Clothing: UK demands low priced product

It's always been true that, if you don't care about labels, you can buy stylish and well made clothes for not much money. After all, a plain white t-shirt is a plain white t-shirt and ultimately so long as the fabris is good quality, and the stitching is both in the right place and durable, there's little difference between a GBP2 and GBP50 example - except that with hte GBP50 example, you are expected to advertise the manufacturer by wearing his logo.

The fashion industry invented a word for this obsession with logos: designer. Of course, it's just as stupid a form of description as when as estate agency says a house is "artichect designed." All houses are designed by an architect, just as all clothes are designed by a designer.

A rush of cheap clothing made across the world with supposed added value by the addition of a (usually American) brand, often made by those who are exploited in the workplace, has devalued the cachet of many brands, whilst hugely increasing their market value.

Clothing brands are sold at artificially high prices. Unlike wines, for example, they do not, generally, suffer from scarcity, in the sense that economists mean.

The trend towards brands is complex: some product makes its name by being expensive and having no other significant value, some by being produced from such exquisite cloth that it is actually scarce.

Some users like brands because of the tribalism (the wearing of soccer strip in the street, for example) and some because they think that displaying the brand shows them to be successful. Both of these lead to counterfeiting as those who wish to be have the requisite association cannot afford the real thing. It also leads to those who can afford the real thing but would not dream of paying such prices for it to buying the counterfeits to be ironical.

There are products where the high price is justified by exceptional quality of materials: handbags are one example, as is leather clothing (although the quality of the leather in the street markets in Beijing is as high as anywhere else: unfortunately, they stamp it "BOSS" or similar when for many the jacket unbranded would be a better buy.

It's the quality of the leather jacket that leads to something interesting happening in the UK. If something that good can cost around 1/15th of the price of a similar Italian leather jacket with a (lawful) brand name, then why not sell them without the brand name?

That's what's happening in the UK: the EU / China quota system is not about "cheap" - in English, that's a pejorative term, an insult that implies poor quality. It's about inexpensive clothing. Good clothes, nicely designed, well made from good materials and being affordable to those who cannot or don't want to spend significant sums on clothes just to wear a particular badge.

The UK now has several so called discount clothing shops. This is, also, a pejorative created by the end of the market that sells product with logos. The obsession with logos can be seen in departments stores such as Debenhams. Debenhams is not a pure department store but it gives the impression of being one. Several of the "brands" on display are, in fact, Debenhams's own labels. This strategy was developed at a time when lack of investment in the shops had left them run down and, frankly, not very nice to go to.

The chain was bought for not much different to its land values and heavy invesment undertaken. New shops were opened and overseas expansion started: the most recent addition is in Kuala Lumpur. The new light, airy, relatively uncluttered look needed bright new product but although Debenhams had heavy footfall, the purchasers looking for good quality things had gone elsewhere. Debenhams survived, barely, on a diet of festival shopping and lack of competition and overpriced (but not overly high priced) poor quality, mediocre design.

That all changed when the new management decided that, if the smart brands would not come, Debenhams would invent some and then, having changed the culture of the shops, the bigger brands would come. And they did. The "own brand" labels were quietly sidelined. Sporting, American, Italian sounding names appeared all over the shops with bright, well made, but inexpensive clothing. It is not an exaggeration to say that Debenhams revolutionised the British high street.

The success of the good quality, low price formula had its emulators: soon prices in high street shops began to rival those in street markets but with, of course, a money back guarantee. But there remained a cachet problem: many people simply did not want to be seen with a TopShop, Primark or Peacocks bag, and certainly did not want their friends or worse, colleagues, to know they had shopped there.

But that all changed when some fashion magazines began to take note. It's a dilemma for such magazines: they want just the upmarket adverts because it reflects on their magazine and, if the magazine starts advertising or, horror, editorialising about low price product then the big brands may simply not renew their advertising contracts.

So it's a brave publication that will feature a GBP12 jacket where that would, often, just about buy a lipstick from a company more usually found in that magazine. Vogue not only broke the mould, it also very nearly broke a taboo.

Soon the "smart set" could be found browsing the racks in Asda (don't laugh, its George range has provided a firm foundation for its non-food expansion and was one of the attractions for Wal-Mart's purchase of the UK retail chain) and even (although often disappointed) Marks and Spencer. And they didn't even mind the carrier bags from the "discount" shops.

Now Primark, which already has a large slice of the "discount" market plans to increase its retail space by as much as 50%.

Now that the importation of product from China has been capped, where will the goods come from?

Will the increased demand across the UK lead to "label washing" (it's like money laundering but refers to the process of undertaking the final finishing of product in a non-quota country and then affixing the "made in..." tag as from that country)?

Marks and Spencer got caught doing that several years ago: the product was made outside the EU and only the buttons and labels remained to be sewn on to a line of blazers. And there are allegations that a similar practice may have taken place in recent weeks.