What Does Luxury Mean Today?

I’m often confounded at what merchandisers, designers and architects/builders call luxury. There are luxury apartments, luxury goods, luxury bath items, luxury home decor; the word is ubiquitous. Luxury was once used to describe things that were unique, extravagant and exquisitely comfortable. In my opinion, the word “luxury” has been hijacked. Marketers are only concerned with the term conveying affluence, not magnificence. There was a time when you bought a pair of Bruno Magli or Salvatore Ferragamo shoes, you knew you were buying something luxurious and exquisitely well-crafted, and that these items were something few could own. The automobile industry USED to know luxury very well. Cadillac, Lincoln and Mercedes all knew what luxury meant; to be pampered, to feel exclusive, and to know you were in the possession of something sublime. Luxury was a feeling. In the 80’s when you opened the door to a Cadillac, you knew it was something opulent; it was fancy! Open the door to a Cadillac today and you’ll see state-of-the-art technology, well appointed seating and amazing gadgetry, but is it luxurious? That’s debatable. Open the door to a well-appointed Mazda and you’re quite likely to encounter the exact same environment. The “luxury” aesthetic has been replaced with sportiness, cheap plastics and nondescript interiors. I’d press someone to definitively tell me the difference in materials. I would be willing to put money on that challenge.

I’m not trying to romanticize the past, but I think businesses got the concept better then, than today. Think of luxury retail… It is all branding. Is there panache? No! It is just elevated, expensive and postulates the use of, arguably, high-quality materials. I recently read an article in Town & Country magazine about the new Polo Bar in Manhattan. I think Ralph Lauren gets it, but he’s also populated the space with his namesake, which appears a bit gimmicky to me. Of course, I will visit the destination on my next trip to New York City.

When I think of luxury items, I want things that make me feel special and exclusive. Today’s luxury market seems to be split in two. There’s the bourgeois luxury; “luxury living spaces,” “luxury cars,” and “luxury clothes.” Think about what all that term encapsulates and it is a huge range of items. Then there are things that are in the stratosphere of luxury; art, custom clothiers, vacations, retreats; it is in this very high-end space where luxury prevails, but it is certainly outside of the reach of the masses. Perhaps that is why I have a problem with luxury, because what is truly luxurious is completely unattainable to me, whereas it once was.