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LUXE TREND 56
THE FUTURE OF LUXURY P.1

“Some people think luxury is the opposite of poverty. It is not. It is the opposite of vulgarity.” — Coco Chanel.

Yesterday, I received a newsletter describing an upcoming hospitality event as Elevated Luxury. Illustrated with high-concept minimalist graphic design, it was the most recent example of Luxury being used as a synonym for tastefulness.

I must admit it’s been hard to mention Luxury without feeling a tinge of irrelevance. Until 2019, we were able to retreat to the false safety Luxury can promote. The privilege of insulating ourselves from reality has ceased. Thanks to the pandemic, we can no longer hide behind uncertain ideals of high living. For those fully vaccinated and who have taken stock of some staggering personal losses, July 2021 is beginning to feel normal again.

In late June, Haute Joaillerie brands launched their precious collections, and in July, Haute Couture resumed with live shows in Paris. Luxury Travel is back, with UHNW travelers enjoying even more exclusivity, privacy, and access to some extraordinary experiences.

The tragic loss of life — and livelihoods — has also afforded us a sobering point of view, enough to ask: Is Luxury still relevant in 2021?

In the past year, big brands have continued to flaunt their traditions — Hermes, Girard-Perregaux, Bulgari. Others — Kering’s brand portfolio, et al. — are attempting to define a new future, where design and aesthetic patrimony are less important and only serve as advertising amuse-bouche.

Regrettably, Luxury’s future heritage relies on a present strategy of collaborations that emphasize popularity rather than quality. This strategy seeks to imbue a brand with just enough promotional fuel to guarantee its circulation on various media.

What does it mean to be the Best in the World in a world that is changing? And what are some essential components Luxury needs to retain its relevance in a changing world?

The terminal absence of Elegance

The nature of Luxury is to excite the senses. Luxury can create desire, elicit pleasure, inspire, and be aspirational. Thanks to the pandemic’s pause, it’s important to question what we’ve learned about the nature of the modern Luxury consumer.

Consumers begin to demand environmental and sourcing accountability that respects their own personal values. Luxury brands that understood these values promoted themselves through their core authenticity and found a new voice.

Dior focused on their women-centered brand story; Hermes remained steadfast to its core ideal of the highest quality (despite a retail and service strategy that is questionable); Prada and Gucci admitted that fashion needs to embrace circularity, and posted healthy financial gains, despite the health crisis.

Experiments in gender fluidity, the rush to support news-grabbing social causes, various brand mashups, and combinations have popularized Luxury. Still, they have often kept the overall aesthetic and quality rather low. For a Luxury brand, there can be no real growth when the concept of Elegance is ignored.

At Balenciaga, where the historical design contributions of the founder have been eclipsed by the heavy-handed design direction of Demna Gvasalia. Cristobal Balenciaga practiced luxurious reductivism through techniques that took the founder a lifetime to perfect. Perhaps Mr. Gvasalia will be remembered as the designer of a $1,400, 8lb. Sneaker! I am not certain of the soundness of this strategy as a future foundation of Luxury.

As a result, Brand Legacy has become a less important component of Brand Longevity. Luxury brands must insist that their design vocabulary supports Elegant Living as a foundational goal.

Quality vs. Quantity — or Please Make it Exclusive

In recent years, amidst opportunities to rebrand, buyouts, IPOs, and brand expansions, Luxury conglomerates eager to expand their market share paid less attention to quality. For consumers unaccustomed to high quality, a luxury logo is often enough to communicate status.

Stimulus checks spent on Gucci sneakers, Prada wallets, and other cult products kept demand for luxury products at a high level. In a contactless world, E-commerce helped buoy luxury good sales.
The importance of offering access to luxury products superseded everything else. The Luxury mystique has dwindled, and it will decline further if the strategy of disguising luxury with glossy mediocrity continues.
Worst offenders: Prada, Louis Vuitton, Brunello Cuccinelli.

