Who actually buys Chanel clothes, bags and perfumes?

I don't know and I don't care. Why not post in a woman's fashion forum instead of a gay gossip board?

If you failed to notice, OP, there has been an explosion of wealth in the last 30 years, accelerating in the last 10 year, all moving up into the .1% or the .01%.

Having worked in that milieu, they buy luxury items. They enjoy it. They don't mind the expense, meaning the expense does not hurt them. They like that it is expensive.

You are correct about prices. About 10 years ago, luxury brands decided to start pricing higher and higher and higher. This has accelerated. Whereas in 40 years ago, a middle class person might save up and buy a luxury item on sale, for example, the concept today is to remove access to that layer of consumer. To protect exclusivity.

The price is not related so much to materials or workmanship. It's spotty. Sometimes there is quality, sometimes not so much.

In sum, these items do not make sense for the vast majority of consumers. They make sense for the very rich.

Cha-NELLLLLL dah-LIIIIIIING 💅🏻

Asians.

I know rich ladies in Geneva, London and Paris who buy extreme luxury and couture. They have fortunes, OP. At least 50million often several hundred million. They are very turned out. Everything in their lives is exquisite.

Rich people. It’s Monopoly money to them.

Couture is a very different thing than just buying Chanel R5. That's a whole other echelon of exclusivity.

Well yes I know that. But rich ladies but both, my dear.

Dollar General

R1 probably is a fat cunt.

Of course we talk about fashion here. And art, theatre, music, politics, science, current news and events, history, and all matter of things that are "gay," gay-involved, gay-adjacent and gay because we are human beings and life excites and stimulates us.

We also talk about fat cunts such as you who cannot manage a proper R1 post.

R2 Does these types buy only a few items, so they have say "I own Chanel", or does the majority of their wardrobe consist of it?

People have brands they favor. So they buy some every year. Again, the very rich do not buy 1 item to say they own Chanel. That would be the middle class. The very rich buy 1 super yacht to say they own a super yacht.

Marge Simpson looked sophisticated in her Chanel suit. Just like Mary Hart.

Middle class and average meagre rich will have a treasured purse or piece, yes. You can buy luxury on the resale market, OP. Someone might have a hand me down. A Chanel shoulder bag from the 70s or 80s is indestructible. People who can't afford a large collection of luxury and the latest, super expensive items, of very recent years, can also rent them. All big cities have companies now that rent luxury purses and dresses, too.

I really worry for you, OP, if a Chanel perfume is out of your reach.

Middle class people can afford to buy a bottle of Chanel perfume. Likely on sale. But all the luxury brands have exclusive lines of perfume now, that are double the price of their classics that they don't mind selling to the hoi polloi.

R15 that is a mean and ignorant kind of snark. Many people struggle to pay for groceries and $200 bottles of designer fragrance or $400 bottles of an extrait or parfum are well beyond the budget of the vast majority of world's population. Let alone a $600 niche parfum.

For more on Chanel specifically. A customer coming off the street does not have the right to buy anything and everything. Even if very rich. Many items are only sold to steady customers known to the boutique and on corporate lists.

They limit the run on items, to keep the high price justified and keep the "exclusivity". Not a lot of luxury brands do that. I'm friends with the owner of Hermès. Demand for coveted items has increased 5x in recent years. They don't do waiting lists anymore. Prices have soared. Go to the boutique and see what's in stock.

R5 From Paris to Berlin and every disco I get in …😩

The handbags are hugely popular, right now. The prices have increased, accordingly. I'd say that middle class to wealthy people buy the handbags.

The clothes / ready to wear? I'm guessing only the wealthy. If you're middle class, you're not going to spend that much money on an article of clothing. You'd rather use it towards a handbag.

Rich people have a completely different mindset than those that don't have money. I found a canopy for a bed in a catalog and showed it to my friend who was looking for one. She didn't really want it but bought one from a decorator in Lake Chautauqua for about triple the price and it was the same exact one that had been in the catalog. If it has a high price tag on it then it must be good and it is what they want.

I have a neighbour who, along with his girlfriend sells designer bags on their Facebook pages for $250 at most. They also host raffles for anyone who wants to win a bag. Every month, they brag about how they have a new batch of bags to sell--the pictures they upload make it look like they have at least 50 bags.

I don't know how they are affording all this. If the bags aren't counterfeit, then how can they make a profit by charge $250 when the actual bag cost them a few thousand each.

She's a hairdresser and he's a construction worker.

The bags are fake. If the bags are real, and stolen, they would sell them for the price they can get. Current bags don't even depreciate from being owned if its a bag that is hard to buy new.

[quote] I have a neighbour who, along with his girlfriend sells designer bags on their Facebook pages for $250 at most.

Definitely counterfeit.

Chanel, like Gucci, Prada and Louis Vuitton is well known even to people who don't know much about fashion.

Thus it is often the first thing someone will buy to show that they've made it.

Chanel in particular seems to be very popular with a certain type of female business executive--say a successful commercial real estate broker in Fort Worth, Texas.

And of course Asians and Arabs buy it up by the boatload.

The downside for the aforementioned brands is that true fashion snobs might own a vintage piece or two but have migrated to lesser known brands.

The upside is that there are far more successful commercial real estate brokers in Fort Worth types than fashion snobs, and so they've been very successful financially. The markup on their lower end items in particular (LV keychains and the like) is quite lucrative.

R18 That's why I wouldn't bother with Chanel and other elitist brands. If I'm not good enough to buy some of the "special" products, then why should I spend anything on that snobby brand?

New money types in Asia or places like Texas or Atlanta. When I lived in Atlanta, the Nieman-Marcus had a giant "Chanel" sign. I figured if you could afford stuff like that you didn't need a sign, but they do in Atlanta.

R24 But wouldn't they fear getting caught? After buying a bag, the customer might go to a designer store and show them the bag, asking if it's real or not. If it turns out to be fake, then it's jail time for the counterfeit sellers.

It would be risky in Europe but I don't know how active the counterfeiting tracking by criminal justice is in the USA. I remember when they did sweeps in tourist spots and china town in the 90s when it started to explode in popularity with asian imports.

I prefer Givenchi myself.

Oops Givenchy

These "luxury" items are Veblen goods, meaning that the more they cost, the more they are coveted. That's why demand is (seemingly paradoxically) going up as prices rise.

It's ver-sayce.

There is a huge market for 2nd hand designer goods. It is not as if you are buying a pricey item and that's it ... the end of the line for the item. These things are resold at a decent amount of cash.

