In the global pandemic, what will luxury goods become? Is the pursuit of luxury goods incompatible with our rapidly changing lives under the new coronavirus? Luxury goods can be so external, but recent life is so internal. A large part of luxury is drama: haute couture dresses that dazzle the crowd, gorgeous cars sliding past bystanders, vacations on Instagram. The admiration, desire and even jealousy of others constitute part of the charm of luxury goods.
In other words, luxury goods can be a collective sport involving the participation of spectators who recognize and evaluate differences in quality or exclusivity. The competitive environment in this sport is rarely fair, because differences between things lead to differences and divisions between people, thereby enforcing a hierarchy of wealth or privilege, taste or knowledge. Luxury goods are a kind of social communication circuit, a language with the meaning of collective identification and maintenance. This is how the luxury signal works.
The pandemic disrupted these signals. It isolates us physically and reduces the chance of "expressing" our luxury goods. Travel is closed or severely reduced, and many gatherings, opening ceremonies, evening parties and all other gatherings and exhibitions are also banned. Without social interaction, is luxury doomed?
It turns out that there is no. In fact, during the pandemic, sales of luxury goods rose overall, as the wealthiest people became richer, and even the less than billionaire class trapped at home accumulated more cash and more time to come. Consumption.
[The post-epidemic luxury consumption boom has begun. It is already reshaping the economy. ]
In this process, the pursuit of luxury has only expanded-including not only the surge in some traditional luxury markets, but also more introverted versions of luxury products, and new digital methods of projecting luxury theaters, which are safe. Facts have proved that luxury is far from disappearing, but has become the core of our culture more than ever. Like a river diverted by rocks, it just looks for other paths.
The word "luxury" is derived from two Latin words: "luxus", which means luxury and excess, and "luxuria", which means offense in a moral and even physical sense. In Elizabethan English, "luxury" refers to lewdness or adultery. (In "Much Nothing", Claudio accused Hero of her sexual virginity, claiming: "She knows how hot a luxurious bed is.")
Although we may no longer think that the pursuit of luxury is a moral or sexual vice, it is still related to our physical sensations or at least sensory enjoyment. Given that the new coronavirus is a physical disease, it will inevitably change the relationship between luxury goods and our bodies.
The pandemic has made personal health a topic of constant anxiety and conversation. Of course, access to the best doctors and treatments is a major privilege, but health luxury is beyond the scope of medical treatment. Maintaining a high level of personal health-such as a perfect Pilates figure-has long been a sign of privilege. In a pandemic, fitness means more.
Diseases are everywhere, and a healthy body feels like a symbolic armor, escape route, protection from disease and even death. As the Italian theorist Patrizia Calefato wrote in her book "Luxury: Fashion, Lifestyle and Transition", "Luxury... challenges the notion of death itself." And this challenge, that kind of protection, may cost high. Or as Leslie Ghize, executive vice president of the forecasting company Tobe TDG, said: "Health is a luxury... a luxury that keeps oneself in good shape." (Ghize is a board member of the Parsons School of Design, where I am Dean of the School of Art and Design History and Theory.)
As wealthy fitness and health enthusiasts abandon expensive group classes, gyms, and personal trainers (the industry lost $13.9 billion in the second half of 2020), the same high-end alternatives became popular. In the first seven months of the pandemic, sales of home fitness equipment more than doubled to more than $2.3 billion.
Even the most inconspicuous fitness accessories can be turned into luxury items: for about $3,000, fashionistas can buy Louis Vuitton's weight-made of shiny metal and engraved with the LV logo. Yves Saint Laurent dumbbells are made of hand-cut black marble and are relatively cheap, priced at $2,000. When you finish your representative, all of these are attractive enough to double as home decor.
In the field of home exercise, "networked fitness" began to rise during the epidemic. Device plus digital subscription systems such as Peloton (market value of US$32 billion) and Mirror (acquired by Lululemon for US$500 million in 2020) have attracted a large number of followers. With these, luxuries include not only the purchase of gym-quality machines (which cost thousands of dollars), but also the opportunity to obtain advanced online courses and coaches (for an additional fee). Although virtual fitness predates the new crown virus, sales in the industry soared last year. (Peloton's stock has risen 440% in 2020, although it has recently retreated.)
Facts have proved that the charm of the virtual fitness space is enough to attract Christian Dior (Christian Dior) to design a series of digital fitness equipment Dior Vibe, which was created by creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri in cooperation with Italian high-end fitness equipment company Technogym. Therefore, now fashion lovers can run on a wired Dior treadmill instead of Dior (then imagine that their own body is "designed" by Dior in a sense).
