“The whole body turned red”: Russian women mourned the departed foreign clothing stores

The huge queues that lined up in front of the stores of H&M, an international chain of popular but very inexpensive things, that opened for the last sale, became the main topic of Moscow last week. Those who looked at photos of these queues on social networks were perplexed: they say, can some clothes really be worth a three-hour wait? Is there really such a longing for Western values ​​embodied in T-shirts?..

However, those who have really decided to stand in this queue are ready to explain – calmly, balanced and pragmatically, without slogans and ideology – why they are not yet satisfied with the replacements that the Russian market is ready to offer, and why they are ready to spend time waiting .

Impact on children and adolescents

Many Muscovites note the indispensability of children’s clothing: according to them, it was Western giants like H&M, ZARA or Uniqlo that made a separate full-fledged niche out of children’s clothes – in fact, miniature analogues of adult outfits, stylish, but at an affordable price. Moscow parents note that children’s clothing of the same quality, but Russian-made, is a rarity, for which you will have to pay a considerable price.

Elena, 43 years old: “My goal is teenage underwear. Look, I have my personal teenager who is perfect for H&M lingerie. If I wait in line, I’ll buy her 3 bras for a year and close the problem. If I do not stand in line, then I will spend much more time with fittings in other stores. For myself, I’ll take, for example, a summer skirt: in general, you don’t have to try it on very much, if you always wore the 46th size, then this time it will definitely fit.

Polina, 26 years old: “I stood in this line for children’s clothes, I bought my daughter for growth 2-3 years in advance. We don’t sew like that. Even with the increase in prices, the cost is more adequate than in many other stores, even during the sales period.

Olga, 28: “I stood behind children’s clothing on the first day of the sale. The reasons? Our firms do not sew on thin children. I did not find an adequate replacement for 5 months. Parachute briefs and jeans that fall off a child – yes, normal patterns for thin people – no. Moreover, the prices at full cost there were now lower than some of our and non-our firms are doing at the sale.

Natalia, 38 years old: “I took trousers for school there (they were positioned as just basic trousers for a girl). One day we went with a frustrated senior who was teased at school for unfashionable things. She dressed a child for 5000: a dress, leggings, a sweater, a blouse, something else. Quite democratic.”

Elena, 35 years old: “We spent the whole day through two large shopping centers in search of school trousers and shirts for our sons. They did not find anything because they are very thin with us. Last year, before school, all the clothes and shoes were bought at H&M. Because only Slim Fit trousers and skinny shirts sit on the sons. Tailoring in other stores is bag-shaped, does not sit on them. I don’t know where to buy clothes for them now.”

Evgenia, 29: “I seriously felt the lack of Uniqlo when I was looking for a gift for a teenage girl: she asked for a plain hoodie and a plaid shirt. It would seem that what a simple request … however, I spent about two hours of shopping to satisfy it. At the same time, I remember exactly that last year the same request in Uniqlo was satisfied in 15 minutes.

According to respondents, the advantage of foreign networkers is in a huge number of basic things-functions. They could also satisfy teenage girls: a large selection of inexpensive, but at the same time relevant to the latest trends in clothing that parents of schoolchildren and dependent students were quite willing to spend money on.

The trend for the season – and the price matches the quality

Of course, the human factor and personal attachments always remain at the forefront – there will always be those who, in one of the departed stores, found their perfect jeans, a jacket that fits exactly the figure, a successful model of underwear … in a word, anything! Of course, consumer behavior is a purely personal sphere, and most people rely on personal preferences when they say that they feel sorry for a brand or not. However, there are also patterns.

Those who do not consider themselves to be fans of imported giants are accustomed to reproaching manufacturers with an insufficient level of quality: they say, they are all synthetics, the seams are crooked, the sweater is covered with spools … what is there to miss here ?! But the speakers of this class do not take into account an important nuance: these manufacturers do not set themselves the goal of sewing good-quality clothes “for centuries”. Their niche is completely different: things that are in line with trendy trends that are dynamically changing – and, most likely, they will be replaced by others next year.

“Such stores were interesting precisely because of their quick response to trends,” explains stylist and fashion blogger Oksana Polyakova in an interview with an MK correspondent. “Everything that only managed to get a hint of popularity in high fashion immediately appeared in these stores, and at affordable prices. If you need a base, then you should wait for sales. Today, in the era of final sales, this function is disappearing: stores have opened after a long break, there are no sharp trends there anymore.

It would seem that keeping up with trends is not such a difficult task, but Russian manufacturers turned out to be too tough for it. They took two paths: those who relied on decent quality raised prices and created collections in the spirit of “eternal classics”, while those who tried to keep the cost of goods at an affordable level clearly sacrificed quality. This was also told by the interlocutors of “MK”.