Those bag collectors on YT fascinate me as much as horrify and disgust me. I mean what empty goals, yet blissfully easy and earthy. These people aren’t worried about existence or humanity or love or Gods. In some way, that must be nice...

r2, less than a decade ago eBay used to be Shangri-La for second hand designer pieces, hundreds of pages of beautiful clothes available to everyone in every brand (Chanel was still the most exclusive, even then), but in the past year or two I went back to visit and the vast majority of that market has been wiped away, I suspected it was the brands themselves somehow putting their collective foot down and putting an end to it!

r35, the second hand market is still going, but it used to be so so much bigger and accessible

not that I could afford it, but I'm lucky in a way, to have been taught since childhood how tacky it is to advertise a brand, a label - Chanel seem to be very fond of that these days

I’ve always been curious about what happens to all the last season product that isn’t sold. Donated? Destroyed?

I envision out Darfur Orphan hungry but decked out in head to toe last season Gucci.

OP please. You sound like my granny: “who buys all these expensive condos!?”

R37, the younger people I know who care about these designer labels don't seem to go to eBay except as a last resort. They're on the apps -- RealReal, Poshmark, ThredUp, Depop, Shopify, etc etc.

I assume a lot of the designer bags are going there instead of onto eBay.

I wore Chanel pour hommes for years. I loved it. Now I'm poor and can't afford it.

or higher end sites like the Vestaire Collective - but I'm telling you eBay used to be THE place! Though I never cared much about bags.

Dumbasses.

It was just a fun world to be able to dip your toes in to at an affordable price point, as a novelty, and to experience what it feels like to wear a well tailored garment - a second hand designer, ready to wear piece, was/is many people's first experience of that kind of quality, and gives them a standard for the clothes they buy in the future, generally, outside of the big brands.

The second-hand market for luxury handbags is huge, it's just moved away from eBay. It's called "pre-loved" (barf), now.

You can pick up great knock offs all over NYC for $10-$15. So the stitching isn't as good. Big deal! They can look even better when brand new.

Chanel was a nasty old bitch, a homophobe, an anti semite, a Nazi sympathizer who had an affair with an SS officer and. apparently, she also worked as a spy for German intelligence, why hasn't she been cancelled?

Chanel is for old ladies

Princess Diana never wore Chanel because the two C's reminded her of a pair of cufflinks Camilla gave Charles with an entwined pair of C's for Charles and Camilla engraved on them.

I dream of Chanel

In a Hilton hotel...

A new one!

I’ve been to two Chanel boutiques in the past few years.

I was in Vegas and there was a shop that only sold the make-up and perfumes. Some of the perfumes were exclusive to these stores. I did buy my 200 dollar bottle of Channel 22. It’s a powdery beautiful fragrance.

There is another one of those boutiques in Austin, went into that one as well. Again, just the make-up and perfumes and sunglasses.

Anyway, as a lesser mortal, I can go buy a 34 dollar eyeliner pencil and a mascara and can say I was in a Chanel store.

Never, in a million years, would I dare go into an actual Chanel clothing store. The few Chanel stores in Vegas that I saw were always empty. There were more salespersons than customers.

Maybe some luxury goods brands are realizing that their make-up and fragrance lines are much more affordable (yeah, a $200.00 bottle of perfume still isn’t within a lot of peoples’ means) and they want to have those sales.

BTW, a regional department store here, where I live have LV purses. Some are brand new and some are gently used. You can buy one with your store credit card and take a year to pay it off. I bought one! ☺️

[quote] Never, in a million years, would I dare go into an actual Chanel clothing store.

Why not? Just walk in and take a look around.

R54 It’s never about the money. Always the principle!

What's the principle? You're willing to go into the Chanel fragrance / cosmetics store and buy eyeliner and perfume.

What do you mean, R55?

Hell I don't know anyone who buys it. We're all broke as a joke though.

Chanel is for old ladies whose prime was in the 60s and nouveau riche Asians trying to be westerners

[quote]BTW, a regional department store here, where I live have LV purses. Some are brand new and some are gently used. You can buy one with your store credit card and take a year to pay it off. I bought one! ☺️

And this, kids, is how people end up thousands of dollars in debt. I get paying a car or something like that in installments, but a purse, really?

What? I did pay it off! In 10 months no less.

I guess the point is, you still were in debt for a while ... for a purse.

You might've paid off that particular item, R61, but what if you'd lost your job after 3 months, gotten sick or something like that? I was taught that if you have to pay for something in installments, you cannot *really* afford it, and should abstain from buying it unless it's something you desperately need.

Yeah, I see your point, R63.

Lucky for me I didn’t.

LV isn't even leather. it's plastic lol.

Chanel's quality has gone downhill a lot!

Hermes is still ok.

Many designer items, be it clothes, shoes, bags... are so bland-looking, or even ugly as shit. It's like once a brand has reached a certain level of "exclusivity", their products don't even have to be tasteful or high-quality anymore, people will pay for the name no matter what the stuff looks like.

I'll never understand why the fuck people fall for that ... not all "label queens" are into re-selling. I know a guy who'd rather borrow money from friends/acquaintances, and get sued for not paying it back, than sell some of his designer items that are probably worths hundreds or thousands. I guess he's so insecure that he needs to keep up the facade as a rich and fabulous guy even though he can barely pay his rent.

The only people I see in Chanel and Dior and all those high end stores are tacky Asians who look as if they might as well have shopped at Walmart. These labels only look "luxe" on the thin and beautiful.

"How could I buy a real Chanel with all the hunger in the world?!"

We don’t flaunt wealth much these days.

Chanel is a rich old lady brand. They don't sell men's wear that I'm aware of.

As for high end fashion, many people buy it and not necessarily rich people. I'm not rich and I own pieces by Prada, Comme des Garcons, Yohji Yamamoto, Jil Sander, Marni, Margiela, JW Anderson, Acne, etc. There are so many online stores to buy high fashion at: SSense, Matches, Farfetch, Yoox, to name a few.

Everything I buy is HEAVILY on sale...if you're not rich you don't buy full retail for anything. Also have the advantage of being male since menswear is much cheaper than womens. And, I don't buy suits or formal wear which is always out of my price range (plus I don't wear suits/formal wear). And, I stay away from the really high end stuff like Gucci and Tom Ford because it's so expensive and seldom on sale (and, I'm not really a fan of either).

