big ben big apple: Summer Sale Edit '14: ZARA

Monday 28 July 2014

Summer Sale Edit '14: ZARA

Zara used to be a simple brand- essentially, it emulated an iconic capsule collection consisting of a few key shapes, styles and items which were re-released each season. The way they kept it fresh and relevant was simply to change the colour and pattern of these pieces, depending on trends forecasted from the international bi-annual catwalks. Recently (and by recently I mean in the past three or four years), Zara has become a lot more mainstream, and a consequence of this is that the quality of their products has unfortunately decreased. For the same price to the consumer, what was once leather and silk has now been swapped for polyurethane and polyester. Zara became no different to any other mass-produced high street chain.

On the other hand, I can still see the appeal of this popular brand. The people behind Zara always seem to keep on top of current fashion trends- many of their cult items are regularly sold out, and re-sold on eBay for a much higher price, sometimes for up to 800% the original RRP. It is also a store praised for its designer 'dupes', making luxury high-end fashion accessible for all. Here I have picked a few items from their summer sale which I think are key winners- pieces that are wearable and timeless, and that are valid for the remaining summer months and that can transition into the Autumn too.