When New York-based mannequin and influencer Wisdom Kaye went buying on the Italian fashion label Miu Miu and returned residence with a haul of garments he says he spent $18,000 on, he didn’t anticipate some of the gadgets would fall apart in entrance of his eyes.
In now-viral movies posted to his TikTok account, the place he counts over 13 million followers, Kaye will be seen unveiling his purchases from the model. In the first clip, posted to the social media platform in early September, he calls himself a “big Miu Miu fan” earlier than launching right into a scathing blow-by-blow of how some of his new purchases fell apart as he was unpacking them, saying: “As soon as I get home, everything broke.”
Among the clothes he had bought that day, one of many gold buttons on a denim vest jacket “came off the instant I opened it,” he stated on the video, demonstrating how he had unbuttoned the sleeveless garment. “I just opened it normally,” stated Kaye.
He then held up a brown sweater, additionally by Miu Miu, with a visibly damaged silver zip. Kaye stated he had “never gone and gotten multiple pieces from a place and things are just breaking as soon as I get home. This is genuinely f**king abysmal.”
Three days later, Kaye popped up on TikTok feeds once more. Miu Miu had supplied him the selection of a refund or alternative of the damaged gadgets, he defined in the new video, noting that he selected the latter and wished to unveil the brand new clothes to his followers. However, as he started to undo the buttons of his vest, a button fell off once once more. His mouth was broad in disbelief earlier than exclaiming: “There’s no way! This is unbelievable.”
Kaye shouldn’t be the one one taking their considerations to social media. In October, US-based dental hygienist Tiffany Kim shared a video on Instagram of a grey fleece jacket by Miu Miu and indicated {that a} drawstring had popped out of considered one of its sleeves. Some onlookers would possibly instantly assume that it was pure wear-and-tear, however Kim stated that she had solely bought it a month prior. While Miu Miu gives a restore service for its merchandise, some retailer areas require prospects to pay a payment. “It’s not even about the fee. I can pay the fee,” stated Kim. “I don’t want to pay the fee because I literally paid $2,000 for this jacket and I only wore it twice.”
Elsewhere, on X, a video posted by Elena Qiu in November reveals the Seattle-based designer trying to squeeze numerous objects into the heel of her leather-based split-toe tabi boots, to show its surprisingly hole inside. The shoe, by Maison Margiela, is without doubt one of the French avant-garde label’s most recognizable kinds. In the caption, Qiu stated she had bought the footwear for $1,000 and expressed disappointment that the heel wasn’t product of “stacked leather” however “hollow with plastic.”
“I felt so sad and disappointed when the shoe cap came off,” Qiu later advised NCS over e mail. “As a fashion designer myself, I understand how laborious artisanal craft is, and I don’t expect fashion to stay pristine after excessive wear, but these shoes were not worn excessively. I had worn them less than once a month, mostly for special occasions.” Asked what she ended up doing with the footwear, Qiu stated she took them to a cobbler to get the heel cap changed, however has since grow to be extra cautious about carrying them frequently and creating additional injury — “which defeats the purpose of why I bought them in the first place,” she stated.
These extensively circulated movies have since sparked outrage amongst social media customers, with some questioning the worth of high-end goods, particularly as prices have been rising exponentially over time. Others criticized the luxurious trade for what they see as focusing too closely on branding and traits, and never sufficient on sturdiness. “As fashion consumers we need to put our foot down and stop buying Miu Miu until they learn how to produce clothing that doesn’t fall apart,” wrote Odunayo Ojo, the content material creator higher recognized as Fashion Roadman, as he reshared Kim’s video. “Because it’s expensive doesn’t make it luxury if the quality is not there!” commented one other person in response.
Asked whether or not the Prada Group, which owns Miu Miu, is conscious of those movies, and what it’s doing to stop future points with product high quality, the corporate advised NCS that “These were two isolated incidents and they are not indicative of quality issues for the brand. We handled the two cases via client service, with care, as we normally do with all our clients.” The group added that “Miu Miu’s global post-purchase return rate ranges between 0.2% and 0.3%, making it one of the lowest in the luxury market.”
Maison Margiela didn’t reply to NCS’s request for remark.
The current incidents could coincide with a broader situation in luxurious fashion, the place some specialists imagine excessive costs not assure a sure stage of expertise. They have additionally prompted some comparisons with excessive avenue and fast fashion manufacturers, which are sometimes related to trend-driven items that aren’t at all times built to final. Dana Thomas, an creator and veteran journalist, who spent over three a long time masking the luxurious fashion sector for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, famous comparable high quality points with luxurious manufacturers again within the 2000s when her guide “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster” was revealed, suggesting a longstanding drawback within the sector.
