Collaborate away, Nine West

So, it looks as though the next (desperate?) brand to jump on the Collaboration bandwagon is Nine West. This surprises me, because unlike Target, La Redoute, or H&M, they don't have a particularly strong image to try to upgrade. See, I've always looked at Nine West as a decent brand that doesn't quite get strengths and weaknesses--as in, their shoes are strong, and their clothes are weak. Frankly, I think that they should just get rid of the clothing line altogether, and focus on turning out more, and more, and even more shoes. I love the way that they can just crank out new shoe designs at a shockingly rapid pace and keep them relatively cheap, and always very stylish.

Because of that, I'm somewhat surprised that a collaboratoin is fiscally necessary (because it's almost always a financial move) for them to stay afloat. I like their design choices--you can already look at the shoes from their collaboration with Vivienne Westwood online, and Thakoon Panichgul and Sofia Kokosalaki are on the way. It's cool that they chose brands that you can't just get in upper-class department stores, but it's not cool that the prices are what you would expect to pay in an upper-class department store. Most designer collaborations have benefitted the collaborating brands by getting them media attention and getting them business, and the reason WHY they get business and media attention is that collaborating allows them to do what they couldn't necessarily do alone--either have a name-bransy line, OR, more importantly for those of us who are buying, sell clothing at price that's accessible to a wider audience. I understand that the Nine West collaborations are designers that haven't done shoes before, but there's really no specific benefit for the consumers--I mean, for $375 a pop (and, admittedly, sometimes more and sometimes less), these designers could sell a shoe line without Nine West!

I will admit, though, that I like what I've seen of the collection. The shoes look good--but that doesn't mean I'll buy.