Upscale and EXPENSIVE the New Celebrity Trend

(For Five Figures, That Look of Celebrity
By AUSTIN CONSIDINE - Excerpts from article. Click on link above to go to original, full piece.)

When Victoria Beckham announced this month that her fashion line was releasing an alligator-skin handbag costing nearly $30,000, the price tag might have seemed shocking, if not, perhaps, for the $34,000 alligator-skin backpack revealed in July by The Row, the design outfit of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

In the past, celebrity branding has targeted a decidedly more down-market clientele: teenagers, the movie-star-obsessed and shoppers seeking some affordable piece of Hollywood glamour. Jeans by Jessica Simpson and athletic shoes by Kim Kardashian have been inexpensive and accessible, to say nothing of clothing lines for Kmart and Wal-Mart by teenage idols like Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus, respectively.

...until now, celebrity brands have mostly stayed away from five-figure fashion. Indeed, do women who are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a designer bag really care about (or even want) pop celebrity branding? Why not a Hermès, Delvaux or Balenciaga, luxury bags with impeccable sophisticated reputations?

If the difficulty in getting one of the new Beckham or Olsen bags is any indication, the answer to the first question may be “yes.” Colin T. McDonald, a professional stylist based in New York, is trying to buy one of the Olsen Row backpacks on behalf of a client who is, he said, marrying into “a very prominent and affluent Russian family” in New York. So far, he’s stuck on the waiting list.

The Row bag is available only at Barneys; Ms. Beckham’s bag is made to order. Such scarcity, combined with the celebrity seal, Mr. McDonald said, was enough to drive demand among buyers for whom money is no object. “It’s a luxury market, and it’s not about the price tag,” Mr. McDonald added. “It’s about what they can’t have that they must have.”

Perhaps the line between high- and low-end celebrity fashion is blurring: With The Row, Ms. Lomrantz added, “It’s not so much a traditional celebrity clothing line, as in, ‘Here’s a way for you to look like me for less,’ but a legitimate fashion venture from two people who have great taste and happen to have been on a little show called ‘Full House.’ ”