Speaking on the telephone from her Paris residence, Thomas recalled previous journeys to Milan that will lead to a buying spree at well-known luxurious Italian manufacturers. “For my meager budget of 1,000 euros (about $1,176) I could get some pants, a couple of sweaters, a pair of shoes, maybe even a handbag. It went a long way.” But then, she observed, “One season to the next, the quality was dropping. What used to be a knitted one-piece were now pieces sewn together. The buttons fell off easily. The color was washing out.”
Thomas continued: “I thought, what’s going on here? Prices were going up pretty regularly. As a reporter, I was writing stories about how these companies were booming.” She noticed gross sales rising minimally for manufacturers, but their earnings were important. “I’m terrible at math but there was an extreme difference between the two. Meanwhile, as a consumer, I could see that the quality was going down,” she stated. Her suspicions that some manufacturers were “totally focused on the bottom line” and that “they were switching their focus from beautiful products to beautiful profits” thus grew to become the impetus for her guide.
Volkan Yilmaz, a leather-based specialist working below the net pseudonym Tanner Leatherstein, shares an identical view. Based in Dallas, Texas, Yilmaz has amassed 1.3 million followers on TikTok, over 780,000 on Instagram and one other half 1,000,000 on YouTube for ripping apart and deconstructing baggage and different leather-based goods from luxurious manufacturers, together with Louis Vuitton and Chanel, with the view to reply a easy query: “Is it worth it?”
On a video name, he acknowledged that the rise of social media platforms has made it simpler for purchasers to share their opinions, and subsequently, movies expressing disappointment with luxurious purchases could seem way more frequent than in years’ previous, however he believes that there has additionally genuinely been a shift in direction of lesser high quality merchandise.
Yilmaz didn’t identify particular high-end manufacturers however stated that on dissecting baggage that had not too long ago been produced, he felt that older kinds – and the methods used to make them – were comparatively “more sophisticated,” the supplies “more artisanal.” However, “they are harder to do and are not that quick to make in large quantities,” he stated — which can not align with the wants of massive firms, a number of of which have resorted to mass production-like strategies to sustain with excessive client demand.
What shortcuts are being taken, and why?
While some manufacturing nonetheless occurs in conventional luxurious hubs like Italy, the ultimate meeting or element creation of a product typically happens elsewhere, as many high-end manufacturers outsource manufacturing to third-party factories in low-cost areas.
In 2024 and 2025, a collection of investigations by Italian prosecutors uncovered systemic labor exploitation throughout the provide chains of several luxury brands. These probes revealed that manufacturers incessantly outsourced manufacturing to a community of subcontractors — many Chinese-owned — who utilized undocumented labor in sweatshop-like situations to maximize revenue margins. Yilmaz added that the luxurious sector’s exorbitant value hikes — as manufacturers search to navigate a world market slowdown and rising manufacturing prices — has solely exacerbated the issue. He caveated: “This is not to say that everything being made is garbage, but unfortunately, increasing prices doesn’t mean an increase in quality.”
For Thomas, the cost-cutting is obvious. “I remember when brands stopped lining pants. And they were doing that because they were cutting costs and lining costs money.”
She pointed to clothes with uncooked edges as one other instance, recounting a dialog with Alber Elbaz, the late designer who revitalized the French home Lanvin and based the AZ Factory label, which he ran with the Swiss luxurious conglomerate Richemont for simply over three years till its closure in May 2024. “He told me that it’s cheaper to just cut a hem and leave it raw, than to fold it and press it over and over again,” she stated. You’re taking 4 or 5 steps out of the method. So, it wasn’t only a type pattern, however an financial one.”
In some circumstances, high-end manufacturers additionally share the identical manufacturing services as these on the excessive avenue. On writing “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster,” Thomas recounted visiting a manufacturing facility “with the same workers, on the same assembly line” making baggage for each luxurious and mall manufacturers. “But those bags probably cost $10 or $12 and were being sold by mall brands for $100, while the luxury brand was selling it for $1,200.” The main distinction, she famous, was the supplies getting used.
But now, even luxurious manufacturers are searching for to scale back prices when it comes to supplies. “The finishes that are being used are more commercial,” stated Diana Kakkar, the co-founder of MAES London, a premium garment provider. “Brands get away with saying something is a wool jacket, but it’s actually 30% wool and 70% polyester or acrylic.”
