How to find value in the era of the €200,000 coat
Veteran department store buyer and personal stylist Anna Berkeley on why value is hard to find and what to do about it
Even if I say so myself, I think that I have exquisite taste. I mean I was a contributing writer at British GQ in the good old days (working at Condé Nast during that period would make anyone delusional), and before that I had a column in Esquire and was a regular contributor to Mr Porter, all in the service of helping men to dress better. I also worked in the copy departments of creative agencies Spring Studios and Winkreative. All of these were places where overbearing aestheticism was considered part of the job description. So surely, I could be a buyer for a nice department store? You, as a reader of Dark Luxury might think that you could too. I mean, you just have to choose nice things, right?
Wrong! I found out just how wrong when I spoke to Anna Berkeley, who has worked in the fashion industry for almost 30 years, first as a womenswear buyer for 21 years, including a long stint at Selfridges during the successful reign of Vittorio Radice in the early 2000s, and currently as a personal stylist and journalist for The FT. She has also worked for brands ranging from Prada to Reiss on their merchandising and product range.
“There’s a lot more to it than just deciding to buy what you like,” she says when we meet in the cafe of the Wallace Collection, just behind the famous department store where she used to work. “You might see something and think, ‘Wow, that’s so beautiful but then you’re immediately, ‘Well, who’s going to wear that?’ It's a fight between heart and head”.
So what’s the biggest lesson she’s learned after so many years in the industry?