I buy it because I like nice clothes. High end fashion is well made and high quality (an easy way to tell if it's it counterfeit, is by quality.) I'd rather spend $250 on an one onsale sweater of high quality marked down from $900 than buy 5 shitty $50 sweaters at Men's Wearhouse or Macy's.

But, I also wear tons of stuff from H&M, Target and The Gap. I'm not spending a hundred bucks for a pair of underpants.

I do not buy fast fashion like H&M, Zara etc. I only buy quality clothing that will last. Of course if it's basic stuff, Gap will do. I try to buy things that are not made in china.

fashion is one of the biggest polluter of earth!

R71, high-fashion used to be a lot more accessible and affordable years ago. I remember, as a young teenager, going to fancy stores in New York and Chicago and thinking $300 for a pair of pants was insane, but today those same pants are close to $1000. I do market research for a law firm that specializes in consumer protection and the garment industry is one they've been keeping eyes on for several years. I don't have a lot of knowledge regarding individual brands themselves, but the vast majority of purchases in the US' high-end sector are not made by wealthy people, but younger, wealth-aspiring individuals trying to curate a very specific look. To be clear, these aren't people we'd consider financially poor, but most designer goods are purchased by people who actually can't afford them. Anecdotally, I used to work at a Marshall Field's with an immense designer collection (surprisingly, MF always was a much better selection than the Neimans and Saks in the city), and almost all my designer good sales were to young women and men, who often had to stretch a purchase over two or three credit cards. It also needs to be mentioned that a significant amount of designer sales are also employee sales, which are usually discounted. I know at the Marshall Field's I work at, every quarter they'd release the breakdown of sales and designer goods were always heavily padded by employee purchases, sometimes as much as 60% of the quarter revenue for the department.

[quote] Maybe some luxury goods brands are realizing that their make-up and fragrance lines are much more affordable (yeah, a $200.00 bottle of perfume still isn’t within a lot of peoples’ means) and they want to have those sales.

LOL, it's not that-- as per R26, they realize they can make a small fortune off of that stuff as the markup is immense and they have enough brand recognition to sell things like make-up and keychains in large quantities.

Many of the high end brands do something similar for the Asian and Middle Eastern markets -- they'll make cheap sweatshirts with GUCCI or CHANEL emblazoned on them in two foot type that they sell for $800, knowing that the customers for those items will be rich Chinese and Saudis who only care about the label being as visible as possible. There are other goods with less visible labels, for North Americans and Europeans.

And R40, they do burn it. It;s actually quite controversial and gets a lot of press.

My extremely wealthy SIL wears Chanel clothing (and Gucci, Lanvin, etc.) and she is neither Asian nor over 60. Chanel's ready-to-wear is still mostly impeccably made; their handbags sometimes less so (not as good as Hermes).

The prices OP mentioned must be for used clothes, because dresses are mostly WAY over 1000 and jackets are 4,000-10,000+. They also still do real haute couture, where individual pieces can have six-figure prices.

It's shocking how expensive high-end clothing has become. In menswear, a Tom Ford or Kiton suit can be over 10,000. Off the rack...not custom.

The poor and middle class (on credit)

The perfumes and lower end items are affordable for most people, if their priorities are so out of whack they save for them or put them on credit. The high end stuff is bought by rich people, of which there are many. If you're a multi millionaire with passive income constantly flowing in, spending a few grand on a sweater isn't really a big deal. The stuff is well made, feels luxurious, and the experience of shopping in a high end store is much nicer than in a crowded department store. That's about it.

Surely R23 can't be that deluded?

r77 people seem weirdly naive and gullible these days. I'm constantly called jaded and cynical only for it to come out later that I was - obviously - right.

There is a hilarious guy on Youtube who buys Chanel and then complains about everything. He buys and wears Chanel clothing and handbags and gets excited when they give him a glass of Champagne at the store when he visits to pick up his items. He isn't rich, I think that he saves and uses his YT income to feed his Chanel habit. The thing is there are so many like him out there. I don't think that Chanel wants to promote that image but they don't mind the millions of income from people who have a little Chanel fetish.

I don’t care how rich you are, it’s insane to buy a white button down cotton shirt for $700.00 when it’s $25.00 in a local shop. The Birkin bags are plain and ugly but cost what a car costs. Why? Just to say you have one? To grossly flaunt wealth like a tacky cunt? A 6k skirt that douchebag Markle wore yet cried she’s poor ARE YOU KIDDING ME? The KarTRASHians collect these outrageously priced designer wares just to say they own them. But they have zero style. If a stylist doesn’t dress them, they’re dressed like porn stars.

Overpaid top flight footballers & their WAGs are notorious for acting as walking billboards for all these tacky bougie brands. Again, one wonders whether it’s the image these brands appreciate, given how chavvy and low rent it makes them look.

r10 it warms my heart to see you use the phrase "fat cunt". special thx to you. peace.

Again, R81, they make their money on the lower end stuff they sell to middle class and working class people in the US and Europe and on the massively overpriced logo wear crap they sell in Asia and the Middle East.

So being associated with chavs and with rap stars does not seem to have hurt their bottom line even if it has made them somewhat less popular with the upper middle classes.

Louis Vuitton's profits from key chains and coin purses more than makes up for whatever they lose from Upper East Side ladies deciding their bags are for "rappers"

I like high end stuff but I’m far from rich. I buy resales from Japan…….much more affordable if you don’t mind preowned

R10, please go to the doctor and have that lost remaining Halloween candy you had hidden up your fat cunt removed?

That's nasty.

Keep it in a knock-off Chanel bag in the future.

R94 which Japanese sites are safe and secure? Trying to navigate their internet is a batshit endeavour, I’ve learned, from trying to find and buy merch for my favourite theatre company (Takarazuka).

R79 I LOVE Dakob. Yes he's quite eccentric and materialistic. But he is very thorough in his review of fashion and perfume. His perfume reviews are journeys and he's not stupid about what he says, but he is also fantastical and poetic. At least, he's not a cookie-cutter shill.

Let's hope that when R94 posts they will have an answer for you R86

Very rich pro jocks and their trophy wives and girlfriends are not bad for a designer brand's image. These jocks make many many millions a year, and are idolized by the majority of the population. They have glamour to them. A mid-eastern sheik does not think its a negative if crass but star footballers have the same extreme luxury cars and watches as they do.

Anybody buys the perfumes, fragrance is aspirational. The bags are a mnix of wealthy and middle class who saved their pennies but the clothes are purchased mainly by Asians and other assorted wealthy but trend conscious people.

