'I think at a minimum, this is absolutely misleading marketing.'
"I think at a minimum, this is absolutely misleading marketing."Author:Alyssa Lapid, Meredith Lawrence, Lisa PetersonPublish date:Jun 27, 2019Updated onJun 26, 2019Scrolling through online luxury retail reseller The RealReal, users might stumble upon what appears to be a perfect wedding guest dress: a lemon-lime number with playful ruffles, it's a steal for a Prabal Gurung piece, originally listed at $165 .
When reporters reached out to The RealReal for comment, the brand significantly lowered the pricing of some of the Target collaboration items still for sale and added specification to current listings to clarify that these pieces were not from designers' own lines.
"I think that's one of [The RealReal's] big marketing points is that you can trust them," says Bonnie Patten, Executive Director of Truth in Advertising. "And I think that the way they evidence that on their website is by giving you the biographies of a multitude of — I'm putting air quotes — 'experts' that they say work for the company to insure that what they're selling on their website is what they say it is.
A patterned Peter Pilotto for Target top was released in 2014 and originally sold for $29.99. The same top was for sale on The RealReal, labeled as an original Peter Pilotto piece for $125 and discounted at $62.50. As with the other items, the price changed after reporters reached out to the company, and this listing has been updated to specify that it’s from a Target collaboration. Now, it’s listed at a $25 price, discounted at $12.50.
"Online resellers like The RealReal have become the arbiters of authenticity, since there is no governing body to provide an authorized answer on the legitimacy of fashion items," said Tessa Maffucci, a professor at Pratt Institute. Some of the biggest names in the fashion industry, like Jenna Lyons and Stella McCartney, have thrown their stamp of approval behind The RealReal, collaborating with the reseller.
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