Luxury Brands Are Insulting Us Quietly

Añadido: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Let's talk about the new age luxury and how boring everything has been. I recently talked about my YouTube journey and why I'm incredibly burnt out by the whole luxury legacy space. I'll link that above for you to watch after this video. A quick definition on what I mean by new age luxury. Anything really postco is what I would say or categorize as new age luxury. Another definition I do want to clarify when I say legacy luxury brands. This basically includes Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, Fendy, Weissell, Hermes, Seline, and then the list goes on, but they have been around for quite a bit and their names are very recognizable. This includes, but not limited to the new exorbitant inflated prices, poor quality and or lack of quality control, terrible service, terrible afterare service, false scarcity, lack of innovation or creativity. This is the general consensus, but it's not an overall blanket statement for every brand. And everything I say today is my own opinion, experience, and analysis. Since I've been playing in this world, so to speak, for over 15 years, I'm not just going to be a Debbie Downer. Hopefully, I can insert some light and give credit where credit is due. There is still some great work out there, and I will recognize that. So, let's get right into it.

[00:01:25]Now, we've talked at length about how all of these legacy brands are just making terrible mistakes left and right for the past, I want to say five or so years. For example, Louis Vuitton, the Miraami Debacco, where pieces are arriving wonky. Some of them look like they were clearly used or returned items that were shipped out as new items.

[00:01:45]Inconsistent special packaging, which is why everybody loved the whole entire line in the first place. Dior's labor exploitation and how one of their bags only cost $79, which most people thought it was the book tote, which I don't I'm pretty sure the book tote costs way more to produce. Did we ever find out which bag they actually were referring to?

[00:02:07]Drop a comment down below if you know.

[00:02:10]Speaking of the book tote, there was an issue with the book tote. The glue and how it was yellowing and it became crusty. That was another issue with the book tote itself. Balenciaga having that obscene campaign. Like, let's not even talk about that because it was just so ridiculous. And of course, Chanel's forever quality issues and basically gaslighting their fans. That one campaign they released about behind the scenes and making of the classic flap, they tried to do the same thing as Hermes and it completely backfired and became the laughingtock for months. And after all of that, it makes you pause and wonder. It's like, why? Why are you like this? For us who have loved luxury handbags for many, many years, I feel like I have to defend all of the stupid that these companies are doing. I got my friends who aren't into luxury bags sending me realels and articles about the drama and asking me about it.

[00:03:08]I'm like, "Dude, I don't know. I can give you my opinion on it, but girl, I don't have a direct line to Balenciaga or Chanel and be like, "Yo, can you stop what you're doing? Like, stop embarrassing yourself." But I have to be fair. We do live in an age of social media. Drama and tea spreads like wildfire. I'm sure every company at the end of the day have their own problems.

[00:03:31]If you've been in this industry or just doing anything long enough, problems will happen. We're all human at the end of the day, right? It's just that back in the day, we don't have social media and the speed of the internet of passing information like this is completely non-existent, right? Yes. To all of you Jenzers who might be watching this video, we used to read monthly magazines or daily newspapers or nothing at all.

[00:03:56]Uh and just rely on word of mouth to get any kind of information. But then again, with information that you see online, don't believe everything you see. So, it's kind of like give and take and you just have to make your own analysis.

[00:04:10]Read up all of the information. Again, I'm not trying to preach to you based on experience. Just take everything with a grain of salt. Obviously, it's also like people are saying like, "Oh, more murders and kidnappings are happening today." I'm just like, is it though? I'm sure there was just as many back in the day, if not more. you just don't hear about it as much since information wasn't as well documented and it doesn't get to people as fast or as abundant.

[00:04:36]All that to say, it honestly doesn't change the way I feel about Legacy Luxury. I will still look and appreciate them, but I'm not running to the store to drop my hard-earned money on these purses, right? None of you are. I'm sure you guys are all just window shopping at this point. Let's get to the most offensive and the biggest turnoff about legacy luxury in my opinion. It basically comes down to the price increases. I'm sorry. When you increase your prices 100% from 2020 to 2026, yes, I'm looking at you Chanel, but it's kind of applicable to all the brands across the board, just not as aggressive as Chanel. It's really offensive and insulting because you think your customers are schmucks.

[00:05:25]>> [laughter] >> I understand what they're doing. They rather sell less quantity and make a higher profit margin per unit. The ultimate two goals, again, this is all my opinion. They're looking to achieve here is one, price it so high so less people can afford it. Hence, there are less of these bags in circulation out there. Which leads me to goal number two. Because the prices are out of majority of people's budget and or willingness to spend on a handbag or shoes or whatever they sell, only the high- netw worth folks generally can swing that kind of disposable income on something as frivolous as handbags, which in turn switches on the exclusivity and the status symbol.

[00:06:07]Again, I'm picking on Chanel, but again is not limited to just them, but majority of legacy brands out there.

[00:06:14]Chanel is the focused case study in this conversations because it's just so obvious. What Chanel is doing is playing the long game. It has and continues to hurt them in the short term. However, what they're banking on is that everybody nowadays has a short-term memory. We all have the attention span of a squirrel. [laughter] And how they alleviate that pain of drop in sales currently is making up for it by the beauty department. If you have been to the mall recently, you probably have noticed a lot of Chanel boutiques have been popping up left and right.

[00:06:50]They opened 48 new stores in 2025 and they're doing it at the perfect time.

