It’s a bit of a curse to have a penchant for expensive designer shoes and bags if you live in Malta. You can’t exactly take a metro to your capital city and scour your local Louis Vuitton. You don’t even have the opportunity to witness the sneering displeasure of a Chanel salesperson on the daily.
Basically, for you to have access to the latest trends, you either need to blind buy off the internet and wait to see if the item is everything you expected when it arrives or purchase things when you’re abroad.
I had long seen a decrease in the quality of luxury goods even as ridiculous price increases kept happening regularly, but nothing prepared me for what I saw at a luxury store abroad recently.
With uneven stitching, lacklustre lining, and hardware that was so bright and gaudy that it looked like it had been made in a sweatshop, my eyes almost popped out of my head and rolled onto the immaculate floor and under a stand when I saw the price.
Price rises are bad enough, but at least you used to be able to somewhat justify the cost of what you were buying every time you looked at the workmanship of the piece. Now that that’s gone, what’s next?
Well, there are two roads here. You either suck it up and spend the same amount you would on buying a brand-new Toyota Aygo knowing full well that the quality isn’t up to scratch and that your item is probably not going to last forever, or you do what many savvy fashionistas have been doing for some time and go vintage. Not only is the latter vastly cheaper and the materials used miles and miles better, but you’re also inadvertently helping the planet by being more sustainable in your choices.
If all that wasn’t incentive enough, you don’t even have to worry that the styles you might want to add to your wardrobe are no longer fashionable because most designer houses have been repeating old designs and updating them very little for the last few years.
An added plus is that you won’t see dozens of your pieces floating about because people can’t just go straight to the store and purchase what you have. As long as you get your accessories from reputable sources, there are literally no disadvantages to buying designer items that have actually stood the test of time.
Happy hunting!
