A ₱57,000 bath towel sold out because Balenciaga called it a skirt

Sometimes, the most expensive material in fashion is the name attached to it.

It happened nearly three years ago, but Balenciaga’s infamous towel skirt remains a perfect case study in just how much people are willing to pay once an ordinary object carries a luxury label.

For its Spring 2024 collection, the French fashion house introduced what looked exactly like something you would wrap around your waist after stepping out of the shower: a beige terry-cotton towel.

Except Balenciaga called it a skirt—and priced it at $925 (around ₱57,000).

The piece was made from 100% cotton terry and wrapped around the waist like a regular bath towel. Its luxury upgrades included an adjustable interior belt, buttons to hold it in place and a discreet embroidered Balenciaga logo.

There was another absurd detail: despite looking like a bath towel, its care instructions reportedly said it should be dry-cleaned.

The internet predictably had a field day.

IKEA joined the joke, recreating Balenciaga’s campaign using its own inexpensive VINARN towel and presenting it as a considerably cheaper way to achieve essentially the same look.

But the punchline eventually became even more interesting.

Luxury retailer FWRD later marked the skirt down from $925 (around ₱57,000) to $407 (around ₱25,000)—and it eventually appeared as sold out.

And that is what makes the towel skirt worth revisiting years later.

Luxury has never been solely about the material used or the practical value of an object. Much of what consumers pay for is symbolism: exclusivity, cultural capital, recognition and the ability to signal membership in a particular social class.

Balenciaga has repeatedly played with that psychology by turning deliberately mundane objects into expensive fashion—from distressed sneakers to bags resembling everyday shopping totes.

The towel skirt pushed the idea almost to parody.

Remove the Balenciaga label and you have a beige cotton towel. Put the label back on, add a buckle and send it down the luxury-fashion pipeline, and suddenly someone is willing to spend $925 (around ₱57,000) for it.

For the wealthy, the absurdity itself can be part of the appeal. For those aspiring to look wealthy, the logo can become proof that they have gained access to something others cannot—or will not—buy.

Nearly three years later, the towel skirt still delivers a rather uncomfortable lesson about luxury.

Sometimes, the most expensive material in fashion isn’t cotton, leather or silk.

It’s the name stitched onto it.

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