KEY POINTS:
Do you ever get the sneaking suspicion that fashion is getting more expensive? Do you feel you're spending more cash on keeping your wardrobe full and your look stylish?
Unless you're also hearing voices in your head telling you to blow your savings on one shade of lip
gloss, there's no need to panic. Because those sneaking suspicions may be right.
Firstly, a quick look at the New Zealand Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows that, on average, prices for footwear and clothing have been falling. But after consultation with analysts at the Statistics Department, it turns out the very small price decreases in this sector are because, generally, prices for all consumer goods have been going up, but the cost of clothing and footwear has mostly remained stable. It only looks like prices have been falling but that's in comparison with other rising prices.
So where are these budgetary delusions coming from? It may have something to do with what's called the anchor theory of shopper persuasion.
Basically, this says that the very top-priced goods are anchors. In other words, they set a price limit.
Say you walk into a store and see a designer handbag for close to $10,000. "That's ridiculous," you huff and prepare to storm out. But then you see the T-shirt, or the perfume, or the key ring, or maybe the low-rent version of the original handbag. And you experience what has been described as an emotional-mathematical transformation.
Suddenly, because that lower-priced object doesn't cost $10,000 it feels like an affordable luxury. And it's only because it doesn't bear a ridiculous-sounding $10,000 price tag that you can justify the purchase. That's how the cunning anchor theory works.
As several experts in retail psychology have said, "a smart retailer will move you right along to where you can salvage your pride".
And, "if you're in that world long enough, [the not-quite-so-big price tag] stops even feeling like a lot of money".
Recently anchor prices - the prices someone like Posh Spice will pay to get her hands on something truly exclusive - have been escalating.
Apparently, the reason is that almost everyone can get their hands on a little bit of luxury. Just count the number of off-the-shelf Louis Vuitton bags marching down Queen St.
Posh Spice and her fellow Wags don't like that. They don't want to look like everyone else - they need to show their status with a spot of carrier bag candy.
So now luxurious products need to be different to be as exclusive as they once were: maybe they'll be made out of something rare and exotic or especially for you, a bespoke item costing thousands.
This is why you'll find English label Burberry doing a limited edition line of clothing that D-listers can't get their hands on, designer Marc Jacobs making bags out of crocodile skin and Louis Vuitton enlisting the aid of various artists to make one-off bags, as well as coming up with the Vuitton Tribute Patchwork bag.
This little number is carefully made from scraps of other Vuitton bags; only a few exist and they will set you back the deposit on your next home, NZ$83,500 (although they are not available here or in Australia).
Meanwhile, Italian label Fendi has offended vegetarians and animal rights activists with bags made from chinchilla and sable that will cost would-be owners a solid $83,500.
The Times of London reported recently that the average price tag on a designer handbag at Selfridges department store had risen by 55 per cent since 2005.
An index based in London that measures the cost of affluent living has concluded that luxury goods have risen in price three times faster than non-luxury items.
So no, you're not imagining it - at the top end fashion is getting more expensive. Because even if you're not in the market for a Vuitton Tribute bag, there's a psychological effect - those $800 shoes or that $500 bag up the road in Ponsonby suddenly start to look more reasonable ...
Then there's what is going on at the other end of the scale, down at the local mall. At one stage you were probably celebrating what has been called chain store chic.
After all, some of the most stylish women in the world have been stepping out in a combination of Gucci and Glassons.
But recently, with growing concern about the environment and better consumer awareness of some of the hidden costs of mass manufacturing, that seems to have changed.
As Jane Shepherdson, former brand director at Topshop and widely credited as the woman who turned that chain store into one of the coolest stores in Britain, told the ndependent newspaper this year, it was "getting a bit boring" for people to find their wardrobes full of "cheap rubbish".
Firmly chewing on the hand that once fed her, Shepherdson, who's gone on to work with ethical fashion label People Tree, predicted a backlash against disposable fashion, saying that, "we should always question if something is very, very cheap and think that if you, the consumer, aren't paying for it, then someone, somewhere down the line is paying".
If you subscribe to that theory, then you'll have found that your cheap clothes have become more expensive in philosophical, social and environmental terms. You'll especially find them more expensive if you've given up your mall habit and tried to buy more locally made, longer-lasting outfits.
If you're shopping at that mid-level then you'll also find that brands like Kate Sylvester, Workshop, Karen Walker (with Levi's) and Starfish from Wellington are now supplying clothes made from organic or eco-fabrics.
Sometimes this means prices go up a little. Workshop's new organic denim is in their premium price range, alongside other styles made in their best (but not organic) denim and Kate Sylvester's organic fabrics are, they say, fractionally more expensive.
But as Sylvester's partner and creative director Wayne Conway says, "it's a small price to pay to save the planet".
So keeping all that in mind, from organics to anchors to Made In China labels - what's a fashion-conscious gal to do?
The answer, as many a wise and well-dressed woman would say, is to find a meaningful balance for your wardrobe - and then balance your budget.
Don't buy all your clothes from chain stores, wear them just one night, then chuck them out. And don't forgo buying a car just so you can buy a bag or two. Instead, think more carefully about your purchases and do what fashion stylists have been advising for years.
Find your own style, get some well-made, long-lasting classics and supplement those with the occasional trendy pieces and lots of vintage fashion (it's cheaper and it's also recycling).
