In the recently published Fashion Babylon, there's a great anecdote
describing what must be one of the first recorded incidents of a label being
WAGGED.
 |
Victoria
Beckham at the
Chanel couture show with
Karl
Lagerfeld |
Years ago, when Tom Ford was creative director at Gucci, he spotted Victoria
Beckham out and about wearing some of his designs. Worried about the negative
effect that this could have on the brand, he allegedly called his London PR and
demanded to know who was responsible for putting Posh into the outfit.
The PR told him that she had bought the clothes at full price at the Gucci
shop. Ford is reported to have screeched: "Well, somebody stop her!"
Whether or not this story is true, it illustrates the problem that
high-fashion houses now face; once a label's clothes or accessories are seen on
who a designer deems to be the "wrong" person, its credibility can plummet.
As a group, no one has done more to kill off a handful of trends and labels
than high-profile footballers' wives. Being WAGGED is now the greatest danger
facing any new It-bag or hot label.
So step forward, once more, the former Posh Spice. Victoria Beckham last week
debuted her freshly cropped hair (a move to distance herself from the other
WAGs) during an evening out with her friend Christopher Bailey, Burberry's
creative director. The outing was duly "papped".
A few days later, an item appeared in a newspaper diary alleging that Bailey
had received a severe dressing down from Burberry bosses for socialising with
the Queen of WAGs. It was rumoured that the company, which has spent years
trying to shrug off its chav associations, saw the publicity as a major setback.
No one has done more than Bailey to transform Burberry into a major fashion
player with consistently praised fashion collections - he is one of the
industry's key trendsetters. For the record, sources at Burberry deny Bailey was
reprimanded following the dinner.
All the same, would Burberry's new Manor bag be quite so desirable if it was
given a high-profile outing by Mrs Beckham? Would we all be lusting after the
label's limited-edition gold trench if she had been there first?
For serious designer labels, there is a tightly defined hierarchy of who is
desirable and who is not, and the WAGs almost uniformly fall into the latter
category.
Just as an outfit or an It-bag sported by Kate Moss or Sienna Miller is an
almost guaranteed sell-out, being WAGGED can damage the brand's desirability.
Once, Chloé's bags were the most coveted accessories known - each season the
latest design, from the Silverado to the Paddington, would be an instant
sell-out.
It helped, of course, that very few of us could afford to blow ￡1,000 or more
on one intoxicating fashion fix. This summer's Betty - oversized, slouchy and
multi-pocketed - was first spotted on Kate Moss, whose patronage, of course,
made it must have - for a while.
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