Cash Me If You Can: An explanation of high-end brands, featuring Jessica’s Blanc & Eclare

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Ever since the dawn of Blanc & Eclare, the sunglasses/fashion line of ex-SNSD member Jessica, people have been moaning and groaning about “why unnir hates me so much” and mocking her like “lol does she think she’s Gucci” based on the inaccessible price tags of her products. Well, those people, like so many other people, are fucking idiots.

Here’s a short, basic, general explanation that might help these lost souls get a clue.

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Fast! Think of a high-end brand! You most likely thought of Chanel, Dior, or other big names in the fashion industry. Now, think words that you would associate with those brands. Is it exclusive? Elegant? Expensive overrated crap? Probably a combination of those, and for good reason.

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The thing is, brands spend more time and money on the marketing that makes you think of them a certain way than you can imagine. Even low-end brands want you to remember them (“Low cost! For every family member!”). This isn’t only reflected through advertising, but also in the presentation of their products, including the price tag.

That is the simplest breakdown possible for why Jessica unnir didn’t “start off” — as I hear some people suggest she should’ve — her brand as a low-end or mid-end one: she wanted it to be a luxury brand, thus she managed it, and still does, like a fucking luxury brand. Low-end brands don’t “grow” to be high end, they’re simply marketed that way from the start. As one commenter famously noted, H&M won’t upgrade to Prada, period.

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Another important topic to consider is the idea of “exclusivity”. There are probably much less people with access to luxury brands than you would assume given how big a part in pop culture these brands play.

This is a cut from the 2014 biopic of designer Yves Saint Laurent, whose life was full of drugs, alcohol, and orgies; y’know, the good stuff. But what I wanted to show you is this specific scene where his lover/business partner Pierre Bergé is dealing with American buyers. He mentions he’s selling 25 dresses and he’s actually fucking happy to be selling that quantity. You might think “that’s a ridiculous small amount to be excited about, yo”, but in reality that’s the whole damn point.

If you amp that number in proportion to the amount of people now, it would still make a very, very tiny slice of the population, and that’s their business: exclusivity. All in all, if you find their shit expensive, they don’t care, it simply means you are not the people they want to sell said shit to anyway. They focus on those with an income large enough where spending $1000 on a pair of shoes without a second thought is not a big deal, as well as those who give enough value to their brand and products’ “uniqueness” that splurging money on them is a pleasure (like why many middle-class women will have a few luxury brand shoes or bags, etc).

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So yes, this means Jessica doesn’t give a shit if her fans from her SNSD days buy her sunglasses or not. Well, I mean, she would calmly accept them splurging (as mentioned above), but the main goal isn’t to mass sell them to every SONE in existence like she’s fucking Old Navy or something.

Additionally, what she’s doing is making use of the image the fans constructed of her. Remember that time Jessica said Victoria Beckham was her role model? Well, though I wouldn’t stretch it as much, here’s what I mean: Vic was Posh Spice, and she was cold and chic.

Sound familiar?

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Think about it, SONEs have overused the term “ice princess” so much you probably remember that phrase at some point when thinking about Jessica, and the same goes for her little sister, Krystal. Heck, if the latter ever gets released from SM Entertainment, I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up modeling for B&E, since she fits their image perfectly.

What I’m saying is that fans are complaining about the image she’s crafting, but that image was created by fans to goddamn begin with.

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There are plenty of rumors (and apparently Sica said it herself) that B&E might open a so-called “affordable line” soon. This is the next logical step considering how many tween/teenage followers she has to squeeze money out of, and if she’s indeed making this side line it means her brand is likely doing amazing to allow such an investment. Regardless, it doesn’t change the reality that she wants Blanc & Eclare to be known as a luxury brand, and that’s why the price point of her goods so far are the way they are.

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The point of this is not to say Blanc & Eclare designs are great, nor is it to say Blanc & Eclare will succeed in its goals. Rather, the point is to say that everybody complaining about how her luxury brand is not affordable or how her luxury brand is framed ridiculously is missing the whole goddamn point of luxury brands. Newsflash, paying $5000 for a handbag is inherently fucking ridiculous.

Hopefully this was clear enough so I don’t have to listen to “ermahgerd why is dis sooo expensive unnir please I want to masturbate to you while wearing a Blanc & Eclare scarf” anymore.

At least not here. At least not on every single Jessica post. Please. For my sanity.

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