In the case of Maison Margiela, the model shouldn’t be alone in utilizing plastic inside its shoe heels — this has grow to be widespread trade observe, in accordance to Caroline Groves, a UK-based bespoke shoemaker. “Most traditional shoes are made of heavy leather, which is cut and layered on top of one another. From the 17th century onwards, people began using wood inside a heel and then fold leather or silk over it,” she stated on a name from her workshop within the Cotswolds, England. “Plastic overtook wood at some stage, because people could just churn out hundreds and thousands at a time, very cheaply.” However, she famous that “it is legitimate and gives a strong interior to a heel that is then covered.”
Kakkar stated that all through 2025 she has had a number of conversations with manufacturers about cost-saving, together with a discount in material high quality. “They’ll come to us saying, for instance, ‘We want to sell this camisole for £250 (about $335) and we ideally want silk.’ But the price of 100% silk with stunning ending will be fairly staggering, as a result of it’s virtually £50-£60 a meter now, if no more. So, they’ll ask if we are able to do viscose, which is like, possibly, £25. It will be even cheaper, £10, relying on the assorted qualities. And then, even when these margins usually are not hitting them, we begin viscose polyester mix.
“You can see how this slippery slope starts,” she stated. “If there’s a cheaper option, people will probably go for the cheaper option.”
What now for manufacturers and their prospects?
For Yilmaz, the cycle of fixed, typically frantic, creation and consumption throughout the luxurious sector (within the type of new collections, limitless content material and greater gross sales) marks a shift away from historic practices of shortage and craftmanship. He takes a cynical view, noting {that a} rising variety of luxurious merchandise “fall apart quicker… because you need people to keep consuming. Every quarter, these corporations need to report better sales. How is that going to happen if everything lasts forever?”
It’s partially why the French luxurious goods maker Hermès is commonly cited as a preeminent instance of luxurious and persistently ranks as one of the crucial unique manufacturers on this planet. Earlier this yr, it even overtook LVMH as the world’s most valuable luxury company for the primary time (nonetheless, the inventory has since stabilized and LVMH reclaimed its high spot in late 2025).
When Hermès listed on the inventory market in 1993, the founding household maintained a considerable majority possession, itemizing solely a small proportion of shares. “It’s sort-of to keep them responsible and make them answer to shareholders, but they still maintain control of the company. They answer to themselves first,” stated Thomas. Subsequently, the corporate was in a position to emphasize craftsmanship and shortage, and stick to a extremely selective enterprise mannequin that has remained largely unchanged for almost two centuries.
Companies which might be 100% publicly traded, for Thomas, “feel like an oxymoron.” She defined: “If your entire raison d’etre is to bring profits to shareholders, you are no longer in the business of making luxury; you’re just in the business of making money.”
Others agree that the trade wants to be recalibrated. When John Galliano, the previous artistic director of Maison Margiela, contacted Groves in 2023 to collaborate on footwear that will be proven on the model’s high fashion present in Paris a yr later, it led to “a sad but mutual acknowledgement that we could not reconcile the two worlds of fashion and craft,” Groves recalled. “He would require around 70 pairs made within a very short time frame (6-8 weeks at most). My annual production is around 40 pairs.”
Groves, who has been in enterprise for 40 years, shared that there have been a number of events wherein she thought of creating footwear for retail. “But each time I’ve gone down that route, I’ve realized that I can’t be true to myself as a craftsman, because the price point of getting it to market means that the practices and the materials used in the factory are just not going to be what I want to put my name to,” she stated. But not all model founders share this sentiment, and Groves fears that buyers “who can afford luxury are getting further and further away from the real deal and are therefore losing appreciation of what that really is.”
However, rising scrutiny — and in some circumstances, mistrust — of luxurious manufacturers has additionally created new alternatives. According to McKinsey & Company’s 2026 “State of Fashion” report with the Business of Fashion, the mid-market is “the fastest growing segment,” and thru engaging value factors that correspond with excessive product high quality and elevated retailer experiences, manufacturers in that vary are “replacing luxury as fashion’s main value creator.” (Indeed, see the success of up to date labels like Polene, Toteme or Studio Nicholson.)
The on-line backlash, Yilmaz believes, serves as “a wake-up call” for the trade. “You can only say so much to convince people that luxury is high quality. If your products are falling apart in front of them, then it’s not believable, no matter how much you spend on marketing,” he stated. “So many new brands are entering the space to address this issue, and their products don’t cost thousands of dollars. I think, in the end, it’s a great time to be a customer. The quality has to start delivering again,” he famous – in any other case, why store in any respect?