luxury

Luxury for the rich

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

Luxury or 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 of 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 not only 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.

Where do we go from here?

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.

Financial Freedom

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.

The real luxury

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.

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The fashion bullshit

A list of notorious fashion marketing empty claims

The fashion industry loves to discuss important matters that we would better describe as fashion bullshit.

How does the system work?
As soon as a new concept becomes popular in the fashion field, the proclamation gets released. So the word spreads. As a result, marketing takes over the subject right away. And, once marketing steps in, you can feel the smell of it. Indeed, you will perceive a sense of fakeness that permeates the whole set of communication.

As voices outside the chorus, we’ve created a list of some of the fashion bullshit: terms that, the more people in the field put at the centre of the discussion, the more they sound weird.

The fashion bullshit list:

• New:
usually said about things done and redone. Again and again. Eye roll when you hear this word.

• Change:
a kind of mystical belief we like to talk about, but never happens.

• Luxury:
or the fake representation of it. What remains after the voluntary shift towards overproduction and mass distribution.

• Affordable luxury:
a total absurdity launched to compensate for the collapse of real luxury.

• Sustainability:
the biggest bullshit of our times. The majority of designers who wave this flag have no design imprint. Therefore, have no reason to exist.

• Diversity:
possible or allowed only in fashion shows or advertising.

• Inclusion:
possible or allowed only in fashion shows or advertising.

• Disability:
possible or allowed only in fashion advertising. But please, don’t show up during fashion event!

• Fluidity:
gender-fluidity is popular in fashion shootings. But when you go shopping, items are divided by categories. And so, the shop assistant kindly invites you to shop in the section assigned to your gender.

• Collaboration:
possible only as co-branding (sharing a profit). However, very rare among fashion professionals as a genuine exchange.

• Humbleness:
did not report.

Does anyone have anything to add to this list?

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The price of quality

The price of quality is an indicator that has fundamentally lost its sense.

Quality is an asset that every brand wants to sell, but no one really understands its true meaning. There is a conflict between the marketed or perceived quality and its effective worth.

At the Uffizi in Florence, during a preview of Confindustria’s Future for Fashion, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Dior designer, said:

“Democratic luxury does not exist.”

“In Italy, we have to get the idea of democratic fashion out of our heads. If a garment is well made, why does it have to be democratic? Quality at a low price does not exist. If the price is low, it is because behind it, there is someone who has not been paid well.”

We agree with this statement – democratic luxury is nonsense. Indeed, a product made respecting specific quality standards comes with a price. But what luxury brands call quality is questionable. And, it is not what it was in the past.

Quality & luxury brands

Undoubtedly, there is a lot of confusion generated by different factors.
The average quality of high-end products decreased a lot over time. Pushed by greed, luxury conglomerates operated an economic change of production sites. Then, they abandoned exclusivity and shifted to the mass market. Quality is inversely proportional to corporations’ greed.
In order to be able to have a catchy wholesale price while keeping profit safe, the quality of materials and craftsmanship are the factors to cut.

In the second place, economic and cultural changes have induced consumers to believe that a cheap price tag corresponds to quality items and well-paid labourers.
While the need for affordable clothes is understandable, it is obvious that low prices don’t equal quality materials and fair living wages.

Luxury brands contributed to devaluing the fashion system with poor productions, obsessive mass distributions and a crazy discounting policy. But, they still want to be part of an Olympus disconnected from the masses.

Olympus is not democratic. But to be credible again, luxury brands have to reverse the route, reducing the large quantities they produce. And stop hard discounting.

This is a logical necessity for the return of true luxury.
Will it happen for real?

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A conversation with Marc Le Bihan

Sunday morning, it was pouring hard when we reached our appointment with Marc Le Bihan – in Tortona district. Even though we made our selection the day before, we wanted to dig deeper into his profound couture universe. In a transitional era, where everything looks unstable and meaningless, his persistent artisanal contribution makes the difference.

Marc Le Bihan is a fashion designer, artist, and craftsman who creates clothes like a second skin. Indeed, his work goes beyond any classification. His conceptual creativity – manifested through impeccable tailoring, is the expression of a cultured and timeless approach to fashion that refuses trends and their transience.
Completely disconnected from commercial fashion constraints, his couture is a rare example of consistency.