Digital systems like this promote physical health in the absence of other bodies, dematerialize the experience and eliminate physical risks. Trainers, classmates and even the gym itself have been reduced to pixels. Therefore, even if you focus on your flesh and blood, you will enter another space-escape the ordinary world full of the new coronavirus. This is also a luxury, a luxury rooted in escapism.
Hydra Studios is a gym with two branches in Manhattan and branches in Miami and Los Angeles, taking escapism to another level. Hydra was founded in 2020 by former Wall Street professionals Marie Kloor and Dan Nielsen, focusing on what you might call "personal, dematerialized" fitness. Members can pay a monthly fee to book private fitness rooms, small and medium-sized rooms closed with thick curtains. These mini gyms can only accommodate one person at a time. Each contains a digitally connected cardio equipment, such as Technogym bicycles, Hydrow rowers or "smart" mirrors, and an iPad synchronized to the machine, providing virtual options-group lessons or digital landscapes-to help arrange Your workout.
Hydra's neutral, modernist decoration gives people a soothing and even narcotic feeling. The silent corridor with white curtains makes it difficult to tell if there are other people around. The effect is confusing: you are in the gym, but you are not. Among others, maybe not. You are riding a bike or boating through an imaginary scenery (Caribbean Sea! Alps!), but you are really sitting indoors, in a small bedroom-sized space.
Perhaps this is how we "make" luxury goods in a pandemic: pay attention to our bodies while avoiding or even surpassing them. For some people, the isolation of gyms like Hydra may be an alternative luxury. Kloor reports that some members find that they like to exercise completely alone because it saves them from worrying about their appearance. Sometimes, luxury seems to lie in not showing.
During the pandemic, the luxurious and digital path to mental health attracted many new followers. Just like virtual physical health, virtual mental health provides hope of escape, liberation from blockade, isolation, and even the constraints of the body itself. Mental health has opened a window to school in the originally closed world.
Aree Khodai is a pioneer in this field. As a "spiritual concierge", she planned a surpassing private experience for the residents of luxury apartments. Like the founder of Hydra, Khodai is a former Wall Street executive who left the discipline of high finance and turned to high health. After receiving yoga instructor training and self-exploration adventure (including ayahuasca retreat) leadership team training, Khodai teamed up with the Society Group, a luxury real estate public relations company based in Los Angeles. Recently, social groups have been promoting residential facilities for mental fitness-building benefits such as meditation rooms lined with pink Himalayan salt, which is said to have the ability to purify the air.
Alexander Ali, CEO of Society Group, stated that “during the epidemic, people are looking for other solutions” to improve their happiness. "Health has surpassed fitness." Maverick is a luxury apartment building planned to open in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City in the first quarter of 2022, and Park is a luxury rental complex that is about to arrive in Santa Monica. The spiritual concierge will Discuss with residents their spiritual goals and connect them with practitioners who provide services such as home sound baths, apartment blessings, or "full moon intention rituals." The consultation and many treatment rituals themselves will be performed on Zoom. As Ali said, Khodai will negotiate with the residents of the park and will become a "spiritual guide for speed dialing", providing a luxurious spirit tailored to the pandemic: accessible via laptop or smartphone.
The emergence of "spiritual concierge" clearly shows that under the new crown virus, luxury goods have mutated, but not completely changed. In previous times, the hotel concierge would enhance your luxury travel experience by granting you access-it could be a sold-out drama, or a hot new restaurant. Today, the spiritual concierge also provides you with access, but you can enjoy more metaphysical rather than physical anti-epidemic fun, enhancing travel, not on land or sea, but in the realm of soul and spirit—— Without leaving your apartment.
Although the treatment arranged by Khodai was lonely, she emphasized that her work strengthened the human connection. "Everyone is a little stone," she said. "Their recovery is affecting their friends and family." Perhaps this "infectious treatment" provides the perfect luxury antidote for infectious diseases.
Given that the pandemic has caused many of us to seek physical and mental comfort, it is not surprising that fashion has also changed. With work and social life almost completely stopped, fashion has suffered a huge blow, but its role in our lives is still so important that it cannot disappear completely. Fashion is not only a necessity, it is even a luxury. It is also our most private residence-our body wraps, a tailor's home. Home is more important now than ever.
Therefore, fashion has opened up new paths that are more humane, especially through the rise of "luxury comfort": clothes that emphasize the health benefits of the body-sensory pleasure and physical comfort, are enjoyed more privately than publicly. "High-end and comfortable clothing is very popular," said Pauline Garris Brown, a luxury expert who is the former chairman of the European conglomerate LVMH North America and the author of Aesthetic Intelligence.
