Revenge buying has become the topic du jour in the luxury fashion world. Especially when Hermes in China recorded a $ 2.7 million in sales on the day it reopened recently. But revenge against whom or what? Maybe the restrictions of lockdown, living a forced austere life or just missing your high of good ol’ retail therapy. ‘Revenge buying’ or rather ‘revenge spending’ is the overindulgence in retail therapy by consumers who have missed shopping at their favourite outlets thanks to the lockdown.
Besides Hermes, in China people queued up outside Apple, Gucci, Lancome among others. But will the same effect be seen in India once lockdown 3.0 gets underway? Even as the liquor sales prove otherwise, fashion pundits say that Indians are going to hold on to their money – at least for this year. Sunil Sethi, chairman, Fashion Design Council of India says, “If I think from the head and the heart, my heart says that there should be revenge buying in India and I know fashion world would welcome this move. But the head says that this will not be the case for India because we as Indians in times of crisis move away from what we would call wasteful expenditure.”
How Indians spend
An article in The Economic Times mentioned that Indian and China are “not apples to apples comparison”. Agrees designer Ritu Kumar. The Hermes figures gave everyone hope but Kumar says, “The Chinese very prone to luxury buying. And high luxury anyway is not guided by budget constraints. Indians, traditionally, prefer to save.” According to her what you might see are people definitely thronging to the malls and shops as they get out of lockdown, but that may not translate to sales.
Sethi agrees and adds that our culture doesn’t allow us to be spendthrifts and squander away our money. As the lockdown nears completion, you may have noticed people talking more and more about buying – clothes, bags, shoes, etc. So most pundits expect a bit of revenge buying to happen at the moment but there’s also a big wave of people shopping their own closet.
Discover your closet
Living in isolation for the past 40 days has made us all mini Marie Kondos and most – if not all – have already assessed our wardrobes thanks to various decluttering and ‘what sparks joy’ exercises. Instagram posts stand testimony to the fact how people have rediscovered age-old clothes lying at the back and some that now surprisingly fit. Sethi also adds that you can indulge in revenge buying but where will you show off your new purchase because going forward the social distancing norms are going to be as stringent for some time. “Where are the events and parties – at least not for another year,” he says. What will definitely happen is more conscious buying after careful thought, because people are not in the mood to let go of their money.
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