THE Billion Dollar Babes sale (see below) has some lessons for the banking sector. The event allows designers from Gharani Strok and Amanda Wakeley to baby brands like my sister's handbag start-up Tabitha sort out cashflow issues by selling past season gear at cut prices.
It's is held in a huge hall in Pimlico with all the clothes, however classy, jammed together on long rails and a few curtains hung up at the end to make a place to try them on. It makes for interesting people-watching.
The lore of women and shopping is that sales con us to buy stuff we don't need or that's too expensive even at 50% off. Brass Cufflinks But here, with the glamour stripped out (no good lighting, no fawning assistants, no free champagne, no flattering mirrors) most folk focus on real value.
I once watched a woman try a jacket priced in the shops at Pounds 800. It could have been hers for Pounds 100. Offered it for that in Selfridges, she'd have thought she'd died and gone to heaven. But in a cold, atmosphere-free church hall she cast a critical eye over the workmanship and put it back: "It's nice," she said, "but not Pounds 100 outdoor led down lights nice." The banking connection? I've read several recent notes claiming sector shares are now far too cheap after months of falls. But from a cold church hall viewpoint (free of overoptimistic mutterings about strong global growth and subprime containment) it's hard to believe this.
Credit-related losses are piling up and, with the vicious circle of writedowns and credit tightening still turning, no one has any idea how big they will end up. Add a slowing global economy and my guess is most investors will have enough problems over the next six months without buying into banks now. Like the Pounds 100 jacket, the financial
embroidered patches sector may be cheap but, given the state of it, it isn't cheap enough..
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