The more I make my own clothes, the more I detest ‘designer’ brands. I not only find them wildly overpriced, but they are still ready-to-wear clothes that anyone with money can get their hands on. I already knew I had a general dislike for this segment of clothing, but I wanted to educate myself on what exactly each of them had to offer. In this post, I’ve given my brief thoughts of each brand, based on what they had for sale online from their Fall/Winter 2020 collections. 

Designer brand reviews

To come up with this list, I simply googled ‘designer clothing brands’. It is by no means exhaustive, as there are countless designers out there of various calibers and price ranges. These just happen to be the specific brands that come to mind when I think of department store designers, and the ones most commonly name-dropped by celebrities. Below, I’ve included the name of each designer, a brief description of the impressions I got from their Fall/Winter 2020 collections, and the superlative I would give them in comparison to each other.

Description definitions

In my review, there are a few words I used that I wanted to clarify beforehand. This is because I have my own interpretation of what these words mean, which may differ slightly than their typical definitions. 

Practical: Any garment or outfit that is decently comfortable, easy to wear, and makes sense for a given temperature. An example of something impractical would be a mid-thigh dress with a long-sleeve fur top. In this case, the bottom and the top don’t really make sense for a given temperature, and probably wouldn’t be very comfortable in real life. 

Normal: Anything that wouldn’t warrant an odd stare or second look. For example, if someone was in a public place, no one would be pointing and whispering about what an odd outfit they had on.

Subdued: The opposite of a statement piece. If someone was going to a funeral or business meeting, these pieces would not be out of place; a classic look.

DESIGNER BRAND	DESCRIPTION	SUPERLATIVE
Celine	Overpriced H&M with some Victorian era style pieces	Most ‘ehh’
Gucci	Lots of ‘G’s, floral, old styles, lingerie, suits	Most frilly
Prada	Subdued, lots of black, coats, blazers	Most gothic
Burberry	Plaids, signature yellow and black plaid, outerwear, not very practical, statement	Most impractical
Chanel	Crosses, more subdued than others, lots of black, big sleeves, tweed, buttons, lot of ‘CHANEL’s	Most 1920s
Louis Vuitton	Pattern, weird-looking, as if it set out to be weird, eye-catching	Most bizzare
Hermès	Extremely subdued	Most normal
Christian Dior	“Feminist” sayings, vintage horseracing, stripes, plaids, gingham, tie-dye, Paris, tailored-looking jackets and dresses	Most progressive
Balenciaga	Oddly shaped coats, statement pieces, huge shoulders, ‘Balenciaga’, oversized	Most over-the-top
Yves Saint Laurent (YSL)	Expensive H&M, not too bad, quite tasteful but very pricey	Most expensive

Honorable mentions

These brands are all similar in the way that they don’t quite fit in the above category, but they also are not quite ‘average people’ clothes. They have pretty regular styles, and could look like they came from an H&M or similar caliber store. However, they are in a slightly higher cost bracket (although not quite up there with the above brands). These include:

• Marc Jacobs
• Alexander Wang
• Michael Kors
• Givenchy

Conclusion

This experiment proved my biases to be true. While looking through all these brands’ collections, I was very underwhelmed. I do understand that a lot of the customers are looking to make a statement with their clothes, and perhaps my tastes are just more low-key. However, the odd style for each of these does not justify their cost, and therefore I am unimpressed. The world of the designer brand is not one I plan to live in.