Luxurious and comfortable fashions use soft fabrics and loose-fitting styles, with hidden elastic waistbands or a smoother cut. It brushes and strokes the body, frees the wearer from discomfort and relieves the so-called "skin hunger", that is, the desire for physical contact caused by pandemic isolation. It is Jason Wu's long gown or Anna Sui's flowing grassland style dress. This is Fendi or Stella McCartney's wide trousers; the simple and large drape of Peter Do's fall collection. It is sports and leisure-a continuing big trend-such as Reiss' Luxe Leisure collection, Gucci and North Face's down jacket or Pyer Moss's chic sportswear.
The top - or more precisely, the bottom - are the luxury shoes of the pandemic, and their popularity is now more than anything they had acquired before: comfort, pillows, clumsy sneakers and sandals have been off the shelf Tear down the smooth stilettos. Gucci, Prada, Balenciaga, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton now sell women's rubber platform sneakers-fuchsia or electric blue, decorated with crystals, flowers or fashion logos-for up to $2,000. Sculpt is an ultra-fashionable sneaker designed by Kerby Jean-Raymond for Pyer Moss. It costs $600 and looks like a miniature racing car. Even the bulky Crocs have become the focus of attention, with gold painted on Questlove or the Union Jack printed on Helen Mirren, not to mention the Duchess of Cambridge Ariana Grande and Drew Barrymore Waiting for someone's feet. (Crocs has been working with Balenciaga for several years, and the latest version of their co-produced clogs starts at about $650.) Men also have fashion sneakers, including Virgil Abloh's wonderful collaboration with Louis Vuitton and Nike, but painless shoes Not new to men.
In addition to prestigious brands, "ugly" fashion shoes also provide women with speed and sporty luxury, and make their steps full of vitality. This is especially popular in the era of physical disabilities. After such freedom of feet, will we succumb to the torture of the past again? For Jaine Mehring, a senior financial professional who appreciates exquisite fashion, the answer seems clear: "I do have an amazing series of Louboutins and Manolo Blahnik," she said. But when I think of "I'm almost anxious when I wear high heels now." Garris Brown agreed: "If I put those [high-end stilettos] on my feet, I will be cursed. I will feel pain before putting them on."
Some of the most interesting developments in the luxury sector have occurred in recent collaborations between online gaming, high-end fashion, art, and the NFT market. For example, when the pandemic forced Balenciaga to close its fashion show in 2020, the company eventually released its entire collection as a video game called "Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow." In the fall of 2021, it partnered with Fortnite to create an online immersive world designed by Balenciaga, and provides completely virtual fashions that can be purchased and used in games.
This fashion exists only in digital form, but it is bought with real money and "wear and tear"-even though it is a game character. This is a virtual form of luxury escape, which not only transcends the body, but also gives the body the most enjoyable new version: fashion. Dressed in the incarnation of high-end fashion, gamers experience a meta version of the luxury clothing display of the previous era. High-end brands such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Burberry have also created digital games, and their popularity has soared during the epidemic.
These games and the social media buzz they generate are an attractive gateway for the next generation of consumers to enter high-end luxury goods. "The world of social media and gaming... is particularly active in the luxury sector," said Jelani Day, executive vice president of Dapper Dan (also the designer's son) in Harlem. "Social media platforms and gaming communities [are] the two largest well-known rooms that luxury consumers can access [and] are... driven by youth culture and young consumers."
Fashion is far from the only virtual luxury. As the NFT world continues to expand-irreplaceable tokens-even art, the most tangible and three-dimensional commodity, can now live a completely digital life. NFT artwork is unique and only exists online, and now buying and selling is just like "real" artwork. Almost anything can exist in the form of NFT-land parcels, fashion, real estate-but NFT art is reaching extremely high levels of popularity and monetary value, with prices reaching millions of dollars. In March, digital artist Mike Winkelmann's NFT video, also known as "Beeple", was sold at Christie for US$69 million. Before October 2020, the most expensive artwork sold by Beeple was a $100 print. According to the auction house, Beeple is now listed as "one of the top three most valuable living artists."
[Perspective: Beeple's digital "artwork" sells for more than any painting by Titian or Raphael. But as an art, this is a big zero. ]
NFT takes the concept of luxury theater to a new level. As the author and professor of business at New York University, Scott Galloway told me: “I can buy Picasso, but only the people I invite to my house can see its value. I can also buy a cryptopunk NFT, and its value is in one go. It’s verified on the centralized ledger and displayed as my Twitter profile picture to thousands of users on my network. It’s still a luxury item, but it’s scaled up."
