If You're Still Wearing Silver Tiffany Jewelry - STOP Right This Second

[ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl]

I never saw the point in saving a whole paycheck for one purse or necklace. The whole point of designer brands are to show status and wealth. If you don't have it and waste your money trying to keep up...I hope you learn better before you miss rent and eat Ramen to purchase the newest trendy purse.

Originally Posted by ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl

I never saw the point in saving a whole paycheck for one purse or necklace. The whole point of designer brands are to show status and wealth. If you don't have it and waste your money trying to keep up...I hope you learn better before you miss rent and eat Ramen to purchase the newest trendy purse.

To some people designer brands don't show wealth and status. To some, maybe it does show how they worked to save for a few weeks for something they love and makes them very happy. What's the difference between that and someone saving for a car or house or vacation? For you a piece of jewelry isn't worth sacrificing a few things for a couple of weeks, but to some it is worth it. People are allowed to spend their money on what they want, especially if they are smart about it, meaning they aren't going into crazy debt and they want that thing for the right reasons.

Originally Posted by ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl

I never saw the point in saving a whole paycheck for one purse or necklace. The whole point of designer brands are to show status and wealth. If you don't have it and waste your money trying to keep up...I hope you learn better before you miss rent and eat Ramen to purchase the newest trendy purse.

Oh hell no.

I'm by no means wealthy nor do I make a lot of money, but I'm allowed and entitled to buy pretty things here and there, and thankfully my decent paychecks allow me to do so without having to eat ramen.

I don't buy my jewelry and purses to show off, so while designer brands mean showing off to you, it's not the same for everybody. I buy things based on how it looks and what kind of quality it has. So don't slap that label on me and those who like buying designer things.

To me, wasting money = gambling, excessively spending at the bar/club, etc. Buying an expensive purse is definitely not wasting, especially if you're going to use it frequently.

Originally Posted by jessicaelaine

To some people designer brands don't show wealth and status. To some, maybe it does show how they worked to save for a few weeks for something they love and makes them very happy. What's the difference between that and someone saving for a car or house or vacation? For you a piece of jewelry isn't worth sacrificing a few things for a couple of weeks, but to some it is worth it. People are allowed to spend their money on what they want, especially if they are smart about it, meaning they aren't going into crazy debt and they want that thing for the right reasons.

Precisely.

[ladygreek]

Oh well. My Elsa Peretti heart necklace was a gift from my daught. I in turn later bought her the earrings and bracelet to match her heart necklace. This was three years ago, but hey we will continue to wear them. We love EP's designs.

And to the cafeteria ladies I say rock on!

p.s. I knew this was a joke LOL

[BetteDavisEyes]

I don't mind paying a high price for a good purse or a good pair of boots just b/c I know the quality is definitely better than some cheap knock-off that's going to fall apart in less than a month. It's not about status or wealth. It's about buying something that you like & makes you happy regardless of your personal financial worth or the cost.

[ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl]

Originally Posted by BetteDavisEyes

I don't mind paying a high price for a good purse or a good pair of boots just b/c I know the quality is definitely better than some cheap knock-off that's going to fall apart in less than a month. It's not about status or wealth. It's about buying something that you like & makes you happy regardless of your personal financial worth or the cost.

A good price for good clothes is different from tacking on a couple of zeros just to have the label printed on. Why buy a knock off anyway? Why not just buy nice things that look good...they don't have to have a designer printed on them to look good.

[ladygreek]

Originally Posted by BetteDavisEyes

I don't mind paying a high price for a good purse or a good pair of boots just b/c I know the quality is definitely better than some cheap knock-off that's going to fall apart in less than a month. It's not about status or wealth. It's about buying something that you like & makes you happy regardless of your personal financial worth or the cost.

Ain't that the truth. I have St. John's pieces that I have been wearing for seven + years--adding to them because the dye lot doesn't change and blocking them when I go up or down in weight.

I also can't tell you the number of Coach bags that I have that may need a zipper repair, but that is all and I just keep recycling them.

[NinjaPoodle]

In todays Wall Street Journal
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To Refurbish Its Image, Tiffany Risks Profits
By Ellen Byron

In the late 1990s, Tiffany & Co.'s silver charm bracelet was a must-have fashion accessory. Teens jammed Tiffany's hushed stores clamoring for the $110 silver bauble. Sales skyrocketed, investors cheered.

Tiffany's managers worried. They knew the bracelet had become a fad, one that could alienate the jewelry firm's older, wealthier, and more conservative clientele. Worse, it could forever damage Tiffany's reputation for luxury.

"The large number of silver customers did represent a fundamental threat -- not just to the business but to the core franchise of our brand," says Tiffany CEO Michael Kowalski.

So in a dramatic gamble, Tiffany decided ...
------------------------------------------------------------
http://users1.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkL...hpp_us_pageone

You need to be a paid subscriber to read the rest or just go to the newstand and pick up a copy. It's on the front page.

[SigmaPezY60]

Originally Posted by BetteDavisEyes

I don't mind paying a high price for a good purse or a good pair of boots just b/c I know the quality is definitely better than some cheap knock-off that's going to fall apart in less than a month. It's not about status or wealth. It's about buying something that you like & makes you happy regardless of your personal financial worth or the cost.

Agreed. I look at spending a paycheck on a bag, or piece of jewelry, clothing item, as an investment. I rarely splurge for anything (poor starving college student) and sure I could buy a trendy bag at Target for MUCH less, but it's not going to last as long.

