Steve & Barry’s: the “Google of fashion”?
The founders of cheaper-than-Old-Navy department store, Steve & Barry’s, recently described in a NY Times article their retail phenomenon as the “Google of fashion.”
Relating a department store to the scope of a company like Google implies that it’s the go-to place. That it’s the go-to brand for anything & everything fashion, in the sense that one might describe Google as such for tech-savvy and web applications. All right. I’ll play along. There can be a “Google of fashion” … but is it really Steve & Barry’s? Aren’t they getting a little ahead of themselves? I mean, yes, you can’t beat a fab dress for less than $10. And they do offer exclusives, like Bitten, the celebrity collection from Sarah Jessica Parker, fashion’s ultimate it-girl (well, in my opinion anyway). They’re hitting price-points lower than Wal-Mart’s. But are we hitting the bottom of the barrel for fast-fashion? (Fast-fashion meaning, in a sense, quickly manufactured knock-offs of runway styles. Other retailers might include: H&M, Zara, MNG, etc.) You can’t truly expect to be wearing your $8.98 tube dress for more than one spring/summer season…do you? Think about it: how long do cheap and “fast” Forever-21 tops last? Any that I’ve ever owned unravel shortly after purchase. Is S&B much different? And if we aren’t wearing their clothes months after we buy them, if that lasting quality is not present, is the store relateable to the likes of Google?
Google is everywhere. Accessible to everyone. Apparently, there are about 300 Steve & Barry’s in the country. But one of the country’s fashion capitals — our lovely San Francisco — has disparaging access to this fashion house. There’s only ONE here (granted, they ARE opening three more in the South Bay to supplement the additional two in the East Bay).
All this cheap-fashion-is-”it”-fashion makes me wonder if perhaps the meaning of fashion, of style is changing. A majority of shoppers are now taking pride in how inexpensive their clothes are instead of how pricey. Can we make headway and show people that price does not equal quality, and that high-quality can actually be found at a bargain? Let’s hope so.