"Phantom" Clothes, Price Unknown...

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“Phantom” Clothes, Price Unknown…
By Eric Wilson

A few weeks ago, the editors of Vogue responded to the unfolding global economic crisis
with a gesture that was both practical and, for Vogue, magnanimous: a gift guide for its
December issue in which all of the featured goodies cost less than $500.

A price threshold of $500 will likely have novelty appeal to longtime readers of fashion
glossies like Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Elle, who have become numb to the ever-
inflating and sometimes inexplicable prices of luxury goods. A Marc Jacobs handbag
costs $1,095. A Derek Lam trench is $2,490. A Chanel jumpsuit costs $8,820. And for
some items, the magazines don't even bother listing the prices, the presumption being
that, really, if you have to ask. ...

On Page 302 of the November issue of Harper's Bazaar, for example, the model
Mariacarla Boscono walks the streets of New York in a Balmain minidress, which the
magazine lists at $19,000, and a stunning pair of platform heels direct from Versace's fall
runway, the price of which, the reader is told, is available "upon request." If the dress
costs more than a Pontiac, could the sticker price of the shoes be too shocking to reveal?
Are times so bad that some prices are so ridiculously high as to be unmentionable to just
anyone?

Actually, yes and no. Judging by the number of times the words "price upon request"
have appeared in recent issues of some magazines (104 in the October issue of Elle),
referring to items ranging from a $350 red motorcycle jacket from Betsey Johnson to a
$1.95-million diamond necklace from Van Cleef & Arpels, something is afoot. And on
the face of it, there is little rhyme or reason as to which prices are listed and which must
be requested. Calls to stores over the last week to do just that revealed a more-surprising
truth: most of the unpriced items were never available for purchase.

"Unfortunately, the shoes you saw were never produced," said a Versace customer
service agent who answered the phone number listed in Harper's Bazaar.

It was the same story for a pair of Sergio Rossi heels and a Vivienne Westwood cape and
gown that appeared in the October Bazaar, as it was for a Roberto Cavalli goat-fur coat in
the October Vogue, and for an embroidered Chloé skirt in the October Elle. Regarding a
pair of metal suspenders from Lowluv by Erin Wasson, which appeared in that issue of
Elle, a saleswoman at Kiki de Montparnasse, the store readers were directed to call, said
it didn't carry the line.

Out of 30 items for which prices were requested, 21 were not available at the stores at
which they were listed.

Two editors at different fashion publications, who would not speak publicly because they
did not want to embarrass their employers, said "price upon request" was usually a
misnomer. It has become a euphemism used to credit designs that were never produced
for sale. It is appearing more commonly, they said, for a clear reason: less and less
runway fashion is actually being produced.

Retailers are now buying more heavily from designers' preseason collections. Though
preseason clothes are often less eye-catching and trendy than the runway collections, they
arrive sooner and typically sell better. But magazine editors still want to show the sexier
stuff. It is not surprising, then, that readers have noticed a disconnect between what is
promoted in magazines and what appears in stores, and wonder if "price upon request" is
out of control.

"If you can't say what it is, because it's actually nonexistent, why bother showing it?" said
Debi Greenberg, the owner and buyer for Louis Boston. "That is very alienating to me
and, I'm sure, to a lot of people. They are showing a lot of buffoonery that is so over the
top that readers are saying to themselves: 'Are they actually telling me this is what I
should be wearing? And they don't even put a price on it?' "

But magazines are not catalogs. Erin Kaplan, a spokeswoman for Elle, said that its editors
often photograph collections within days of the runway shows and that the designers give
the most accurate pricing information available at the time. That may include stores
where a designer's collection is carried, if not the featured item.

"We say 'price upon request' when an item isn't produced because the designer will make
the item at cost, if they decide to, depending on interest," she said.

There were only a handful of items in recent issues of Vogue without clear prices, but
that is because the magazine has a policy to always publish the price, with the exception
of couture and some special items.

It may seem strange that stores would want customers directed to merchandise they do
not possess. Agatha Szczepaniak, a spokeswoman for Betsey Johnson, said that the full-
page photograph of the red jacket in Bazaar had resulted in almost daily customer
inquiries at the stores. "It's very positive in that we get calls from people of all different
sorts, from the affluent to the fashion forward," she said. In that case, the price of the
jacket wasn't available before the magazine went to print.

Some stores that were contacted had the magazines, and the answers, on hand. A
salesman at Alexander McQueen knew that the price of a custom-made cape worn by the
actress Emma Watson in Bazaar was $60,000 and that it could be made in other colors. A
Fendi mink bag with a snowflake motif was ready and waiting at the store for $9,500. But
others were more difficult: A customer-service representative at the number listed for the
Dolce & Gabbana herringbone gown in the October issues of Vogue and Bazaar did not
return calls, but a spokeswoman at the brand's corporate headquarters (someone who
would not be accessible to the public) said the dress was $35,165. To get the price of the
Van Cleef & Arpels necklace, a caller had to give his full name and identify himself as
either a news media member or a potential client before the details were revealed.

Elle's policy is especially confusing. Items from Chanel's new fine-jewelry collection are
listed as "price upon request" on the pages where they appear, but flip to a shopping
guide in the back and there they are, like the answers to a crossword puzzle: $136,000 to
$610,000.

It is not entirely clear what readers are to make of other images, like one in the November
Bazaar that shows a Giorgio Armani jacket for $6,195 with a barely visible skirt, and
directs the reader to the Armani store in New York. A salesman there was at a loss to
guess which skirt it could be. Or in the winter fashion issue of T: The New York Times
Style Magazine, in which the "price on request" sweater worn by Carla Bruni is credited
to MaxMara. The photograph is a head shot; Bruni could have been wearing a bikini.

Perhaps the oddest example appears in the October Bazaar, which includes a page
dedicated to a $1,345 coat, also from MaxMara, with detachable parts that are priced
separately — a fur collar is $315, a cuff is $360, the magazine noted, but an extendable
sleeve is "price upon request."

It turns out that if you buy the $1,345 coat, MaxMara will throw in the sleeves free.
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Laughing