But I do think there are a lot of girls that just go buy the "IT" bag just because it's the "IT" bag. One year it's Coach, the next its LV, then D&B, and Juicy. I just saw D&B bags for less than $50 in TJ Max last night and I laughed at how the "IT" bag goes out so fast. I wondered how many girls have their designer handbags in the bottom of the closet just because pop-culture says it's not in style.

[ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl]

Originally Posted by jessicaelaine

To some people designer brands don't show wealth and status. To some, maybe it does show how they worked to save for a few weeks for something they love and makes them very happy. What's the difference between that and someone saving for a car or house or vacation? For you a piece of jewelry isn't worth sacrificing a few things for a couple of weeks, but to some it is worth it. People are allowed to spend their money on what they want, especially if they are smart about it, meaning they aren't going into crazy debt and they want that thing for the right reasons.

That's true, yeah. Especially for people that know how to budget. I just saw people in high school working JUST to buy some designer bag or shoes even though the reason they had a job in the first place was to pay their parents back for a car wreck or cell phone overages. And now that I'm in college I've seen people miss rent to buy a purse that matches everyone else's, or not eat for a month to buy sunglasses. It just seems like there are plenty of options that are just as functional for half the price. I don't get the need to have a designer label on the things I own. I buy nice stuff, but it's half the price of designer and it lasts just as long and looks just as good on me.

Also I don't think a house or car are equivalent to purses or clothes. I guess I value function, trhift and practicality over a label.

[Denise_DPhiE]

Originally Posted by ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl

I never saw the point in saving a whole paycheck for one purse or necklace. The whole point of designer brands are to show status and wealth. If you don't have it and waste your money trying to keep up...I hope you learn better before you miss rent and eat Ramen to purchase the newest trendy purse.

I used to manage a department of sixteen recent college grads, almost all women. I was paying them $30k a year. They were living in NYC apartments with one or two roommates to make ends meet (and probably eating Ramen noodles). They ALL had real Kate Spades, Coach Bags, Louis, Tiffany pieces and whatever else.

To me, if you don't have $400 in cash to put in the purse, then you shouldn't be carrying a $400 bag.

My 2 cents.

(Currently carrying a $60 Vera Bradley Bag with a knock off Louis checkbook and a wallet from Fossil)

[Drolefille]

If Tiffany is out, does that mean silverjewlryclub.com is in? Because I'm so all over that.

[GeekyPenguin]

When I worked at the Limited, Tiffany pieces were some of the "rewards" we could collect at the end of the year. I have the Venetian Link neckalce and bracelet but I rarely wear them these days because I was seeing little (think pre-teen) girls in them.

[NinjaPoodle]

Originally Posted by GeekyPenguin

...I have the Venetian Link neckalce and bracelet but I rarely wear them these days because I was seeing little (think pre-teen) girls in them.

Which is exactly why Tiffany jacked up the prices. The article basicly went on to say that the investors an the company want to woo back the higher paying clientel that Tiffany has a (long time) relationship with (brand loyalty), not the fly-by-night-sweet-sixteen-here-today-forgotten-tomorrow crowd. When something becomes trendy and everyone has it, it loses it's "special" value. Burberry is a classic example of this. A woman in the article remarked that when she had gone to a Tiffany store to get a gift for her teen daughter, the store was crowded like Macys. What was the point of her being there in that atmosphere when she could go to a store like Macys for that. Someone else in the article said that they didnt wear their Tiffany jewerly piece anymore because "everyone has it".

posted by Kilarney Rose

Small Southeastern College junior Intern #2, a member of XYZ sorority, agrees. "Seriously, nobody I know wears that stuff anymore. Everyone had (Tiffany silver jewelry) my senior year of high school, but that was a long time ago."

And that's the attitude that Tiffany's feels will hurt them in the long run.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by NinjaPoodle

Which is exactly why Tiffany jacked up the prices. The article basicly went on to say that the investors an the company want to woo back the higher paying clientel that Tiffany has a (long time) relationship with (brand loyalty), not the fly-by-night-sweet-sixteen-here-today-forgotten-tomorrow crowd. When something becomes trendy and everyone has it, it loses it's "special" value. Burberry is a classic example of this. A woman in the article remarked that when she had gone to a Tiffany store to get a gift for her teen daughter, the store was crowded like Macys. What was the point of her being there in that atmosphere when she could go to a store like Macys for that. Someone else in the article said that they didnt wear their Tiffany jewerly piece anymore because "everyone has it".

When I think Tiffany, I think diamonds...not the silver stuff they started selling so they would have something for every income level. And to most women, I would wager that they still think of diamonds when they think of Tiffany. I don't think Tiffany has anything to worry about. Anyone who's been in a Tiffany store knows that silver is only a small part of its collection, and if you haven't been in a Tiffany store, well, you're probably not in its target market anyway.

If I was LV, I would be worried. Girls in middle school carrying an adult purse, just because "everyone has one!"? That's very anti-luxury, and therefore hurts the LV brand. Why does it matter more for LV than Tiffany? Because the bulk of LV's bags and luggage are "signature" bags...there just isn't variety like at Tiffany. I just bought a beautiful, more expensive Marc Jacobs bag because I would never pay $1,000 for a bag that everyone else has. Coach can get away with it because Coach is only marginally "designer"...most of its bags are in the $275-$400 range. I have several Coach bags, but I carry them because they're classic and professional, not to show off. It is not as much of a status symbol as a LV bag is supposed to be. But now LV is no longer a status symbol...everyone has one, or a knockoff that most people probably think is a real one. The LV store on Rodeo Drive sees a ridiculous amount of foot traffic.