Watered Down Fashion

As a designer myself, I have found that the best ideas never make it onto the sales floor.  There are so many obstacles to overcome.  The stores buyers have a good amount of control of what makes it into the market, based on their choices from designs offered, as well as the fact that many buyers have custom requests, which are more than often repugnant.  The other complication being that the general public is, well... boring.  And perhaps cheap, safe, and uninspired.  Harsh?  Case point:

I was so excited for Christian Siriano's spring 2011 Payless line, after seeing a runway sneak peek on the fashion blogs.  Sky high architectural heeled platforms fit for a stroll on Mars had me salivating and checking the Payless site often for their debut.

Needless to say I was very disappointed when I logged onto the site today and saw this degraded offering of the original concepts.

I know that this is how a lot of fashion lovers feel about all affordable designer collaborations.  And while I'll argue that I have found many of the designer collabs to be covetable, the sentiment is more than understood.  If I'm craving couture I need to save my pennies, because the commonplace shopper just doesn't get it. 

xoxo Lux