The demise of customer service is more prevalent in E-commerce.

Convenience is more valued than a high-touch experience. A Barrie cashmere sweater ordered in the dead of night and shipped the next day is pure convenience. Luxury service adds a custom personalization option to the same sweater.

E-commerce channels strive to become valid extensions of a physical brand, small gestures of human touch and personalization tools can increase value beyond an algorithm. At Chanel, the online purchase of nail lacquer arrives in a beautiful signature Chanel box, biodegradable shredded filler, and an elegant self-closing ribbon. Excessively packaged for sure, yet with attention to detail expected from a top brand.

During the lockdown, successful Luxury brands developed innovative ways to reach clients unable to visit actual stores. In 2020, the team behind Dior Haute Couture created perfect miniature versions of the latest collection sent to the best clients internationally. Shipped in a large custom dollhouse, the collection paid homage to the legendary Theatre de la Mode that promoted French fashion at the end of World War II. The videos created to showcase this innovative example of luxury marketing highlighted the expertise of Dior Couture and captured the essence of the house.

Digital enabled brands to extend customer service and employ new technology to showcase their innovations. For luxury timepieces, Augmented Reality apps — including apps specifically developed for a certain model and not available to the general public — ensured that Exclusivity remained an important characteristic.

Belmond Hotels, the owners of luxury hotels and the Venice-Simplon Orient Express, canvassed Instagram with videos of the luxury train without passengers traveling through gorgeous landscapes. It was the illusion of having the train exclusively to oneself. While this is an experience designed for the very few, it was an important aspirational tool that promoted Elegance and Excellence.

Luxury’s dedication to high quality and preservation of exclusivity created legendary brands and built mythical legacies. By abandoning the strategy that Luxury has to be omnipresent and convenient — rather than exclusive — a luxury brand can refocus itself successfully. Even Ferrari used its reputation as a luxury carmaker to extend to a lifestyle brand image that includes wearable accessories.

Think globally, at Home

Despite the ever-unpopular “America First” pronouncement by Ex-President Trump, the future is all about “Earth First” thinking. It is the effective stewardship and safe-keeping of supply lines that can protect Luxury’s future. Whether in fashion or lifestyle, Luxury must take into consideration a warming climate.

The reckless use of rare resources to produce luxury goods must stop as brands begin respecting their scarcity. A radical rethinking of how we use these resources is beginning to affect how luxury goods are conceived, made, and used. New materials, such as eco-friendly skin made from mushrooms, are beginning to revolutionize Luxury.

Companies like Vestiaire Collective that extend the lifecycle of fashion products have attracted the interest of leading Luxury conglomerates. On the other end of the spectrum, the preservation of important crafts to empower smaller companies has been undertaken by brands like Chanel (through their Paraffection collective). These initiatives have launched education programs to safeguard the preservation of important luxury artisanal crafts

Design Future

Until recently, high-touch experiences, such as exclusive, in-person, and by-invitation-only shows, have not been possible. Virtual Luxury experiences are now accepted as substitutes to physical experiences.
Collecting beautiful physical objects for the mere pleasure of owning them is a pursuit for the connoisseur. Luxury can be interpreted in multiple ways, some physical, some virtual. New product categories can offer a multi-sensory Luxury experience without the need for something tangible.

While nothing can simulate the tactile experience of caressing Connoly leather on a screen, it is through the discrete knowledge of that experience that Luxury brands can make the transition into a presence that goes beyond physical. It will be developed through the continuing blending of Technology and Imagination.

Perhaps, as we evolve into a world with a desire for fewer physical products, Luxury conglomerates will use their treasure-trove of customer data to create customizable ways to experience Luxury. That is the cutting edge of the Future of Design.

The Moral of the Story

The concept of Luxury is changing. We have the opportunity to envision a future where positive change is driving the luxury market. In Part 2, we will explore some additional ideas that might shape the Future of Luxury.