On Friday 23 September 2005 4:31 pm, Gail & Scott Finke wrote: [snip] > This is not true in Europe, or at least it wasn't 10 years ago when I wrote > an article about Benneton for a retail magazine. The company had opened US > stores, but they failed miserably. They were trying to redo the stores, and > the person in charge told me that the company had misunderstood the > American market. Benneton sweaters, she told me, were considered > middle-priced clothing in Europe, while here they were considered expensive > (they were about $80 on sale then). The company was not geared to a "wear > it for a year or two and get rid of it" mentality. They expected people to > keep their Benneton clothes for a long time. > > She also explained that Benneton did not have any ladies' dress jackets, > and that this was a staple of American women's work wardrobes (dress > blouse, dress skirts, and dress jackets, all of them mix and match). She > said that in Europe, women wore a lot more dresses to work, and a lot more > matching suits.
Interesting. The Benetton store near my office in Philadelphia does have ladies' dress jackets, though that may simply be an accommodation to the American market. > > Benneton was designed for people who have fewer, nicer clothes, and who > keep them longer. It could not compete as it was with the American market > for a LOT of less expensive clothes. I don't know what it's like now... I have *not* been impressed with the quality of the merchandise I've seen in their Philadelphia store. Reasonably good construction, but most of the garments--even the sweaters--seem very thin. I bought several Benetton sweaters last winter on sale. Although they are attractive and comfortable, if I wore them as often as I wear some of my work sweaters, they'd barely last one season before wearing through at the elbows. -- Cathy Raymond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "As a general rule, if end users want to smash something repeatedly with a sledgehammer, that's a sign of bad UI."--Bram Cohen _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