The weird thing about Chanel is even if it can be over the top - the clothing and silhouettes are classic, it's unlikely you'd look out of place 20 years from now if you pull it out of your closet and wear it, kinda like Prada but unlike Balenciaga or even Gucci.

In NYC, Chanel is very popular among whores and escorts. I know a Polish hooker who wears Chanel only. Her big customer takes her shopping there for $50k shopping sprees. I think she sticks with that brand because of the resell value and also it helps with the insecurities bc it’s not a “sexy” brand… it’s associated originally with wealthy older married women.

Now mostly hookers wear it, I have noticed. They especially love the huge flap bags and the tweed tube top looks. Even the ad campaigns now kind of cater to them… the models look like exhausted barely legal prostitutes.

I'm disappointed Holland & Holland gave up on their clothing line.

Buying from Japan sounds like a good idea. They supposedly have strict counterfeit laws.

Anyway, here's a guide (Classics w/a Quirk) on how to buy pre-owned from Japan. This YouTuber does know Japanese, but I think you can do it without knowing Japanese.

there are millions of personal assistants and low ranked workers in Japan who save all their pennies so they can buy Chanel bags.

So all this branded clobber is essentially the equivalent of the mink/sable coat in the previous century.

I noticed on the instagram account South Parkers- Trey Parker's family - the little girl celebrated her birthday by taking a bunch of friends to the Chanel shop. They were all pictured with Chanel bags outside, probably just big enough for accessories, make-up, perfume, etc.

Trey's partner is one of the tackiest bitches ever and is sadly bringing up their daughter to be the same - wearing denim cut-offs 99% of the time, often getting her fake tits out and putting the little girl in cut-offs and see-through clothes. I even saw her mimic her mother's trashy behaviour in one clip.

Chanel’s popularity, particularly their bags, has skyrocketed over the past decade. We can thank Asians, Arabs, Russians and reality/social media celebrities for their frenetic nouveau riche spending habits. The problem is that Chanel is desperately trying to balance their exclusivity and their bottom line. You don’t want to end up like Burberry and be the chav brand of choice.

Twenty years ago, the classic Chanel bag was $1600, affordable for a middle class lady if she saved up. Perfect 40th/50th birthday present to oneself. Five years ago, the price was $4800. Much more expensive, still within reach for maybe someone who had saved up. This year, the price was raised to $8800 in a bizarre upward trajectory since the pandemic. Why? Too many people buying Chanel bags, flooding the resale market. Too many lowbrow people sporting the bag. So Chanel has made a decision to emulate Hermes. They’ve raised their prices, reduced inventory, installing quotas, offering bags only to top spending clients (a $30K per year spend is being flirted with before being eligible for the bag). On top of that, unlike Hermes, their quality has fallen.

It is disgusting that average people are being pushed away from owning a classic piece of Chanel in favor of trash with their defaulted credit cards and crazy foreign buyers with their tacky style. We’ll see how Chanel lands by alienating normal people.

I used to have some leather jackets. But once they get dirty (In NYC the grit in the air will do it) they are never be the same. You can spend a fortune getting them cleaned/ dry cleaned/ whatever - just never the same.

[quote]…how tacky it is to advertise a brand, a label - Chanel seem to be very fond of that these days.

Their hideous N°5 line for starters.

New York women stopped buying couture when Filene's Basement closed.

My sister shops consignment on line for labels. WTF would buy an Hermes purse for $13,000.....used??????????????

"The clothes in H&M and Marks and Spencers is way cheaper and looks pretty much the same quality." OP, if you really think that H&M and Marks and Spencer are exactly the same quality as Chanel, then you are fucking clueless.

R103 They might be cheaper materials, but they look just as nice, if not better. Most people don't wear the same clothes year after year, so if you're going to want to mix things up, you'd be silly to pay $1000 for a plain jumper. Somebody above mentioned Marge Simpson and the Chanel suit' fashion snobs mocked her for wearing it all the time--but she got it on sale, and it was the only designer item she could afford, then she went crazy trying to tailor it to make it look different.

TheRealReal...that's who...

Got rid of a bunch of high end clothes from dead relatives...

And they sell.

"The clothes in H&M and Marks and Spencers is way cheaper and looks pretty much the same quality."

Oh, DEAR, OP!

Pretentious blacks love them some chananay.

Because there's no such thing as pretentious whites, R106?

R107 Those words or font never came out my mouth or computer.

[quote] [R103] They might be cheaper materials, but they look just as nice, if not better. Most people don't wear the same clothes year after year, so if you're going to want to mix things up, you'd be silly to pay $1000 for a plain jumper.

No, H&M clothes don't look nicer / better than Chanel off-the-rack (if you're comparing, for example, two black blazers).

People, including me, do, indeed, wear the same clothes year after year. I try to shop for mostly classics and things that I can own / wear for a long time. No, you don't have to pay $1,000 for a jumper / sweater. I don't even wear sweaters.

Not everybody is buying the latest trends (e.g., cold shoulder blouse) and then throwing it away / donating it a year later. It all ends up in a landfill.

The Real Real has good shit. Men's wear too. The clothes today are cheap. Cheap fabrics, cheaply made and they are flooding the market. Even if you go directly to Nordstrom or Macy yu will still get the cheap shit but at high prices. So I would rather shop designers on Consignment to get good quality like they don't sell anymore, than go to Nordstrom and pay full price for garbage.

Chanel perfume does not normally ever go on sale, but it can be had for under $100.

Chanel Perfume shows up on online discounting perfume shops. Chanel 19 edt, 100ml, retails for 150 at a bourgeois department store in Geneva yet I bought a bottle from an online fragrance shop for 65 or so, last time I bought one. Not fake. Not stolen. All these companies will dump supply to the grey market when they need a cash infusion. I'm deciding now whether to buy two new bottles, new formulations of Guerlain Vetiver and Habit Rouge. The very newest formulations of the Guerlain classics are better than anyone expected. Better than the last iterations. Nothing is like the fragrances of pre-2000. But the first fragrance reformulations of the 21st century could be quite disappointing so now they are doing them again, if they care about keeping up quality and tradition. The new Jicky, L'Heure bleu, Vol de nuit, etc are all quite nice. Surprise! Anyhow, these two bottles of Vetiver and Habit Rouge are 66% off "High Street" retail. Nobody knows 150 ml bottles of these even exist, maybe why they are being dumped through an online seller.

