If shoppers learned anything yesterday, it’s that we all can’t be winners. As Target stores across the country opened their doors yesterday at 8am, the Lilly for Target release went virtually unseen. With items completely selling out and flying off shelves in less than 10 minutes at my local Target, you have to wonder what strategy was actually employed in this collaboration. In my eyes, Lilly for Target was a smart partnership in which Target, an affordable, decent quality brand, paired with Lilly Pulitzer, a beach-inspired, high-end designer, to create an appropriate middle ground between low-cost, mass-produced clothing and the seemingly inaccessible look, feel, and cost of elite fashion. Not a surprise, I find most Lilly Pulitzer patterns repulsive – something that you’d be forced to wear on Easter Sunday in the 90s or what you’d sit on at a picnic. A few patterns, however, have come along that have caught my eye and truly do not compare to other cuts, color combinations, and textures on the market. Thus, I have splurged occasionally on sale items and ISO (in search of) items on re-sale pages. While I wasn’t head over heels for the Lilly for Target line, the Nosie Posey pattern, in particular, got my attention.
In reality, however, it is not as though my interest in the new line mattered – all items were swept off shelves in minutes and the online site crashed and sold out also within a matter of hours, with no intention of being restocked. Sure, Lilly Pulitzer likely only signed this contract with Target with the intention of producing a limited number of items, but it goes without saying that the two companies KNEW consumers would act in such a way. Such a way meaning lining up outside of Target stores hours before opening, re-sellers taking armfuls off racks to mark up on eBay, and generating TONS of digital media and buzz on the topic. All this noise leads me to believe that the launch of Lilly for Target was truly NOT about making designer items accessible for individuals without bottomless wallets, but rather a SMART business move on behalf of these companies to gross millions of dollars in a matter of a few hours. Essentially, without the chance of restocking, Lilly for Target is almost just as exclusive and unreachable as the Lilly Pulitzer brand itself. Can’t say I blame them – but that doesn’t mean I’m not bitter that I didn’t get a piece of the action.
Just for fun, I perused some eBay listings (upwards of 20,000…) this morning to see what some of the items on my wish list were selling for. One top in the Nosie Posey print that I really wanted was being listed for $100 or more when it retailed for $22. Ultimately, consumers could end up paying more for the Lilly for Target brand than actual Lilly Pulitzer items, regardless of the difference in quality of materials and manufacture. I’ll definitely continue to browse resale Facebook pages in the coming weeks to see if I can get my hands on a few items for the price for which they were intended to be sold…