Marc Le Bihan: the interview

• What does it mean to be consistent? Keeping up with your vision when the rest of the world goes in a different direction?
Marc Le Bihan: “The other direction is not my world. I do not understand it. To me, it’s a problem of society. I don’t understand the way of being, the lifestyle. That world is not me, and I can’t even think about it.
Usually, I don’t watch TV. Yesterday I watched Italian TV, and I wondered, how is it possible? Women pretend to be free, showing exaggerated lips and boobs. But in that, I only see the reflection of a man’s vision. That is not freedom. It’s the fake image of a woman.”

• The state of fashion now. How do you see it?
Marc Le Bihan: “The problem with fashion is that people only see the lights, the famous people. There is no sensibility to go further. Branded products are not luxury, not anymore. Luxury is rare, and it’s not for all.
To me, it’s not about fashion but more about doing clothes my way. The two roads can cross each other but not as direction to follow.”

• What do you think about social media communication?
Marc Le Bihan: “Famous people promote everything. They get paid to sell, it’s all about money. And not only for fashion. Maybe they promote a food they didn’t even taste. We live in the culture of image, not real life. People don’t live the moment, take pictures. And everything is ego-centered. People have lost the meaning of quality and quality of life.
That is why I follow my path. And so, our communication is not to do any communication. Everything is too confused, there’s too much of it. We don’t have time for social media, we are busy making clothes. However, it’s not about posting a thousand things. Sometimes we post. Enough.”

White series from Marc Le Bihan SS22 collection
Marc Le Bihan SS22

Fashion, culture & sustainability

• It’s a matter of culture and education?
Marc Le Bihan: “Always. The first problem is education, for everything. The idea of accessing, through culture and education, to something higher – is dead. And I am concerned about young kids. Now they are totally immersed in this image game.”

• What do you think about sustainability?
Marc Le Bihan: “Well, I did it 20 years ago! We were recycling and upcycling uniforms and parachutes. Now, I don’t want to be a part of that circle because everybody is doing it. It’s marketing. To me, it’s more about how we consume and live. Of course, I use sustainable materials, but I don’t advertise. To claim it means being part of the system.
My idea is to keep a garment for ten years in the wardrobe, then take it out and still want to wear it because it’s timeless.
Mine is a work in progress. If a shirt is good, it’s good forever.”

A final note about couture

“Couture is sustainable by definition. In fact, there is no overproduction, no minimum orders, and no sales. We produce only on orders, and everything is handmade. Moreover, we don’t find our balance in over profit. If everybody gets well paid, we all can live. Indeed, my staff has been working with me for 25 years. Always the same people, same suppliers. We understand each other. We work like this. Many pieces are made in casa, a la maison, in our atelier.”

He smiled saying those words. Stubbornly showing a path that is a return to the essential, pure artisanal creativity.

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The decline of luxury

What happened to the fashion industry?

If you want to understand the events that caused the decline of luxury, we suggest you read ‘Deluxe: How luxury lost its luster’ – written by Dana Thomas.

You will discover how fashion from being a family-owned business became a corporate battlefield based on overproduction.
The growth of the new markets – China, Russia, and India. The explosion of counterfeiting goods and labour exploitation.
Then, the rise of fast fashion, internet retailers and the development of a fast-paced globalized system. How luxury products abandoned exclusivity and shifted to the masses. Creating the so-called democratic luxury. Which basically is nonsense. Indeed, it shows how far marketing rhetoric can go, playing with words to manipulate people.

The book is a brilliant analysis of the field, investigating the dynamics that led to an auto-implosion.
Also, it allowed us to relive the last 30 years of fashion. We assisted many of those events – not by accepting them but by moving more and more towards niche designers. Finding a kind of refuge in a tiny universe. A thoughtful research in dissonance with the average fashion consumer.

Though we agree with almost everything, we do not align with the devotion to some brands. We are afraid they have lost their luster too, so far. Except for Hermes and Cadolle.

Indeed, retracing the decline of luxury, it is now extremely difficult to find meaning in fashion Maisons. They seem like smoke and mirrors set up to sell perfumes, make-up and bags. Abundantly offered to masses that have no perception beyond the logo and the illusion of being considered rich.

If you still love fashion, you go beyond that fake facade and search for designers who dared to undertake an independent path, expressing an authentic creative vision. In this panorama, the ability to select the right clothing – from an aesthetic and ethical viewpoint – changes the game.

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