I agree that the $$$ is crazy. Hopefully most everyone who reads them think the same thing, and if you have $10,000 to pay for a watch or coat, you probably aren't reading the magazine to get the ideas.
This year for the first time I've bought a number of copies of InStyle and some other fashion magazines --not that I've never bought fashion mag's before, but I really perused these intentionally to compare to my wardrobe items, to see what looks I thought would work on me, what I already like that miraculously seems to be in style--trying to be much more analytical on what kinds of this and that keep an outfit looking up to date.
But the prices--of course I know they're all just a series of ads, but--8k purses, 3k coats, $500 top, 2k watch, etc. Yes, I still can identify the "look" and shop it at a lower price point, but it almost makes me ill.
I was in the market for a kind of handbag-briefcase-tote and saw an ad in the back pages of one of these magazines. That one looks perfect! I thought. There was enough info to Google up and lo and behold--$1,100 or some such. Hmmm!
My favorite sections are often those high vs. low price options that you describe, and I agree that both "high" and "low" seem to be getting higher. I think only the magazines like maybe Family Circle or similar, which only have a page or 2 of fashion per issue, still show options from Target and Gap and Penneys and so forth.
What seems ironic to me now is that I'm at an age and income where I can certainly buy "investment" pieces if I want to, but I'm at the same time more aware that items become tiresome sooner that I might have thought, and I have never had any label or "status"-envy at all-( I do swoon over beautiful fabrics and fit, at any price) and I'm at the age where I may change jobs or semi-retire over the next 5-10 years and so could experience a shift in wardrobe focus, wants or needs, so there aren't too many items of clothing that seem worth even $500 ( maybe the perfect blazer, or outerwear but again, I'm wondering if I'll still be in love 5 years from now) to me, let alone thousands. Now, I do see a big difference between improving my past habits of buying multiple semi-useful 19.99 TJMaxx items/mistakes vs walking out of a department or specialty store paying full price for something that fit great and I really love.
