I don’t know what “designer” means. Help?
If I ask a lay person they would probably say “Gucci” or “Louis Vuitton”. Google says it refers to the actual fashion designers of established fashion houses like Heidi Slimane, Demna Gvasalia, Yohji Yamamoto, etc.
Other people seem to use the term exclusively for luxury brands (Hermés, LP, Zegna, BC etc.). Especially when they make handbags.
So when people say “designer” is it only high fashion/haute couture? Todd Snyder is a brand named after a fashion designer, is that considered designer? Is Freenote Cloth designer since they have a team of designers? What about Levi’s, which is an established brand that has had a large impact on fashion?
20 Replies
there's not a universally agreed upon list of designers and brands that fall under the term designer
it's typically used to just reference expensive clothing
I feel like I would never use the term because people think designer brands only do monogrammed shirts and handbags vs ACNE doing a distressed sweater
“Designer” almost sounds like a negative connotation to me
it feels a little arbitrary to me too tbh. working at nordstrom rack we have a policy that we don't accept returns from full-line nordstrom that are "designer" but im often confused by how they decide what's designer and what isn't. they list on the website if it's considered designer or not but it just feels a little weird/arbitrary
Yeah that sounds pretty weird. Nordstrom carries so many brands, I don’t know how they would separate it, besides by price
price is usually an efficient metric for distinction
Its not exclusively by price bc like, Noah is considered designer
"usually"
mmm noah is def a lil spenny, but id also say that nordstrom rack's internal signifier is not the cultural litmus
it's a rather arbitrary distinction but i think the perception is "runway shows = designer"
Oh this distinction isn’t drawn for the rack it’s at Nordstrom too, they have a separate department number
But yeah I think it comes more down to like runway shows
Do people consider Supreme designer?
depends on who you ask
supreme in particular is one where some would consider it designer because of how expensive it is, and others wouldn't consider it designer because of how inexpensive it is vs something like off-white or how accessible it is
for the purpose of shopping the greater priority is "what do you personally find appealing", whether its a pair of jeans from levis, orslow, diesel or dsquared
for the purpose of talking to people i think it's exclusivity and, more often than not, showing at fashion week
You touch on it a little bit is exclusivity a part of it? Like I could buy orslow 105 jeans any year, but a shirt from [brand] might only be in their AW 2024 collection
ill be honest i dont think its that deep. todd snyder has shows at fashion week right along with yohji or martine rose. like seth said, theres really no universal.
Everything’s that deep when you’re an overthinker like me 😔 you won’t believe how much mental energy I wasted on the words “Tailored Fit”
tbh (as an overthinker myself) thats a better use of time bc it will affect the actual physical qualities of the clothes
"tailored fit" is meaningless unfort
worth noting that there's a "designer" house that encompasses nearly every style of clothing at one point in time (whether by brand or in collabs)
I think it was Douglas Adams who wrote "designer clothes are clothes made by a clothes designer, as opposed to a carpenter or bricklayer" or something like that.
Guess Levi’s aren’t designer