Shaya, my nineteen year old daughter, is always bringing me clothing to fix, mostly night club gear. The buttons have fallen off, the hems have come down and the straps have snapped. These items of clothing are usually premium priced little numbers. One hit wonders that won’t live to see the bright lights of the dance room floor twice.
This poses a question, aren’t these little beauties a bit expensive for the quality?
I did bring up the possibility of Shaya learning to sew and making her own outfits which would be much better quality and far less expensive, to which she answered (somewhat surprised) why would I do that? I have you to fix!
I sometimes wonder if I’m all alone on a peninsula of inexplicable hope wondering why the vast majority of the populace don’t seem to mind paying exorbitant prices for crap! This becomes especially irritating when Australians seem so unprepared to pay for beautifully made handicrafts and artworks.
Please give me your feedback on this issue as I’m really interested to know if you do prefer to just grab something quickly from a chain store and take what comes, including poor workmanship and quality, which will also soon add to our landfill!
Or, do you value the handmade Australian item? Is branding (being well known) really important? Is price a factor? Because generally I see that artisans are keeping their prices so low that they can barely survive and yet they are still struggling to compete with crappy rubbish from the big retailers.
Do you find it hard to reach your local artisan? What could they do to improve their accessibility without causing further price rises (like using galleries)? If you knew of an artisan in your neighbourhood, would you approach them to buy work? Do you think there is a future for cottage industry in Australia?
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