[00:06:56]That was part of their strategy and them predicting the markets and economic stake is probably not it. They just are at the right time, right place when it's focusing on the Chanel beauty. History has told us in tough economic times, the luxury beauty industry generally performs exceptionally well because spending $250 on a Chanel rafia gift tote with a bunch of lipsticks and makeup that comes along with it is better than spending $5,500 on a Chanel mini. It's a brilliant strategy if you ask me. There's only one problem with that plan, one glaring problem. Your bags are trash. [laughter] Was that PC? No, not at all. Sorry, but not sorry. Logically, you would think that the price increases also means that the quality and the materials used increased too, right? Wrong. The only logical assumption is that the quality at least it stayed the same. Also wrong.

[00:07:55]The quality has gone the opposite direction and yes, it's going downwards.

[00:08:00]It's not progress. No, no, it's regress at this point and we all know how that's going. And I don't need to sound like a broken record, but based on my personal experience the past year or so. Mandy and I went to a Chanel store in France or is it Monaco? It's one of those, I can't recall. But the point is that we were walking through the store just to check out some of their new seasonal colors. And I will admit that Chanel does a great job with their seasonal colors and just new colors in general.

[00:08:27]So, we wanted to check it out and we were just walking around. She pointed out, she's like, "Does that Chanel classic flap look crooked to you?" And it's not just one. She pointed out like two or three of them. We were just like very quiet about it. I'm just like, "Dude, it's so bad." [laughter] The essay who was following us around was like, "Oh, it's meant to be that way." The two of us just like looked at each other and just like, "Uh-huh. Okay.

[00:08:50]Either you need to get your eyes checked or two, I am so sorry. I feel so bad for you because you are forced to gaslight people or else you're never going to make a sale because it's not just one or two, it's a lot of them that had crooked flaps. I mean, how does that even make it past quality control? So, circling back to the whole price kind of conversation. $11,000 on a classic flap MSRP for a bag is just asinine. You know what? Let me go on another rant here. The whole concept of MSRP is BS. What does MSRP stand for?

[00:09:25]Manufacturer suggested retail price.

[00:09:27]It's a fictitious number that they made up. It's their perceived value. It's not just Chanel. It's like entire consumer market. Which is why I'm like always buy less than retail, right? That's why things go on sale. If you go on most shopping websites, they immediately give you a 10 to 15% off your first order.

[00:09:45]You could say that that could be the consumer acquisition cost. No, that's already built into the MSRP because they want to make sure that you feel like you're being treated well by getting a 10 or 15% off. Again, this is just a marketing thing. Is it wrong? No. It's just that we need to understand that MSRP is just a number that they made up.

[00:10:06]Then there are also holiday sales where they do 20, 30, 40% off. Do you think they're operating at a loss? Probably not. I mean, they might break even, but they're probably not operating at a loss. Especially the ones that will host these sales like clockwork. Every holiday, Memorial Day, Mother's Day, whatever, they host it like clockwork.

[00:10:27]That means they have built the MSRP retail price and with those sales coming up in mind. The true value is on the secondary or grade market. That's why when you buy a new car and the second you take it off the lot, it drops 30%.

[00:10:41]It's the same concept. Again, as a reminder, this is not a one-sizefititall statement because I know you're going to say, Nikki, the Birken doubles, if not triples in resale value immediately when you leave the store with that bag or goyard. That's like the top 1% of luxury handbags and also depends on the condition, color, leather, etc. Not every single quota bag increases in value. There are always exception to every rule. Coming back to the price to value ratio based on my conversations with you, I can say I am not the only one where we've hit that breaking point on our willingness to pay $10,000 for a bag that is made of brass and questionable craftsmanship. If you think about it, even if it was superb quality and craftsmanship, I think we are all somewhat comfortable paying the $3 to $5,000 range for a luxury handbag because we appreciate the heritage and of course we are paying for the name and I'm well aware of that, which is I'm okay with. But when it goes above that $5,000 mark, the price to ratio is basically out the window. I will give credit where credit is due. YSL is the only brand where they saw that they have gone overboard and decide to lower their prices. Let me know if there is another brand that also lowered their prices that I am missing. But this is what we call a market correction. They've basically overvalued themselves and now they're coming back to earth and it's like, okay, we've gone a little crazy and let's move the prices down so that people are still willing to pay for our purses at a reasonable cost. And just to wrap up this conversation, I literally can go for hours at this point and I keep saying I want to go over the new releases and my thoughts on them with you. Now I'm going to have to make a third video on that. But I think this is an important conversation to have.

[00:12:30]Again, everything is my opinion. I want to hear from you. Drop me in the comments down below how you feel and what are some of the points that I didn't cover. I I don't want to make this whole entire conversation turn into an economics lesson, but and I literally fell asleep through economics class in middle, high school, college, whatever.

[00:12:49]And here I am just like my brain is just applying to the things I love and talking about it in a business sense.

[00:12:56]And of course, gathering all my thoughts and spitting them out in a way that makes sense to all of you. And I did say this before, 2026 is the era of mid-range contemporary brands, indie or large conglomerates like Coach and Tapestry. Most people are happy and willing to pay for that price to value ratio is around the $500 mark. My channel does focus on the independent brands, the mid-range luxury. If you are new, I have a whole entire playlist that you can go down and go check it out. For those of you who are returning, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you are willing to come back on a weekly basis and have conversations with me about pretty frivolous handbags. Subscribe if you are new to my channel and hit that notification bell so that you don't miss all of the great content I have planned and coming up. Hit that hype button for me. Apparently, that is like the coolest new thing to do. That will help my channel out so that I can reach a bigger audience who enjoy mid-range and just conversation about buying luxury in a very smart way. I got some travel coming up as well. Life is hard. I want to help you save time and money so that you can somehow easier and hopefully less than retail. I'll see you all next time.