding Balenciaga’s towel skirt, one social media commenter wrote, “This social experiment on consumer behavior is disrespectful and outrageous,” while another wrote, “In economics, you could say they are discovering the true demand curve. They are finding out how elastic their customer base is.”
