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[VelvetVoice]

£139.00 (was £199.00)

What adjectives would you use to describe it?
Boring?
Classic?
Nice?
Tacky?

Meh?

That made me laugh @AgingDisgracefullyHere. So true!

Radley make a lot of very different looking bags - I don't know how they can all be 'bad'. I see some of the things that posters link to instead as better and I honestly cannot always see what makes the alternative brand superior.

This went over my head, please explain!

(not a native English speaker here...)

Posters are saying that they see a particular brand in the discount store called TK Maxx, and therefore it must be bad or not desirable.

TK Maxx sell leftover stuff from various big names. I think some brands also have cheaper versions created for discount - they go to the outlet malls or to TK Maxx.

The most exclusive brands are the opposite. Chanel products are never, ever reduced for sale. They would rather destroy excess stock than reduce the price.

For me*, Radley as a brand is offensively inoffensive, which is to say quintessentially boring. The bags are perfectly nice in the same way that vanilla ice cream is.

*obviously I am speaking solely for myself, and I’m sure others will have the same opinion, or worse, on things that I like. I am also aware that stating this won’t stop some from taking issue with said opinion.

You can't help but be boring if you want to play it safe and have something that will be useful for years and be respectable.

Vivian Westwood and John Galliano weren't boring, but I don't think that's the way for most people who are fashionistas to dress.

I don't get the love for bags on here - dresses, shoes, coats yes, but for me a bag is there to serve a purpose. I barely notice other people's bags unless they are spectacular or more likely spectacularly awful. Louis Vuitton and anything else blazoned with logos is in the latter category.

I like Radley because they're leather, well made and the cross body bags are brilliant for security with all their little zipped pockets. I like Le Pliage because they are handy.

I thought the better alternatives on here were mostly dull without being as nice and useful as Radley.

Normal
Unremarkable

Of course, not everything has to be avant garde, but I’m not talking about the bags themselves so much, but brand association.

That’s fine, like I said, I’m talking only for myself.

I like it. It has a nice shape.

Both of these are Radley. Aside from having a liking for red bags, they aren't at all similar style wise. Leaving aside that people have individual preferences and am not expecting everyone to like mine, what is it that makes one brand 'boring', even though they make lots of different looking products, and another brand not?
Because I often see recommendations on here for brands that don't look that different to a Radley design.

I promise I don't work for them or anything and I'm not sensitive about being called boring - honestly my taste in clothes is pretty conservative, but I am interested in this sort of thing, how brands get a positive or negative reputation.
I do cut the dog tags off. My dd liked to play with the little metal ones when she was little, so I got a bag snd she got a little toy

I'm sure it's very nice quality, but I think it's extremely dull. If someone gave it to me, I would try to exchange it or sell it. You could find a very much nicer bag for the money.

Because I often see recommendations on here for brands that don't look that different to a Radley design.

It's almost as if there's some sort of brownie points to be won in (a) saying how awful Radley is and /or (b) posting something which looks very similar but less useful.

I'd love to know what the Venn diagram of people who hate Radley and people who really like, say Nancy Mac or that (horrendous) Dancing Leopard shirt dress which was appearing on every dress thread. Tbh the venom from some posters is a recommendation given some of the stuff that gets lauded on here.

Ubiquitousness is one factor, I suppose. Did find this after a quick google:
https://www.marketingsociety.com/the-library/bags-riches-success-radley-handbags

“Radley had built a loyal fan base of handbag devotees. Typically they were middle-aged, upmarket and from the north. They liked the quirky, colourful designs and sense of fun. For some, interest bordered on the obsessive. But other women didn't 'get' Radley: the brand was unusually polarising. It was also clear that this distinctiveness was both an opportunity and a problem.
Research confirmed that encouraging more women to buy Radley's bags was not going to be easy.
So not only did awareness of Radley bags need to be increased, but there were issues of desirability. It was functional, but not fashionable.”

So the marmite quality of Radley is fairly well established, and something the brand itself recognised.

I love it, but i am biased as I actually have it in the brown.

Disliking Radley for being dull is no different to disliking Louis Vuitton for being flash and tacky tbh. Neither position is a ‘virtuous’ one that will score brownie points, it’s just personal preference 🤷🏻‍♀️

True but I didn't go on the LV thread to pour cold water over their bags.

Louis Vuitton threads also get a mix of opinions, and they can indeed get heated (to put it mildly, at least on the AIBU ones)

OP asked for opinions, so it’s to be expected that she gets both positive and negative ones.

That was interesting @notlucreziaborgia , thank you for posting it.
I guess I'd understand the dislike if the designs were all similar, like the pocket bags. Because then it would come down to whether you liked that particular look. But since the designs are so different, to me it's weird to write off a whole brand - unless a brand has a very specific look, without seeing a logo, there's really often no way of differentiating one from another. The chain bag I posted a pic of upthread could be from any number of manufacturers (to my mind anyway).

I do suppose though, that since bags are considered luxury items, it is possible to become over exposed and if everyone has the same thing, it's no longer a marker of having especially good taste or showing wealth or whatever it is that people want from a bag brand.

I have an aversion to radley since they were actually cool when I started work and had far too much of the stuff.

I did stop buying them for a while because they were so hated on here. I thought I must be missing something glaringly obvious to others.
But I've come back around to them again. The one I posted upthread with the buckles has loads of useful compartments, is comfortable to wear, I like the shape and colour and it was cheap on Vinted.

I suppose also that society has an aversion to anything deemed middle aged. Even though lots of us are!

Oftentimes I think the best way to understand something, is to stop trying to understand it. Stop trying to consider something in terms of should or shouldn’t, or your own perception of good and bad, and just observe what is.

There is power in brand identity, and perception of brand will shape how the product is viewed. It’s why companies focus so closely on marketing, because no matter how good the product is, if people have a negative association with the brand, they’re resistant to buying it. This isn’t a big deal if the people that don’t like it aren’t the target audience, but it’s a problem if the aim is growth.

There’s so many factors that influence this, but things like personal values, exclusivity, aspiration (in all ways. As some aspire to be seen as someone that would buy Louis Vuitton, there are those that aspire to be seen as someone that wouldn’t buy Louis Vuitton, for example), and identification all matter. A huge amount of this is subconscious.

That one on the pic is actually brown

What kinds of outfits you were it with?

It is fascinating though, that the actual product is almost immaterial (across the board, not just Radley). That we think what we're told to think, while believing our brand choice is a way of expressing our individual tastes.