I don't think any 100ml bottles of Chanel exist under $100 at "High Street" shops. (High Street is British and means department stores on the main commerce streets of a city.) A 50ml bottle of Bleu de Chanel EDP is 100 dollars right now in High Street shops.

At the same time, I see 50 ml bottles of Missoni Wave, currently under 20 bucks! And the Missoni is a gorgeous alternative to Bleu de Chanel, and normally retails for 60 bucks for 50ml.

My Ma wore Chanel #5. THe first guy I even got with, as freshman in college, wore Jade East. Now it makes me gag. I loved Paco Rabanne.

the best deal I ever got on Chanel fragrance was when Century 21 was closing and were having clearance sales. They were selling the tester bottles. The package is plain white but the bottle is the same. I bought 5 bottles of various scents for only 60 bucks!

That's a great deal. Do you still have some or have you used it all up? What did you get?

R110, you can't return anything on The Real Real, can you? Don't you have to buy and hope for the best?

R116, You can return some things. But usually what happens is you re-consign them. So you won't get all your money back but you get some. It depends on what you buy. Some things are returnable.

Sounds like a rigmarole, R117. Too much work.

[quote]The clothes in H&M and Marks and Spencers is way cheaper and looks pretty much the same quality

To you they probably do look the same.

......................................

Kate Middleton in a fabulous vintage (1995) Chanel jacket:

I'll never believe designer clothes are worth the price. Look at this Jacket. It's Chanel and costs thousands. I saw something very similar in a department store a few months ago, and it only cost $120. Both made from Tweed.

A year or two ago I read in an article in the WaPo about a young woman who bought a Chanel advent calender. It was the company's 100th aniversary; the advent calender was in the shape of the Chanel perfume bottle. She thought it would be a clever idea to go on TikTok and every day open a door in her advent calender to show everyone what she'd got. Well, what she got was stickers. And a magnet. And a little plastic snow globe. And a dust bag, an empty cloth bag with the Chandel logo on it. Cheap little trinkets. She became incensed; THIS is what I"m getting out of my Chanel advent calender? The damn thing cost her $825.00. There was a comment section to the atrticle and she got little sympathy there. They figured it served her right if she were foolish enought tot spend that amount of money on such a trifling thing. Others angrily said that she could have done something useful with the money, like provide meals for the hungry or contribute to an animal rescue group. As for me, I figured it was her money and if she wanted to spend it on a silly luxury item then it was her right to do so. But it did seem dumb to throw away money like that, on some silly pieice of fluff. I think a lot of luxury items are like that; very expensive but not really that great.

Hunty R120, if you owned any designer clothes, you'd see the difference in quality with, say, Prada or Armani.

CHANEL STICKERS!!!!! though....

Hermes overpriced trinket = $550. Hair clips = $450 and up. I do love me some Hermes though. Just not this crap for young Asian girls.

Some designers do beautiful, wearable things....Ermanno Scervino, Marchesa, Zuhair Murad, Loro Piana, Gucci (not everything, for sure), Anne Fontaine, Ferragamo, to name a select few.

most designers have various lines and the lower lines are all made in china. the higher end, better quality lines are of course more expensive.

Nothing Chanel is made in China. Chanel has a whole bunch of historic craft ateliers working for it. The vast majority of the clothing is made in Paris or France, with some clothing and accessories made in Spain and Italy.

[quote]Chanel's haute couture ateliers are based in Paris, France, and its ready-to-wear collections are also largely manufactured in Paris. Additionally, the label has eleven savoir faire maisons — Desrues, Michel, Lemarié, Lesage, Massaro, Goossens, Guillet, Montex, Causse, Barrie and Atelier Gérard Lognon — five are based in a specialist complex in Pantin, a Parisian suburb. The remaining seven savoir faire maisons are based around Paris.

[quote]To create its haute couture and ready-to-wear collections, the company employs teams of specialists known by their traditional titles of premieres, secondes and les petites mains, as well as façonniers, the ready-to-wear manufacturers. Chanel eyewear is produced through a license with Luxottica.

Some of my favorite fragrances are from Chanel, so I just price-compare and only pay for what I can afford. I wear both male and female-oriented scents, so it's a thrill to come across a vintage bottle on eBay or Etsy. I just looked, and a 3.4 oz bottle of Chanel No 19 costs less on the Chanel website than it does at Walmart.

R126 Chanel doesn't make anything in China you low rent ho.

Anyone who sells their Chanel bag will most likely get more than they paid for it. Their prices continue to go up and will never go down.

I always keep a little No. 5 around, and some YSL Opium.

Other than that I keep a collection of vintage scents. I splash them on loose cats to carry home and spread charm about their families' houses.

OP, go on You Tube and you will see numerous young woman displaying their Chanel bags who are not rich. They save for them or buy them preloved.

you people are stupid. Many things are made 90% in china. then they will ship the stuff to Italy and have the zipper finished in Italy and then put Made In Italy on the products. Many brands does this. Maybe not Chanel but it been happening for years.

R133 You do not know what you are talking about.

"In 2009, the Italian law stated that only products totally made in Italy (planning, manufacturing and packaging) are allowed to use the labels "Made in Italy", "100% Made in Italy", "100% Italia", "tutto italiano" in every language, with or without the flag of Italy. Each abuse is punished by the Italian law."

"Compared with "Made in Germany" ('all essential manufacturing steps') and "Made in the USA" ('all or virtually all'), Italian regulation is more restrictive ('totally') in determining what qualifies for the use of the "Made in Italy" label.""

Made in Italy....by Chinese factory workers.

What is your objection to clothing or other items made in China - the treatment of the workers or the quality of the workmanship?

For a number of years, Italy has been importing Chinese workers to work in Italian factories. The working conditions are European standard, better than in China, where suicide nets are installed to prevent workers from killing themselves due to the horrible working conditions. Prato, outside Florence, has one of the largest Chinese communities in Europe.

However....on the direct flights from Wuhan to Milano, something else was imported besides Chinese factory workers. What might that be?

[quote]Made in Italy....by Chinese factory workers.

Now, that IS true.

Although the high-end stuff is still mostly made by very skilled artisans and they are Italian. Prato is known mostly for its production of fast-fashion.

Go to any open market in Italy and the racks of cheap clothes, clearly made in China or India, all have a Made in Italy label on them.

Are the Chanel shows still a big deal now like they were in the 90s? Who are the celebrities attending and do the shows get much attention outside of the fashion press?

