designer collections for chain stores: selling out?

listening to: 'oughta be in love' - dave dobbyn

i'm going to take a little break from posting my favourite inspirational outfits, because i read this blog yesterday and it really got me thinking. so many designers have collaborated with chain stores (ie topshop, target) for awhile now - is this selling their previously elitist, exclusivist soul?

i have to disagree with mer in the city. yes, the heart of truly beautiful fashion is the things like the superior tailoring and the top-quality fabrics used. designers revered by their peers and consumers alike, the world over, achieved the status they hold because they have proved themselves time & again to understand "the basic beauty and art" that fashion is. but i think that designer collaborations, where fashion is brought to the masses, definitely have a market. so haute couture is supposed to be unaffordable? of course it is. haute couture ALWAYS WILL BE unaffordable. but what's wrong with bringing just a smidgen of fashion to a wider audience?

i say smidgen because obviously there have to be compromises. fabrics, especially. the fact is that there are so many people who would love to wear designer clothes - myself included - but can't justify such expenditure. the pricetag of fashion is for so many unattainable. so by collaborating with chain stores the designers can offer consumers a slice of their beautiful visions - not as close to perfection as their own lines, but replications that can make the less fortunate feel as beautiful as the lucky ones do in their designer threads. not everybody who has a passion for clothing and fashion itself can spend thousands of dollars on designer clothing. not everybody has wealthy parents with a limitless credit card. if a wider audience learns to appreciate clothes that are even remotely similar to those a designer produces for the runways (and elitist snobs who may wear certain clothes only because of the status symbol it affords them) then i fail to see that as a bad thing.

yes, designer and chain store collaborations are not the real thing - the differences are certainly vast. yes, in many cases these collaborations are probably undertaken only to garner even more profit. but the result is a larger number of people dressing in better (granted, not the BEST) clothes. it affords them just a tiny taste of the fashion industry, a taste that they would otherwise never get to experience.

i can't wait until my stella mccartney for target trench arrives. at the moment, it's as close as i am going to get to high fashion, and i'm not going to apologise for that.