Prior to Chloé's launch, luxury fashion houses had only ever produced Haute Couture clothing (custom-fitting). Aghion identified a gap in the market and decided to create a line of off the rack, high quality, soft, body conscious clothes from fine fabrics, which she called 'luxury prêt-à-porter,' giving birth to the Prêt-à-Porter (Ready-To-Wear) market we know today.
A recent purchase by a friend shows the true extent of Chloé's retail packaging, which seemingly lacks restraint in use of materials and resources. Like many luxury brands, Chloé's retail packaging features and abundant of materials including the following:
- Large (oversized) box featuring print and embossing.
- Cotton ribbon, for finishing and enhancement of consumer receival.
- Multiple card inclusions featuring print and embossing.
- Printed sticker.
- Tissue paper.
- Printed protective bag.
- Product, bearing tags featuring embossing.
The extravagance of materials used by Chloé, and many other fashion houses, for their luxury retail packaging is a strategic device used to successfully create appeal to the typical upper-class consumer, exploiting an abundance of available materials and finishing techniques and their ability to be used in forming both tangible and emotional relationships with consumers through theatrics and manipulation of luxury sector cues. It is the fine details, accents, personal touches and sheer volume of materials that truly encapsulate the niches of luxury brands and the packaging through which they deliver products. This type of packaging from an environmentalist point of view is unnecessary, boastfully extravagant and grotesquely grandiose — however, to restrict these devices and materials would be to disembody the soul of luxury packaging altogether.
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