Last Tuesday WWD reported that Chanel is about to increase prices for Chanel 2.55 flap bags, Boy bag and 11.12 bag by 20% in the European Union come April 8th while dropping them in China immediately.
Beeing a loyal fan of the brand for so many years I felt devastated. How the hell could they do something like that to all their European customers? Many of my friend had the same feelings and felt certainly a little betrayed. Having a more detailed look on the matter and discussing things with my husband I soon started discovering that there hasn’t been a real chance for Chanel! The Euro has dropped against the Dollar as much as 11% within recent times. Chanel and many other European luxury products have always been between 30 and 60% more expensive in China than in Europe. With the drop of the Euro the price difference has increased further. As a matter of fact the black market trade, which means people buying bags in Europe and reselling them in China has exploded. Of course not all of them traded with the real thing. Consequently, a huge mistrust against Chanel products had emerged in China, thus undermining the brand image on a global scale.
So Chanel might not have betrayed its European customers while trying to protect the brand image on a global scale, but certainly the price increase stimulates us Europeans to look around and search a little deeper to find options! In a previous post I already told you about the Boy bag, which is only 4 years old – so not a real heritage thing, and tried to show you some alternatives. Lets talk Chanel 2.55 this time!
This is likely to be one of my favorite fashion pictures as it combines my top style icon Emmanuelle Alt and my top handbag the Chanel 2.55 flap, picture https://www.pinterest.com/stylecloseup/emmanuelle-capucine-geraldine-co/