With all these changes came a promising development: awareness of the most significant failures of luxury goods-especially fashion-especially the rampant racial inequality in the industry, and the entire luxury industry Environmental damage.
"Luxury must evolve with changes in customer preferences and needs," said Abrima Erwiah, the co-founder of Studio One 89, which promotes African and African style fashion, and the first director of the Gromec Fashion Business Institute . Parsons. "We are seeing more and more brands making plans around DEI [diversity, fairness and inclusion]. We have seen many industry changes." Erwiah cited the Black in Fashion Council, which appeared at the beginning of the pandemic, And promoted the progress of blacks at all levels in the entire industry. She also noticed the important presence of color designers such as Abloh and Telfar Clemens. In addition to many other names, we can also add Edvin Thompson, Sergio Hudson and Aurora James (the founders of Brother Vellies, focusing on sustainable luxury goods) to this list.
Faced with the sober reminder of the new corona virus to our profound planetary interconnection, many luxury goods creators have refocused their attention on the urgency of reducing the industry's harmful effects on the environment. Examples abound: Japanese luxury goods giant Takashimaya announced the launch of a large fashion collection made from recycled materials. Gucci launched its first sustainable development series Off the Grid. Kering Luxury Group CEO François-Henri Pinault announced the ban on the use of fur in all its brands.
For many people, luxury goods are now inextricably linked to social and environmental awareness: “There should be no trade-off between luxury and kindness,” commented Garris Brown, which means goodwill to people and the planet. Or as senior luxury designer Mariza Scotch said: "The pandemic has brought some key facts about our future into the center of attention.... There is no way not to see the impact of continuing to live like us." For Scotch, "We can feel this feeling when we touch materials carefully assembled and nurtured by the earth and humans."
Some traditional goods-fine watches, jewelry and classic exclusive handbags, such as Hermès Birkin-sold strongly throughout the pandemic. "Classic, well-made works are now more popular," said Leslie Ghize of Tobe TDG. On the surface, these items, usually called "hard luxury items," seem to lose their luster in the era of the decline of traditional luxury theaters. But it turns out that the attractiveness of these objects far exceeds their display value.
Given that the pandemic continues to remind people of the impermanence of life, feeling strong and long-lasting property can provide the comfort of a talisman—another way to challenge death. As Garris Brown said, "True luxury is eternal." Hard luxury goods herald a connection with history and are often passed on from generation to generation. The most iconic brands in the field have deep historical roots that enhance this sense of heritage and longevity-companies such as Rolex (founded in 1905), Cartier (1847) and Patek Philippe (1839).
All of this can explain the recent "Rolex shortage"-an astonishing scarcity that left dealers' windows empty and enthusiastic collectors overwhelmed. In September, Rolex explained this phenomenon in this way: "Our current production cannot meet the existing demand... If the quality of the watch is not reduced-this is what we refuse to do."
If all of this-while inventing new luxury goods, reaffirming the old form of luxury; the increasing integration of luxury goods with health, exercise, spirituality and digital life-makes you dizzy, you are not alone. The pandemic has changed the cornerstone of culture and overturned the basic assumptions about value, happiness, body, communication, freedom and even the ownership of "things" or travel to "places".
However, perhaps the most dramatic expansion of luxury goods has already occurred on a matter of time. When asked about the luxury they value most now, many of the people I interviewed for this article mentioned time first. It can be said that the pandemic has changed our concept of time. It forces all of us to evaluate the shortness of our lives.
For many of us, time seems to be distorted, passing fast and slow, and painful. Even stranger is that we now realize that the pandemic itself may not have a clear end. There is no day we celebrate the end of the struggle. On the contrary, experts tell us that the coronavirus will gradually become an endemic disease rather than a pandemic, covering us like a shadow.
In other words, the new coronavirus has made us lose our way in time, just like it has lost our way in space. We have solved the spatial disorientation through a variety of virtual experiences. It is much harder to resolve time loss: we can neither simulate nor escape time.
For this reason, time itself may become the ultimate luxury to escape the pandemic. Have enough time to fully appreciate it, and not be bothered by its singular, flexible, and enduring nature-this may well prove to be the rarest and most sought-after privilege.
Rhonda K. Garelick is the author of "Miss: Coco Chanel and the Pulse of History" and the dean of the School of History and Theory of the School of Art and Design at Parsons School of Design. She will discuss this story with Robin Givhan of The Post at 11 am on November 23. Please register at www.washpostmaglive.com.