Buy a bundle!
HAVE YOU EVER fallen in unrequited love with a top/skirt/trousers? You love it in theory; but in reality you just don’t have a clue what you’d actually wear it with. If only you had a personal stylist to tell you what to pair with what. Well, now you have, sort of.
The trend for bundling (aka, selling items in kits, or full looks) is gaining momentum, with fashion brands trying to entice loyal customers. Leading the charge is Wardrobe.nyc, the brainchild of stylist and Australian Vogue fashion director Christine Centenera and designer Josh Goot, which sells haute essentials – perfect black tailoring, white tees, etc – that come in four- or eight-piece capsule ‘wardrobes’ rather than individual pieces.
Elsewhere, there’s fitness brand Outdoor Voices, which allows the customer to buy a full kit, as well as items on their own, while Yeezy Season 6 – as seen on the Kim K klones – was available for pre-order in bundles at the end of last year. (Makes sense, no doubt Kanye likes his vision untampered with.)
While the benefits of bundling are obvious for a brand (newsflash! Selling greater volume of product), customers are often incentivised by the lower price points offered when buying in bulk. ‘ What we wanted to do was allow people to access this quality of clothing within a reasonable price. I don’t think that these pieces exist in the market at this level of quality, at this price range,’ explains Christine. Wardrobe.nyc’s four-piece collection comes in at £1,250, which might sound steep, but these are forever pieces. ‘I think people are becoming aware of how much they consume generally. Wardrobe.nyc is the opposite of fast fashion,’ she adds. In other words: buy less, but buy better.
So, does this signal the end of personal style? Not at all. Think of bundle buying instead as saving time and streamlining your wardrobe – deal with the basics and you have more time to be creative. ‘ When designing the collection, we envisioned how people, including ourselves, can practically wear the clothes and weave them into their wardrobe in an organic way. The pieces work together, but they help form a basis for other fashion to be brought in,’ explains Christine. Think of these as your foundations – the seasoning is over to you.