thedeclineofluxury Archives

Luxury for the rich

14 February, 2022

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 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.