Not Your Mother’s Luxury; Breaking Down And Re-Defining.
Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of video essays and commentary by a YouTuber named Bliss Foster. Along with his wife Daniella, the channel offers what I believe to be the most detailed coverage of fashion week on the internet. Being fashion obsessed and North American, I turn to channels like this to stay updated on current trends.
Recently, he covered a topic that has also been heavy on my mind: what is luxury?
Something he said really caught my attention:
“All luxury companies are just businesses that have a lot of extra time and have a lot of extra money. The identity of that luxury brand is determined by how they choose to spend the time and the money.”
This made me think: if luxury is essentially a company’s financial freedom, then what is luxury, really?
The common perception defines it as a product or service that costs more than the standard. These products hold value based on quality, whether that is the type of leather used or the time it took to craft a piece, as well as exclusivity and the image a brand promotes.
To me, the main contributor to luxury’s popularity and success is its power as a symbol of the buyer. While I believe many people purchase luxury fashion because they genuinely love clothing and appreciate the functional appeal of ready to wear, it seems more common that purchases are driven by perceived social status.
So if luxury is just a walking display of your tax bracket, what is the true value of these pieces?
image by freepic
This is how I like to view it:
As Bliss says, “The identity of that luxury brand is determined by how they choose to spend the time and the money.” So the value of a luxury brand or item lies in the effort and thought. It is in the extra time or money a brand spends to craft a piece with intention. By that logic, luxury is not limited to runways or fashion houses. It could just as easily apply to a quilt stitched by hand over six months or a piece of pottery thrown and glazed with care. Craft in this sense is luxury, just without the PR team. A handmade leather bag charm from Etsy holds the same value as one from a luxury house. The difference is that the former lacks the resources to display those charms on a $600,000 runway.
Which brings me to this: how much of luxury’s value is created by the audience rather than the maker?
“Don't be into trends. Don't make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way to live." - Gianni Versace
