Luxury For The Rich

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True luxury or just ordinary?


When the concept of luxury was first presented to the public, it was reserved for the most wealthy. The brands were producing only the highest-quality items, making it an exclusive opportunity to purchase. One that only the lavish could afford.

Jump forward to the 21st century. Luxury has been made available to the high-class and middle-class. But even the low-class are finding ways to purchase. Even if that means sacrificing things they actually need. In this new generation, fitting into a high-status category is more important than saving for your future. The image is everything.

So if every person walking beside you on the street has access to a luxury brand, how are the highest economic class supposed to maintain their importance, aside from driving beside you in their Mercedes Benz.

Peeking through the illusion


There is a strong polarity that still remains between the high-class and all the others. Time. The middle and lower class might be able to afford a few nice purses, perfume, and some makeup. But those material items are only constructing a window for which they can peek through to see an inch of what the highest-class get to experience. Finally escaping from the fear of bringing your work to a halt. Many business owners within the elite would still bewell off even after taking a break from work for a while to spend time with family.
The middle class and below aren’t granted that privilege. They can buy the material items, but they can’t buy time.

True luxury: financial freedom and time


One of the only factors that persists in differentiating the rich from the rest, is the financial freedom to do and go wherever they’d like whenever they’d like. That’s an economic and social ability that can’t be bought on Rodeo Drive.
So I hope you’re enjoying the scent of your Chanel Number 5, but remember that until you alter your perspective you’ll still be on the outside.

✍️ A piece written by an American student studying fashion in Milan and interning for suite123, Gavriel Ewart.

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The Slow Mode

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Welcoming the Spring/Summer 22 season


A choice of value
We take it slow, slow mode, moving at our own pace, with no rush to dive into the new Spring/ Summer season. Happy to finally touch with our hands what we ordered months ago digitally or in physical showrooms. Thrilled to show you the mix we’ve put together for you–which we hope you will enjoy. But we do not hurry; that sense of urgency is no longer part of the evolved dimension we’ve embraced.

A conscious approach is rooted in thoughtful actions, not in rushing. And this is a time in which pondering our actions–please, translate it also into thinking carefully about what we purchase–is at the base of everything.

Slow fashion: taking the time it deserves


Quality takes time
Bringing back the value of waiting is fundamental in order to regain standards of quality, and give a proper perspective. Fast is cheap, but there’s no quality nor value in that, just exploitation of human and natural resources. So we want to go back to the ‘tempo giusto.’ The proper time, what quality needs.

the slow mode - welcoming Spring/ Summer 22 season


The global industry is still ingrained in the status quo, not willing to change because by offering cheap products, they are sure they’ll sell them regardless of the side effects. Well, we don’t want to be part of that system.

During days of total uncertainty caused by the pandemic, we’ve been searching for consistency, good design, and quality. This is what we thought it made sense to offer.

Our fashion? The slow mode. We embrace slow fashion by adapting it to our evolving needs. If brands run fast, we do not. We bring in our visions and values instead. And we believe that suggesting you buy less, much less but better quality pieces is an effective way to reduce our impact on the planet.

So we don’t go where the wind goes, we go where value resides.

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Luxury Brands & Young Audience

Reading Time: 3 minutes

A new perspective on luxury brands selling to the wrong audience


It is understandable for a business to market their products and services to a specific audience. Rationally, a business has a niche, and they sell to those who will respond to that niche.

It is an entirely different story if a luxury business is promoting to an audience who is undeniably not in the chapter of their lives where the concept of ‘luxury’ is available to them.

Is their strategy from an angle of manipulation?


As many know, during the late adolescent years when the frontal lobe of the brain has not finished developing, the youth are still heavily prone to absorbing information that’s restricted to them. The frontal lobe of the brain is responsible for planning, organizing, initiating, self-awareness, and intensive decision making. 

As a result, all external stimuli easily influence adolescents. Because of this, many businesses, the luxury fashion industry being one of the most convincing, use their advertising, locations, storefront displays, and interior design to lure the young. 

They eventually purchase an overpriced item that fools them into believing they are a part of the glamor status in society. When in reality, they are living with their parents and trying to pass their statistics exams. 

Is their strategy from a logical perspective?


According to Eurostat Statistics Explained, young citizens living in the metropolitan cities of Western Europe get paid an average of 332-2257 euros per month. Considering the fact that a younger employee would typically get paid on the minimum scale, they barely make ends meet. Therefore, it would be irrational to assume that they have a surplus of funds to spend on luxury pieces every month since they are still concerned with food, transportation, and possible rent charges. 

