Hello Zara!

Zara Chadstone

Zara has opened this week at Melbourne's fashion capital, Chadstone Shopping Centre.  Over the past decade, Zara has become popular due to its ability to produce what is known as chic imitations of designer garments at high street prices.

This becomes the fourth store to open in Australia.  The Chadstone store is based on Zara's new store in New York.  Spacious and well lit with plenty of room to move around.

It's well laid out and beautifully merchandised.  Plenty of people milling about in there today trying things on, hanging about the counter waiting to purchase and others just having a look to see what all the fuss is about.

Creased!

I walked in to check it out and was really quite disappointed.  The staff looked exhausted and for the 10 minutes I was in the store early this afternoon, not one of them had a smile on their dial.

After a little on line research later today, I found an article where one woman mentioned her delight at the fact that nothing is made in China in a Zara store.

Everything I picked up was made in either China or Cambodia so I'm not sure what planet she was from .......

I scanned each and every rack in the women's section and did not find one garment that had been steamed after being extracted from its packing box.

Each garment was creased.  Given the effort put into the store layout, the hiring of security on the front door and the number of team members milling about to process purchases, it was a let down to see the condition of the garments.

Poor Quality

No doubt it's cheap.  But remember that you WILL get what you pay for.  Upon further inspection, many of the garments were poorly made.

Any garment that you choose to add to your collection must 'earn its rent' in your wardrobe.  It you don't love it, wear it and need to replace it, it simply IS NOT WORTH BUYING no matter what price.

Zara won't be on my destination list for clients who are looking to bring a few new pieces into their wardrobes.   I just don't see the value.

But maybe I just caught them on a bad day?