It's pretty odd that this has happened at least twice now.
As with Liam Gallagher's Pretty Green, Paul Weller's new fashion label Real Stars Are Rare (slightly self-aggrandising, but then I suppose that's the Mod swagger coming through) is overpriced.
I don't doubt that the clothes are excellent quality but only have the pictures on the site to judge by. Likewise, looking at the pictures, they've got some pretty stylish bits and pieces and, it must be said, a quite creative outlook on some traditional Mod staples. Patterned trousers, plain-coloured Oxford shirts (for which there is a massive niche by the way, were they not so ridiculously expensive) and some quite natty suits (though they have a button too few on the front in my opinion) are all available where the usual suspects simply have no answer.
Yet among all of this, there is something missing. The prices are just wrong.
Take wine as a parallel example. The comparison between a £5 and £50 bottle of wine is clear; you would expect better taste and more enjoyment in the case of the more valuable one. But there is sometimes (in very prestigious establishments) that ridiculous bottle at the bottom of the menu priced at £2500. I can't be the only one that is thinking "what could possibly be so fantastically great about the taste of that bottle that it is worth fifty times as much as the previous one?" (or probably more likely: "What the fuck?!"). At some point along the scale, there can surely be no differentiation in taste: probably at about £80, the price becomes based simply on reputation and vintage. It crosses into a slightly weird area where it could actually just be made up depending on what the managers feels because it doesn't matter - no ordinary person is going to buy it anyway, and people who will buy it will probably be able to afford it whatever the cost.
So this blog has to ask RSAR: who are the ideal buyers of these products? I fear that Weller may be falling into the same trap as Gallagher once did - creating rockstar clothes at rockstar prices. Mod, as others have mentioned before, is not about names or labels. You can't just expect to command a high price just because it's Weller's brand. The vintage wine approach won't work for a Mod audience.
I admit again, if the quality really is there, then the products may be worth that price. But for me, an enthusiastic and committed follower and propagator of Mod style, who finds it difficult to look at a good clothing website without estimating how feasible it is for me to buy the lot, and yet whose income is about average for the country, THESE PRICES ARE JUST TOO FUCKING HIGH. Just crossing the line into the made-up area for me I'm afraid.
This is a huge shame because as I said, I would feel justified in trying out chasing RSAR's stuff if it were just twenty per cent more affordable. I just don't have the money to take that punt.
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