R138 I'm writing all that down. I'll report back to you later. Can I get you a coffee?

That's right, r133, Chanel absolutely does not have its stuff made in China.

R135, do you have any evidence not only that Chanel is made in Italy, but that it's made by Chinese in Italy?

R137, anyone who wants to buy Italian-tailored clothing would not buy it off a street market.

I was living in paris with my parents when I was a teenager. The chic parisiettes, daughters of the upper class, would laugh at the idea of wearing Chanel, Vuitton, etc. It was considered tourist trap tacky, faux-pas. Thzy would wear their grand-mamans Chanel bag/ Carré Hermes / furs, for costume balls and such, as a jest. They had hot trendy pet designers MAKING clothes especially for them.

R140, this is a translation of part of the article linked below (in Italian).

' How important is Italy for Chanel?

It is very important, from every point of view. Half of our clothing and accessories production is made in Italy, in small factories or laboratories scattered throughout the regions and to which we have relationships that often span over twenty years. I arrived in 1990 and some of these partnerships already existed and have been strengthened ever since. Many shoes, bags, knitwear and part of the prêt-à-porter and denimwear are made in Italy: in Italy you also have a great know-how in the field of jeans.'

If any of the small factories of which he speaks is in Prato, the clothes are made by Chinese factory workers.

Actually, although not Chanel or other couture, you can get very fine clothing, eg cashmere items, in Italian street markets. Some of it is factory over-runs, and some likely fell off the back of a truck.

- R135, R137, in Italy

Also from the article,

'We already sell some products, such as eyewear (under license from Luxottica, ed )'.

Luxottica makes just about all the high end brands of eyewear.

R135, R137

Eyewear are accessories, r143, not clothing, and they are not made by Chinese in Prato.

I like Chanel. She wears so well. As time will tell, her clothes are a saga!

Yes, I know, R144. My point is that whether people buy a cheap no-name brand or a high end brand of sunglasses, they were almost certainly made by the same factory, Luxottica.

Below is a comprehensive article about the Chinese workers in Tuscany, and here is a quote from it.

'A third Chinese proprietor, whom I’ll call Luigi, estimated that more than a hundred Chinese-owned workshops in Tuscany were assembling bags for the famous fashion houses. Each of these workshops, in turn, used five to ten subcontractors for tasks like stitching straps and finishing hardware. All the proprietors I met with spoke adequate Italian, but Luigi’s was truly fluent. He said that his operation had filled orders from Chloé, Burberry, Fendi, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent, and Chanel. “On the level of craftsmanship, Chanel is the top,” he said, using the English word. “They’re the fussiest about the quality.” '

I remain sceptical about whether Luigi's workshop makes Chanel bags, r146.

If you're really worried about whether your Chanel bag was made in France or Italy, then just check if there's a stamp on the CC logo. If there is, then it was made in France. Chanel now authenticates its bags with a microchip, so no need to worry that yours might be a knockoff.

Chanel also produces some of its knitwear in Scotland, by artisan workshops. Coco Chanel was inspired by Scottish tweed, so it's apt.

R146, the sentence that comes straight after the passage you quoted is:

[quote]Working for a company like Fendi wasn’t easy for a Chinese person, he went on. You had to “acquire an Italian mentality” and “conceive of the bag as an Italian would.”

I'm not sure how much involvement Karl Lagerfeld had in handbag production, but as well as being Chanel's designer he was also Fendi's designer. Producing these bags is not easy to outsource.

From a recent interview with Bruno Pavlovsky, head of fashion at Chanel. The article is entitled "Chanel’s Bruno Pavlovsky on Business in Italy, Preserving Supply Chain, Craftsmanship".

[quote]Chanel has a history of taking control of its suppliers and it has done so in Italy for years. Since the acquisition of Italian shoe manufacturer Roveda in 1999, Chanel has acquired eight more companies in Italy specializing in footwear, leather goods, tanning and textiles and the company paid tribute to four of those producers with a short video. In addition to Roveda, Chanel controls Gensi, acquired in 2015; Nillab, acquired in 2020; leather goods manufacturers Corti and Mab, acquired in 2019; Tanneries Samanta, acquired in 2019; Gaiera, acquired in 2020; fancy yarn company Vimar, acquired in 2020, and knitwear manufacturer Paima, bought in 2021.

[quote]“The manufacturers are our partners, we work together and I strongly believe they need to have their own business model and be free to work with other brands and not take risks,” said Pavlovsky speaking with WWD ahead of the show at the Stazione Leopolda. “We must prepare for the next 20 years. We don’t want to control everything, what we need is to have the best talent.”

I was living in paris with my parents when I was a teenager. The chic parisiettes, daughters of the upper class, would laugh at the idea of wearing Chanel, Vuitton, etc. It was considered tourist trap tacky, faux-pas. They would wear their grand-mamans Chanel bag/ Carré Hermes / furs, for costume balls and such, as a jest. They had hot trendy pet designers MAKING clothes especially for them

R150, meet r141.

I'm posting it again because you don't seem to get it. Chic Parisians think that these "luxury " brands are tacky AF. They still have their clothes tailored for them by real tailors, they don't buy retail

I can't work out what your agenda is, R147. It seems it is unbearable to you that non-European hands might have touched or assembled your Chanel items. It is the quality of the finished product that counts, in my view. I can understand not wanting to own items that were produced by exploiting vulnerable workers in sweatshops, however.

buyind these brands labels you for parisians. Tacky tourist. Is that what you want to be seen as ?

Lol, what are you on about r153? How is pointing out how Chanel products are actually made racist? Many of the ateliers in Paris employ craftswomen of North African and even Sub-Saharan African background and I've even seen an Asian craftswoman. It's wonderful that skilled artisans of all national and ethnic backgrounds are able to keep these important handicrafts going. What you're trying to claim is that Chanel bags are knockoffs made by barely legal Chinese immigrants in Prato workshops (although you don't seem to have understood the implications of what you're saying).

R153, you might think that you're in the know and are privy to the great secrets of the truly chic, but that only makes you the tacky one.

The perfumes are not that expensive and unlike Dior they are not made for masses (right now most of designer perfums smell the same with a few exceptions, Chanel and Hermes)

Meh. Valérie Picavet (wife of Gérard Wertheimer, Chanel co-owner) invites me to parties and plenty of her crowd wear name brand luxury designers in a mix with the latest names/brands.

R150, they were wearing their grandmother’s vintage Chanel while simultaneously laughing about Chanel and calling it touristy? Downy make much sense.