These results provide one clear conclusion, one that is frankly not too surprising. Luxury labels don’t care how the youth purchase their products, as long as they make profits.

Why luxury brands target the young audience

The true reason . . . . 
Profit. Profit with the dismissal of its grand effect on those who have little power to reverse the actions they didn’t know any better but to make. Many know that the youth are one of the most easily influenced generations. Yet all categories of business make a habit of exploiting them from all angles. 

“You don’t have the money to buy this purse? Well here is a high interest rate credit card with no instruction on how to prioritize paying. Do you want an education? Here is a $50,000 Unsubsidized loan that will take over half your life to pay back. Wait, you want a loan to start a business and become successful independently? No we can’t do that for you, you’ll need a hefty credit score to receive that privilege”. 

As said, it’s understandable to sell your products to those attracted to that niche and who can afford it. But the new reality presents that the niche of these companies is predominantly to sell to those who are required to max out their high interest credit cards in order to purchase.
Sadly, this singular purchase is what makes them feel included and accepted into this glamorous facade that people call reality. So don’t allow yourself to sink into the sand of manipulative brands. Don’t let yourself be blinded by the sparkly logos. Shade your eyes with your hands, not your overpriced sunglasses. 

✍️ A piece written by an American student studying fashion in Milan and interning for suite123, Gavriel Ewart.

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Call It Common Sense

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What if sustainability is simply sound reasoning?


Common sense is the non-trendy term for sustainability. In other words, what people call sustainability, we call it common sense.

It is interesting to analyse the notion of sustainability and when it came out, what kind of change it brought up, or what new necessity has awakened. The concept of sustainability was born around the end of the ’80s when some individuals realised that intense exploitation endangered our planet and future generations’ lives.

A step back to the past


If we dig deep into our traditions, we discover that what we call sustainability now was for our grandparents just their way of living. It was their intentional choice, determined by necessity and contingency. But also by being aware of the value of goods, an understanding that each object or garment had specific properties and purpose. Manufacturing offered durable products therefore, almost nothing was wasted. Moreover, for them, objects had a second life. There was a shared sense of respect, and life didn’t revolve only around consumption.

That’s the education our parents received, yet no slogan framed that simple way of life.

Then came the time when, fascinated by the consumerist mindset, our parents gave up on their education. Harmufl habits replaced a thoughtful lifestyle. A new ego-centred vision in which we believe we can dispose of nature or people the same as we do with the things we buy. Everything is at our feet–consume and throw away.

We have lived as if nature’s resources were infinite, let’s be honest about it. A very few people questioned it in the past, not the CEOs of corporations for sure.

Sustainability or common sense?


Eventually, we realised that resources are finite, and the world in thirty years will be unlivable. So here comes the term sustainability, sold as the discovery of a new meaningful lifestyle (the one we forgot about).

Well, there’s nothing new. What you call sustainability is just common sense.

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Accessible All Ages

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Age and fashion: challenging an erroneous belief


Age and fashion: it’s time to challenge outdated beliefs and embrace a world where style knows no age limits. In fact, the representation of different ages in fashion finally had its recognition. You don’t have to hide anymore, in case you ever thought about doing so. Or, perhaps you were waiting for permission to wear waht you love.

But did we really need permission? And, dear brands, do you believe young people can truly afford your expensive clothes?

Take a look at this picture (zoom the bandana print).
We picked this dress from the Spring/ Summer 2015 MM6 – Maison Martin Margiela collection. Not new if we consider the date of its release. But still relevant in terms of the idea the brand promoted, which was fashion-forward.

Age and fashion
MM6 – Maison Martin Margiela Spring/ Summer 2015

Fashion accessible to all ages


The transversal cut of the collection was clear. We ordered it because we loved the concept and felt aligned with it. Also, we personally have that dress in our closet and still wear it. You may be familiar with the notion of timeless fashion, such a discovery. Yes, we’ve always believed that good design was forever.

Around 2022 the concept of fashion without borders such as age, gender, body shape started to be recognised and amplified by fashion brands. But in 2015, it was about being a trailblazer, innovative and creative, by proposing a countercultural message. Now, from pret-a-porter to haute couture, those words and images have flooded fashion communication. So it sounds like something you have to say just to conform.

It’s fascinating to analyze the many labels we place on the boxes we think we belong to—age, gender, body shape, race, and more. The need to fit in, to belong to a specific category, is ever-present.

Yet, when brands highlight labels so often that they all send the same message, authenticity is lost. Eventually it is clear that these labels are a just marketing trend.

Rules are different now. Back then, we had designers, and fashion was meaningful. Now marketers pull the strings. And, in a spasmodic search for identity, we need slogans to frame the emptiness.

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