The Style Files: Splurge vs Smart

Having an enormous bank account can help with great style but it’s also possible to get the look without one. It’s easy to look your absolute best without spending a small fortune.  Smart high street brands are taking designer looks, reworking them  with subtle differences to recreate the look and making them affordable and accessible to everyone.

Why shouldn't the high street brands copy the high end brands? Expensive, these days, doesn't guarantee that something is well made, or that it will last.

I recently bought, for an exorbitant amount, a pair of classic designer pointed toe stilettos, safe in the knowledge that they would last so long and be so timeless in their beauty that I could hand them down to my niece as an heirloom vintage piece. But, lo and behold, just like a pair of shoes from a cheaper brand they gave me blisters, one of the little rubber tip heels fell off mid party and I had to send them to a specific shoe repair shop to be fixed as not everyone carries that specific heel tip! Whereas a pair of Miu Miu inspired shoes I bought from Zara many years ago have lasted through the rain, mud and an inordinate amount of partying.

And so while I have always been an advocate of buying some key "investment" pieces you can wear forever, the reality is that buying the most expensive label is no guarantee of good workmanship. I don't think there is anything wrong in High Street doppelgangers, designers themselves, after all, are rarely innovative: you only have to look at all the repurposing and inspired by aesthetics and accept that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.