The Article Review

The Article Review: Deluxe. How luxury lost its luster. By Dana Thomas.

(The Penguin Press, 2007)

“The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury”

– Charlie Chaplin

One of the chapters in book written by Dana Thomas covered the topic of the day – the democratization of luxury fashion. This theme has been discusses in many influential Internet resources, such as The New York Times and The Business of Fashion and has risen a lot of debates among fashion business insiders.

In the times when luxury is becoming a consumerism and fashion brands are eager for nothing but money this topic is indeed raising its importance. The constant fight between creativity and commerce now seems to move towards the latter one.

An interesting issue that the author discussed in her book was that designers are now “as disposable as bags and clothes that they create”. But personally for me, though I completely agree with this point, designers, who stand behind almost each single brand in the industry, count now more than ever before. Having a designer is becoming a must for a fashion brand. Have a look at Ermenegildo Zegna – the strategic decision of hiring the designer for the brand, though 100% a business move, has a very specific strategy at the bottom line – to show that the brand cares for the image, cares for the style and cares for preservation of this image and style.

Or lets look at Mulberry – soon after the brand fired its creative director its shares dropped drastically at the stock market. Why? Because now it seems that without the creative director the brand does not have the vision, does not have the creative strategy. And what is a brand without the clear fashion vision? In minds of most of the people in the fashion industry – nothing.

Probably the reason for such negative review of the author of the book is due to the year the article was published, which is 2007. Now I believe its time for change. Designers now have (or at least they are starting to have) the strength to dictate the rules of the game.

I still cannot decide whether democratization of fashion is positive or negative thing. Apparently both, as it depends from which side to judge. Bu one thing is obvious – we are loosing the sense of luxury. And it happened not because everyone has become more affluent; it is because luxury became too affordable. I fall in love with an expression from the book, which once and for all explained everything: “When you get greedy, that’s was happens”. Indeed, luxury brands are now everywhere (starting from cellphones and finishing with hotels), and “customers are as bored with all this as the brands themselves”. And I’m glad that nowadays many brands start to realize this and change their strategy. Luxury giants are starting to refer to “small, old-fashioned luxury” while working out the future strategy. 

With all these happening in the luxury market (which is probably not that luxurious any more), vintage stores are on a rise. Now vintage clothes provide you with the uniqueness, which used to be provided by contemporary pieces designed by luxury brands.  At the same we start to appreciate more “independent” designers, who do not fall for money and still care for their unique image and the status of scarcity, like Alice Cadolle, Christian Louboutin, Hermes and Tom Ford.

But while we are shouting about the democratization of fashion, luxury brands are still doing their core 100% luxury business – providing their very special clients with very special products. The “commercial side” of luxury discussed above is basically its entry-level, there is other side of this business which is not obvious for most of us, the side that gives all the luxury brands huge percentage of their total income – special orders. No logos, no labels, just completely custom-made, special, unique pieces of garments, jewelry and jewelry cases, bags, luggage, and etc. – things that could not be found inside the store and which represent pure luxury.  

Another interesting point in the chapter was the Daslu shopping venture in San Paolo, Brazil. While reading about Daslu I started to think that despite the fact that this shopping paradise provides its customers with the same products that can be found in all other luxury stores (though the variety is indeed impressive), it is the approach to business that makes it luxury, not the products themselves. Truly personal, “VIP” approach combined with a friendly atmosphere and the best products from each single brand – that is the new approach to generate the consumer demand for luxury products.

Therefore, it is only partly true that luxury business starts to be too commercial to be called “luxury”. While fashion conglomerates try to buy and commercialize all the fashion brands in the world, there are still people, for whom these brads will do truly luxurious products and there will still be “highly successful, purposefully small, designer-owned-and-run companies that produce impeccably made items” and for whom quality will still be more important than quantity. And even if these approaches will not be able to create truly luxury experience there will be ventures that will create luxury by their approach to customers.    

Kseniya.