If you think £149 for a cardigan is expensive, don’t look at Brora or Toast!
I don’t own any Boden. It’s always seemed rather frumpy. Though maybe that’s changed. Used to be associated with David and Samantha Cameron going to Cornwall on holiday and so that rather put me off! I’ve never considered it to be a status symbol though. More catalogue shopping for the (slightly small c conservative?) middle classes, but not in a ‘look at me’ sort of way.
No idea if their £149 cardigan is worth it. But it’s not a price that would signal anything particularly ridiculous to me. We all have different expectations and budgets don’t we? I’d far rather spend money on something quality and well made that will last for years than on cheap fashion. I’m far from being flashy, but I am fortunate enough to be able to save up for certain things. Sometimes small makers rather than anything known, and rarely high end fashion. Some things are clearly over priced (the Boden cardigan might be), but if it’s well made and made of good wool rather than plastic and I liked it, I’d certainly go for that over something for £20/£30/£40 that won’t survive a couple of washes before looking dreadful. And I avoid (again I’m fortunate in being able to) places like H&M and Primark, when you know that it’s only so cheap because the person (child!) making it is paid virtually nothing and works in appalling conditions. Fast fashion too is dreadful for the environment.
I have things that have been passed down or might be passed on - or at least sold on - one day. Shoes that can be resoled and so last. And I mend things rather than throw them out.
My DH has several pairs of shoes that once belonged to his Grandfather and still look amazing!
Of course, it’s a luxury to be able to afford things that last and it’s unfair. I’m a Terry Pratchett fan, and there’s a wonderful bit he wrote that is often quoted:
‘The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
^^
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
^^
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
^^
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes 'Boots' theory of socioeconomic unfairness.’