There’s a difference between buying a quality hand crafted designer item that will last all your life and wearing designer logos from top to bottom like a race car driver.

My mother has some very nice vintage Chanel bags, that were excellent quality and a lasting investment. Last year she purchased another Chanel bag and had to return it, because the stitching started fraying after a few uses. The quality is not what it used to be.

I never mentioned racism, R155. You seem unwilling to accept that

1.) 50% of Chanel products are made in Italy,

2.) a large number of garment and accessory factory workers in Italy are Chinese, legal and illegal, and

3.) the goods they produce are contracted by Chanel so they are not knock-offs.

Why is that?

Chanel clothes are too hard to get stains out of.

I am as appalled by the designer bag collectors as R36, and for the same reasons, but with the additional one that every time I change handbags I end up leaving something essential (eye glasses, transport card, etc) in the wrong one.

If I had 30 handbags I think my life would fall apart. But of course, I'd deserve it.

Moy lad Jack buoys me a new release desoighnah piece evray toime he lets annoovah blowke coom in him raw. Sow oi’ve got loike hoondreds already from joost this sayzon.

Oi want a ring next, thow. If Jack has annoovah sling sesh, then oi’ll cry abowt it until he takes me to a doymand moine.

Between yow and me—oi ackchullay down’t moind him fucking oothah men at all. Keeps him out moy hair and off moy case, so oi can go owt with the girls, or off wiv any guy oi loike. Owah relieshunship reallay works.

R162 a gentleman only needs a day bad and an evening bag. Simplify your life, good sir.

[quote] I was living in paris with my parents when I was a teenager. The chic parisiettes, daughters of the upper class, would laugh at the idea of wearing Chanel, Vuitton, etc. It was considered tourist trap tacky, faux-pas. They would wear their grand-mamans Chanel bag/ Carré Hermes / furs, for costume balls and such, as a jest. They had hot trendy pet designers MAKING clothes especially for them

I find this hard to believe. Surely these hot trendy pet designers you speak of can't afford to charge Chanel prices.

[quote] I was living in paris with my parents when I was a teenager. The chic parisiettes, daughters of the upper class, would laugh at the idea of wearing Chanel, Vuitton, etc. It was considered tourist trap tacky, faux-pas. They would wear their grand-mamans Chanel bag/ Carré Hermes / furs, for costume balls and such, as a jest. They had hot trendy pet designers MAKING clothes especially for them

Also, I hate to be ageist, because I'm old, too, but what year was this? Furs, costume "balls," "pet designers" making clothes "chic parisiettes"?

For the Chanel fragrance buyers, which fragrance are you purchasing? IMO, No. 5 smells awful

[quote]The clothes in H&M and Marks and Spencers is way cheaper and looks pretty much the same quality.

H&M clothes are extremely cheaply made. In no way are they anything near the same quality. Marks and Sparks is a higher-quality brand. I've never been there. I assume that Chanel is still better.

Who shops there? Rich people. People into labels. People who like the classic Chanel jacket.

R166

They sound like young snobs who made fun of people who had to buy their designer clothes instead of inheriting them. Hermès Carrés are the colorful silk twill square scarves for which the brand is famous. "Carré" means square.

The supposedly in-the-know person you quoted didn't even get the accents right.

Parisiettes is not a French word. I assume someone upthread is cosplaying Nomi Malone in Paris for shits and giggles.

R160 Let's not exaggerate.

About Prato: among the Chinese workrooms, there are high end Italian labs that have been there for decades still producing the finest workmanship.

The Chinese workrooms are owned and run by the Chinese. Italians rarely hire Chinese workers (for a myriad of reasons). The Chinese workrooms make low cost fast fashion, a lot is exported to China.

There are continual raids in Prato for illegal Chinese workers and for the counterfeit goods often made there.

High-end labels do not want to be involved in scandals or have negative press in any way. They have reputations that must be maintained.

I have an Armani Exchange polo shirt labeled "Made in Cambodia". They are truthful about where their stuff is made. They have to be. On the other hand, the Giorgio Armani line is labeled "Made in Italy" , it sure isn't made in Prato in Chinese sweatshops.

In my years working in Italy (high end fashion, bedding, furniture) I've never encountered Chinese workers.

[quote]For the Chanel fragrance buyers, which fragrance are you purchasing? IMO, No. 5 smells awful

It's doubtless been bowdlerised like all the other classic scents by IFRA, which has been progressively banning all kinds of substances used in fragrances up to the 80s or 90s. Nearly every fragrance which has continued through that period, or been re-released, now has chemicals that try to simulate these banned substances but fail.

R172 this is mostly true but a few certain classics got attention in the reformulations and they came out OK if not fabulous. Its a good idea to buy fragrances that are conceived new based on the newest molecules. They can smell great but they have very little relation to the old conceptions of fragrance. Dior Sauvage would be an example of a successful fragrance created with new molecules. Of the sweet intoxicating hits by Paco Rabanne. There are perfumers who made most of their careers with the new molecules and there are talented ones who know how to build a good fragrance with them. Nathalie Lorson is one.

Even the old ('80s and '90s) No. 5 smelled awful, though, IMO. Smelled grandma-ish. I did like Cristalle, though.

There are still designer clothes/bags that are beautiful quality. I’ve bought a few bags and a fewer pieces of designer clothing in classic styles over the years (bags always second hand) and they just don’t wear out / get damaged like the regular stuff out there - depending on the designer brand.

You can see it in the stitching, the feel, weight and durability of the fabric. If I can find a style that will still look decent after a number of years and the price feels okay, and it seems like a special piece (to me) that I will enjoy for a long time, I have made the occasional purchases and not regretted them. That being said, an hermes Kelly bag or similar is out of my reach. I also am a little conservative in that I think too much of this stuff makes you look silly. But I feel like that about expensive flashy cars etc too and wouldn’t buy one if I could.

I’ve noticed that, as far as I have read through at least, no one has mentioned designer watches. Chanel has some at laughable prices. If in the market for a designer watch, it would be a classic watch brand known for quality and probably second hand at some of these estate jewelry places that are in most major cities. Cartier has some classic styles. I’d never go for diamonds and bling personally, but watches have a whole collector market that people with money seem to have a lot of fun with. Whatever floats your boat I guess with this stuff.

I don’t have a Chanel purse but I have heard they hold their value and in some cases appreciate in value on the second hand market. Some people justify it as an “investment” even though they’d never part with it.

