The price of quality

Sure, you could buy that $30 dress shirt and look presentable at the office. Or you can go to a high-end store and drop $230. Both will hold your tie in place and cover your arms. However, the similarities might end there.

In fashion, “you get what you pay for” applies in many — but not all — cases, says Leslie Davis Burns, chairwoman of the Department of Design and Human Environment at Oregon State University and author of the book “The Business of Fashion.”

Why the price difference? The main reasons are people and fabric, says Ms. Burns, who researches fashion theory and the consumer.

“When you look at a true designer collection, you are going to be getting specialty fabrics such as silk and cashmere,” she says. “You are going to be getting quality of workmanship.”

Better workmanship means more people were involved in making that shirt. The consumer is paying for the risks the designer has taken, more people on the research-and-development staff, and the better-trained tailor or seamstress. The consumer also is paying for time — a less expensive item can be stitched together in about two minutes; a higher-quality item may take two hours.

“The more expensive the shirt, the more custom the sizing,” Ms. Burns says. “It is just going to fit better. … Pretty much all shirts are stitched together in a factory. What you are paying for is the level of expertise of the operators. If it is going to take two hours, then the cost of the labor goes up as well.”

Over in the suit aisle, one can find the $5,000 item or the $200 item. This is an area where the differences can be found right away, she says.

“They really don’t look the same,” Ms. Burns says. “They may have a similar silhouette, or the skirt may be the same length, but they are different in other aspects of it — in terms of fabric and design details.”

Just jeans?

The rise in the popularity of premium jeans — a label used by the fashion industry on jeans that cost upward of $100 a pair — is a perfect example of price disparity. After all, denim is denim — made of cotton and sometimes a bit of stretch, but nary a thread of cashmere, silk or leather.

It is not that simple. To many shoppers, jeans have become works of art as well as a way to display status and physical fitness. Also, manufacturers have set the bar high; people are not balking at paying $200 a pair.

Sales of premium jeans by such labels as Rock & Republic, 7 for All Mankind and True Religion have risen exponentially in the past few years. True Religion, for instance, sold $2 million worth of jeans in 2003, its first year in business. Sales in 2006 were past the $109 million mark.

That’s a long way from Levi Strauss making durable pants to outfit gold miners.

Overall, the number of premium jeans sold doubled between 2004 and 2005 and is continuing to rise sharply, say data from the NPD Group, a market research firm.

Just as there are different levels of other fabrics, there are different qualities of denim, Ms. Burns says. However, what usually drives up the price is the way the jeans are treated, says Nicole Phelps, executive editor of Style.com, the online branch of Conde Nast magazines, including Vogue and W.

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