Alena, 24 years old: “When I look at things of Russian brands and at the same time of decent quality, I see only one image: a young careerist 32–33 years old, a business woman, very wealthy. A lot of things are sewn for her – plain trouser suits, cashmere sweaters at the price of my monthly salary, flying pastel dresses … Probably, these are “eternal” things, this is a classic, yes. But if you are a young girl or, say, a mother on maternity leave, you simply have nothing to buy from Russian brands. I don’t want an investment sweater for 35 thousand rubles, I want a trendy jumper for a couple of seasons.”

Ksenia, 27 years old: “I miss interesting, fashionable things. Recently, I was going to a birthday party, pulled everything out of the closet and realized that there was nothing new, but there was nowhere to buy it. Everything that is available from our brands is very expensive – I can’t afford it. Even basic items cost so much that they cannot be considered as consumables, rather they are an investment, but such things should not be investments.”

Julia, 30 years old: “I have a typical figure, jeans from the mass market fit perfectly. Many things made of organic cotton could be bought for good money. And I was sure that by throwing things from these stores into the laundry, I would not spoil them and paint neighboring things. I’m not sure about that when I buy something nameless and obscure.”

Irina, 30 years old: “On the advice of a friend, I bought a dress and a suit by a Russian designer: a beautiful color and inexpensive, well, synthetics. How many washes have passed, but things still color the skin! When I took off my dress for the first time, I got scared: my whole body was red! By the way, once I washed this burgundy suit along with a gray T-shirt, he dyed it too. Is that quality?

Is patriotism expensive?

Another stumbling block is the inaccessibility of Russian clothing, and not even financially (although many people also talk about this), but physical: domestic brands do not shout about their existence, and potential buyers must know exactly where and what they can buy. Until recently, the things of Russian manufacturers were quite niche – for connoisseurs: this was told in an interview with an MK correspondent by image maker Zhannat Idrisova.

– Many people miss the shopping process itself. Domestic designers have not yet entered the shopping center, they need to be specifically looked for in small showrooms, at exhibitions-fairs, at creative sites in loft quarters, in individual stores. It is much more difficult, longer, and it is psychologically unusual. People just don’t understand how to shop now,” Idrisova explained.

The era when the words “imported” and “foreign” were considered synonymous with chic has successfully passed – a completely different generation has grown up in modern Moscow, which is accustomed to considering international trade an integral part of life (and at the same time is used to the fact that in Moscow you can go to the same store that in Paris, New York or Tokyo). Therefore, today the issue is not imaginary elitism, and certainly not the habit of throwing money away. Rather the opposite. Many Russian women embarrassedly admit that they simply cannot afford things of domestic production …

Lyudmila, 35 years old: “Over the past six months, I have found Russian clothes for myself. Yes, beautiful and high-quality fabric, but … prices are at least 2, or even 3 times higher. I’m just waiting for Turkish and Chinese brands, industrial ones, to appear on the market to take the place of those who have left. Production is expensive for Russians, so they are forced to set wild prices.”

Alisa, 33 years old: “I agree that our fashion is developing. Now I find a lot of interesting things from our designers, it’s interesting to go to their boutiques. But here’s a caveat: our designers have quite high prices. Maybe that’s why people react this way to the care of imported things? They simply can’t afford the Russians?”

Nina, 29 years old: “Even last year there was a reason to think. I bought a homemade waffle dressing gown in a Swedish chain store for 1999 rubles. A few weeks later I saw exactly the same from the Russian brand – already for 5999 rubles. Really the same, also cotton, the same patterns. So what should make me support a domestic manufacturer? Patriotism?”

Lyubov, 32 years old: “If we compare things of the same level and quality, then Russian ones are, as a rule, 2-3 times more expensive than foreign ones. For example, a basic wool sweater costs at least 10,000 rubles, and at Uniqlo you could buy it for 3,000. Beautiful clothes were affordable for most, now they will become a luxury.”

As image maker Zhannat Idrisova explained to MK, the high cost of Russian-made brands is explained by several objective factors:

– The point is primarily in production: it is more expensive. Firstly, most often the equipment is imported, it needs to be purchased and then maintained in good condition, and this is not cheap. Secondly, the material – for worthy brands, for the most part, it is also foreign: both fabrics and accessories. Some brands, I know, completely “sit” on the Italian texture – silk, viscose, even polyester are pleasant for them. Therefore, it is expensive. And before the crisis it was not cheap, but now the materials have completely jumped in price. Well, if the equipment and material were not born here, then, of course, logistics is also included in the price.