Ferragamo is supposed to be a nice, underrated brand.

I have a super-old leather Coach card case (with a flap). I've had it since people had full-sized wallets. Now, most people just use card cases, like I do.

I also have a couple of leather Furla (Italy) bags. IIRC, they were in the $200-300 range, which is reasonable, considering the quality and that they were made in Italy.

Many years ago, in France, I bought a small Louis Vuitton bag, as a souvenir for myself. Also, the price was lower than in the US. It was actually made in Italy or Spain. The price of that bag is now close to $1,000, I think. (I paid around $200, IIRC). I ended up giving it to a friend b/c I didn't use it that much.

I have an old LV speedy bag from many years ago that really wanted I saved for after getting my first promotion in my career. I don’t wear it much anymore as I feel like LV bags later became associated with tacky / flash or I think what the Brits call “chav.”. They went through a period too where there was so much counterfeiting that it wrecked their image for a while. .

After I bought it, an old friend who was very into the latest of everything and had a wealthy husband to support her shopping habit, referred to it as a “great starter purse”. And suggested what I should be aiming for “next.”. That sort of got to me because I realized as much as I love some designer bags for quality and classic styles, there are always people who will sneer at whatever you have invested in and love.

Over time, my LV developed this lovely patina and looks like it’s generations old while still somehow being in great condition. I do love it. Maybe I should start using it again now that I think about it. I guess my point is that unless you just love something and don’t care what others think, or you are very wealthy, it becomes such a racket, even for high quality stuff, to have the very latest style and newest exclusive release etc. It’s a fool’s game unless you’re filthy rich.

Chanel Allure sport for men is a very easy fragrance to wear. not offensive.

Chanel Bleu is also very good. I get many compliments when I wear this.

Chanel Chance (the green bottle) is very popular, i bought this for my friend and she gets many compliments.

If you want to see how haute couture can fail, just look at Meghan Markle's public appearances when she was a working royal. Dresses longer than her coat, visible underwear, back fat bulging over the top of ballgowns, a wedding dress that looked like a flour sack, a hat that looked like fresh dog shit, and more, all very expensive. Whereas Queen Letizia of Spain promotes her country's fashion industry by wearing High Street brands like Zara, Mango and Massimo Dutti, and always looks incredible. PoW Kate also manages to look immaculately dressed in High Street outfits, especially as she is fastidious about having them tailored to fit her. But you will never see her in shredded jeans.

Just go to Chinatown in NYC and buy a knockoff.

I had a friend who worked in the counterfeit investigation division of Chanel. She said that some knockoffs were so good that even Chanel couldn’t tell. The only way it would know is when it compared the knockoff to the specific numbers each true Chanel bag was given and it wasn’t there

[quote] I’d never go for diamonds and bling personally, but watches have a whole collector market that people with money seem to have a lot of fun with. Whatever floats your boat I guess with this stuff.

Lately I have been fascinated and piqued by dodgy London watch traders to the stars, Trotters Jewellers. Absolute chancers and wide boys, they are, but I can’t stop watching (hah). Some of their deals are ridiculous, and the mugs who pay for it aren’t unbelievably stupid (and rich).

And I don’t even wear or like timepieces, so it is completely bizarre that I find this so entertaining.

R179

What you described is not "Haute Couture." Real HC is made specially for the client. It fits perfectly and in a manner that flatters.

Not Jen Shah

My boss has 3 Michael Kors purses. Someone decided we needed to get her the wallet that matches her black purse. That thing! Just a wallet for checks and cash and credit cards, was $200 before taxes. Luckily there were 4 of us. That price, over $200 with tax, is insane to me, for a wallet.

It's paid advertising. Stuff he got was for free or at steep discount

[quote] My boss has 3 Michael Kors purses.

Michael Kors is actually kind of low-brow, IMO. It's not on the same level as Chanel. Coach is actually more respected than Michael Kors.

Low brow? Fashion is an intellectual pursuit?

I agree with other posters. The only people I see with Chanel are Asian, Hispanic and Middle Eastern women are old white women.

whores always buy chanel.

Since the reformulations of Chanel fragrances replaced certain animal-based ingredients like civet and musk with synthetics, they quality of those have dropped too. The reformulations make me sneeze.

Chanel is for escorts and whores!

Princess Diana

Princess Diana has a Chanel bag named after her - the Chanel Diana flap bag. It’s slightly different than the classic flap, featuring a border around the quilting. She wore it frequently in the mid-90s.

She also has an iconic Dior bag named after her (the Lady Dior), as well as a Gucci tote with bamboo handles (the Gucci Diana).

R68: "How could I buy a real Chanel with all the hunger in the world?!" Spoken by Agrado (Antonia San Juan) in "All About My Mother". Back in the day, (early 2000's, I had a bottle of, "Egoiste" by Chanel.

Diana wore the hell out of Chanel in the 90s r51.

[quote]Who actually buys Chanel clothes, bags and perfumes?

Asians.

[quote]Who actually buys Chanel clothes, bags and perfumes?

Aunt Helen

The very rich live very different lives. We can never understand it or have it. No need to worry our heads about it.

Diana did wear Chanel, R195. I have a hard time believing that only trashy, nouveau riche people or old ladies like this brand. However, I did read online that Diana avoided Chanel after she found out that Charles was cheating with Camilla because the brand's logo reminded her of their initials, as R51 said. Maybe it's true.

Not crazy about the long navy blue jacket and black skirt. The proportions don't suit her.

The Chanel suits (women’s) were popular in the ‘80s. Not anymore.

Are the British royals nouveau riche or trash or both? Asking for a friend.

Love that color combination on Kate, but hate those pants.

Pity about the Chanel and the Nazi agent business though... Pity about the her hating jews thing as well.

Also - this is what she thought about us:

[italic]"Homosexuals? ... I have seen young women ruined by these awful queers: drugs, divorce, scandal. They will use any means to destroy a competitor and to wreak vengeance on a woman. The queers want to be women—but they are lousy women. They are charming![8]: 41 ".[/italic]

True, R203. The pants look silly.

Some of the Chanel outfits at R202 are underwhelming but I do like this look on Kate.

Do you know how much antisemitism there was in the West prior to WWII, R204? I don't think you do.

I wear Egoiste, Chanel Pour Homme and No 19.

R80 Have to agree with your opinion of Birkin bags. They are not only ugly, but they are also so heavy that they become uncomfortable to carry around. I'll stick to my little basket.